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Commanders In Chief - Presidential Leadership In Modern Wars

31,14€ + 10% CARD

 Since 1798, when Congress authorized John Adams to employ the navy to capture armed French vessels preying on American shipping on the Atlantic coast, U.S. presidents have grappled with the crucible of war. Some have dealt with it skillfully while others have tended toward the inept. Some have wanted to exert their war powers while others have shied away from them. Some have been successful while others have not.Never having had their authority clearly defined, the presidents, as commanders in chief, have been allowed to interpret the scope of their involvement in wartime decision making. The question of whether a president can order forces into combat against another nation has never been resolved and precedent supports both sides. "Essentially," says Raymond O’Connor, "the president can do whatever he can get away with."Commanders in Chief, offering an enlightening look at the president’s constitutional and political roles during wartime, brings together the work of prominent historians. These experts analyze the war powers of the presidency as well as the wartime leadership of six presidents—William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. Two of the authors take provocative revisionist views of their subjects. Lewis Gould asserts that McKinley delivered able and talented leadership during the Spanish-American War, while Robert Ferrell sharply criticizes Wilson’s leadership during World War I. On the other hand, Warren Kimball emphatically confirms the high ranking by most scholars of Roosevelt as the most gifted wartime chief executive of the twentieth century, and Clayton James substantiates Truman’s feisty and pragmatic leadership in two conflicts. In Frank Vandiver’s essay on Johnson and Stephen Ambrose’s on Nixon, the authors emphasize the diversity of challenges the two presidents faced during the controversial Vietnam War.Revising and updating earlier studies, including The Ultimate Decision: The President as Commander in Chief, the 1960 classic collection edited by Ernest May, this book offers a thoughtful and thought-provoking critique of the character and capabilities of America’s modern commanders in chief and presents fresh insight into an issue that affects us all.
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Tom Taylor'S Civil War

by Albert Castel

56,31€ + 10% CARD

 Our hurly-burly sagas of war often overlook the deep connections between warriors and the families they left behind. In Tom Taylors Civil War, eminent Civil War historian Albert Castel brings that familial connection back into sharp focus, reminding us again that soldiers in the field are much more than mere cogs in the machinery of war.A young Ohio lawyer, Thomas Taylor was a junior officer who fought under Sherman at Vicksburg and Chattanooga and on the march through Georgia, and his diary and letters contain vivid descriptions of numerous skirmishes and battles over four years. By interweaving Taylors words with his own narrative, Albert Castel has fashioned a work on the Civil War as engrossing as a novel; by also including letters from Taylors wife, he has created a whole new dimension for viewing that conflict.Often written under adverse conditions, Taylors descriptions of military encounters are filled with vivid details and perceptive observations. His passages especially provide new insight into the Georgia campaignincluding accounts of the Battles of Atlanta and Ezra Churchand into the role of middle-echelon officers in both camp and combat. Castels bridging narrative is equally dramatic, providing an overview of the fighting that gives readers invaluable context for Taylors eyewitness reports. The book chronicles not only Taylors military career but also the strains it placed on his marriage. Taylor had gone off to war both to fight for his Unionist beliefs and to enhance his reputation in his community, while his wife, Netta, was a peace Democrat whose letters constantly urged Tom to return home. Their epistolary conversationrare among Civil War sourcesreflects a relationship that was as politically charged as it was passionate. Taylors passages also reveal his changing attitudes: from favoring strong measures against the rebels at the beginning of the war to eventually deploring the destruction he witnessed in Georgia.Tom Taylors Civil War is a moving account of one man whose life was ripped apart by war and of the woman back home who remained his anchor through it all. Combining the best features of biography and autobiography, it paints a compelling picture of that conflict that will stir the heart as much as the imagination.
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Tom Taylor'S Civil War

by Albert Castel

52,81€ + 10% CARD

 Our hurly-burly sagas of war often overlook the deep connections between warriors and the families they left behind. In Tom Taylor’s Civil War, eminent Civil War historian Albert Castel brings that familial connection back into sharp focus, reminding us again that soldiers in the field are much more than mere cogs in the machinery of war.A young Ohio lawyer, Thomas Taylor was a junior officer who fought under Sherman at Vicksburg and Chattanooga and on the march through Georgia, and his diary and letters contain vivid descriptions of numerous skirmishes and battles over four years. By interweaving Taylor’s words with his own narrative, Albert Castel has fashioned a work on the Civil War as engrossing as a novel; by also including letters from Taylor’s wife, he has created a whole new dimension for viewing that conflict.Often written under adverse conditions, Taylor’s descriptions of military encounters are filled with vivid details and perceptive observations. His passages especially provide new insight into the Georgia campaign—including accounts of the Battles of Atlanta and Ezra Church—and into the role of middle-echelon officers in both camp and combat. Castel’s bridging narrative is equally dramatic, providing an overview of the fighting that gives readers invaluable context for Taylor’s eyewitness reports. The book chronicles not only Taylor’s military career but also the strains it placed on his marriage. Taylor had gone off to war both to fight for his Unionist beliefs and to enhance his reputation in his community, while his wife, Netta, was a peace Democrat whose letters constantly urged Tom to return home. Their epistolary conversation—rare among Civil War sources—reflects a relationship that was as politically charged as it was passionate. Taylor’s passages also reveal his changing attitudes: from favoring strong measures against the rebels at the beginning of the war to eventually deploring the destruction he witnessed in Georgia.Tom Taylor’s Civil War is a moving account of one man whose life was ripped apart by war and of the woman back home who remained his anchor through it all. Combining the best features of biography and autobiography, it paints a compelling picture of that conflict that will stir the heart as much as the imagination.
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The Pentagon And The Presidency - Civil-Military Relations From Fdr To George W. Bush

by Dale R. Herspring

~~41,29€~~ 37,16€ 10% OFF

 While presidents have always kept a watchful eye on the military, our generals have been equally vigilant in assessing the commander-in-chief. Their views, however, have been relatively neglected in the literature on civil-military relations. By taking us inside the militarys mind in this matter, Dale Hersprings new book provides a path-breaking, utterly candid, and much-needed reassessment of a key relationship in American government and foreign policymaking.As Herspring reminds us, that relationship has often been a very tense, even extremely antagonistic one, partly because the military has become a highly organized and very effective bureaucratic interest group. Reevaluating twelve presidentsfrom Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. BushHerspring shows how the intensity of that conflict depends largely on the militarys perception of the presidents leadership style. Quite simply, presidents who show genuine respect for military culture are much more likely to develop effective relations with the military than those who dont.Each chapter focuses on one president and his key administratorssuch as Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, and Donald Rumsfeldand contains case studies showing how the military reacted to the presidents leadership. In the final chapter, Herspring ranks the presidents according to their degree of conflict with the military: Lyndon Johnson received exceedingly low marks for being overbearing and dismissive of the armed forces, further aggravating his Vietnam problem. George H. W. Bush inspired respect for not micromanaging military affairs. And Bill Clinton was savaged both privately and publicly by military leaders for having been a draft dodger, cutting Pentagon spending, and giving the Dont Ask, Dont Tell tag an unnecessarily high profile.From World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Herspring clearly shows how the nature of civilian control has changed during the past half century. He also reveals how the military has become a powerful bureaucratic interest group very much like others in Washingtonincreasingly politicized, media-savvy, and as much accountable to Congress as to the commander-in-chief.Ultimately, The Pentagon and the Presidency illuminates how our leaders devise strategies for dealing with threats to our national securityand how the success of that process depends so much upon whos in charge and how that persons perceived by our military commanders.
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Spetsnaz - A History Of The Soviet And Russian Special Forces

by Tor Bukkvoll

~~41,91€~~ 37,72€ 10% OFF

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 In this book, Bukkvoll presents the first in-depth history of the Soviet, and, later, Russian special operations forces from their establishment until today. He focuses on three broad topics: Soviet and later Russian thinking on the use of special operations forces; the process of constructing these forces; and the use of these forces in combat.
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The North African Air Campaign - U.S. Army Forces From El Alamein To Salerno

by Christopher M. Rein

~~31,68€~~ 28,51€ 10% OFF

 In the summer of 1942, Axis forces controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean. Less than a year later, they had been swept from the African continent-thanks in no small part to efforts of the fledgling U.S. Army Air Force. Indeed, USAAF in North Africa emerged as a senior partner in the Alliance, supplying aircraft and crews at a rate the other partners were unable to match.Going beyond the spare analysis of North African air operations in previous accounts, Christopher Rein shows how American fighter planes and heavy bombers, employed in almost exclusively tactical and operational roles, played a pivotal role in the Alliance’s successful ground campaigns. This aerial armada also had a significant negative impact on enemy logistics through its bombing raids on Axis ports, shipping, and airfields. In the process, USAAF helped foster and develop a pattern of inter-service cooperation that remains at the foundation of American close-air-support doctrine today.Rein chronicles the emergence of USAAF in the late interwar and early WWII periods as a more heterogeneous and creative fighting force than earlier works have led us to believe. He then analyzes little-known aspects of the war, including early air operations in the eastern Mediterranean and in the TORCH landings. He explores some of the key issues confronting Eisenhower, such as how to establish USAAF priorities and how to deploy long-range bombers, fighters, and attack forces. In describing the struggle for balance in the employment of air assets between strategic bombing and interdiction in a time fraught with inter-service rivalry, he shows how, despite occasional mistakes such as the heavy losses involved in the Ploesti raids, USAAF struck a suitable balance and even invested more assets in interdiction than traditional accounts of strategic bombardment would suggest.A virtual operational-level history of the USAAF during the formative period of American airpower, Rein’s account pulls together material from diverse sources to demonstrate that today’s Air Force emphasis on mobility, intelligence, reconnaissance, and close support for ground forces have deep roots. By showing that the Army Air Force in World War II did not neglect support for ground and naval forces in order to concentrate exclusively on strategic bombing, it suggests lessons for military and civilian leaders in the employment of air forces in current and future conflicts.
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The Stalingrad Cauldron - Inside The Encirclement And Destruction Of The 6th Army

by Frank Ellis

~~52,81€~~ 47,53€ 10% OFF

 The encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942 and its final collapse in February 1943 was a signature defeat for Hitler, as more than 100,000 of his soldiers were marched off into captivity. Frank Ellis tackles this oft-told tale from the unique perspective of the German officers and men trapped inside the Red Army's ever-closing ring of forces. This approach makes palpable the growing desperation of an army that began its campaign confident of victory but that long before the end could see how hopeless their situation had become. Highlighting these pages are three previously unpublished German army division accounts, translated here for the first time by Ellis. Each of these translations follows the combat experiences of a specific division—the 76th Infantry, the 94th Infantry, and the 16th Panzer—and take readers into the cauldron (or Kessel) that was Stalingrad. Together they provide a ground-level view of the horrific fighting and yield insights into everything from tactics and weapons to internal disputes, the debilitating effects of extreme cold and hunger, and the Germans' astonishing sense of duty and the abilities of their junior leaders. Along with these first-hand accounts, Ellis himself takes a new and closer look at a number of fascinating but somewhat neglected or misunderstood aspects of the Stalingrad cauldron including sniping, desertion, spying, and the fate of German prisoners. His coverage of sniping is especially notable for new insights concerning the duel that allegedly took place between Soviet sniper Vasilii Zaitsev and a German sniper, Major Konings, a story told in the film Enemy at the Gates (2001). Ellis also includes an incisive reading of Oberst Arthur Boje's published account of his capture, interrogation, and conviction for war crimes, and explores the theme of reconciliation in the works of two Stalingrad veterans, Kurt Reuber and Vasilii Grossman. Rich in anecdotal detail and revealing moments, Ellis's historical mosaic showcases an army that managed to display a vital resilience and professionalism in the face of inevitable defeat brought on by its leaders. It makes for compelling reading for anyone interested in one of the Eastern Front's monumental battles.
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Red Commanders - A Social History Of The Soviet Army Officer Corps, 1918-1991

by Roger R. Reese

~~57,61€~~ 51,85€ 10% OFF

 One of the largest and most feared military forces in the world, the Red Army was a key player in advancing the cause of Soviet socialism. Rising out of revolutionary-era citizen militias, it aspired to the greatness needed to confront its Cold War adversaries but was woefully unprepared to change with the times.In this first comprehensive study of the Soviet officer corps, Roger Reese traces the history of the Red Army from Civil War triumph through near-decimation in World War II and demoralizing quagmire in Afghanistan to the close scrutiny it came under during Gorbachev’s reform era. Reese takes readers inside the Red Army to reconstruct the social and institutional dynamics that shaped its leadership and effectiveness over seventy-three years. He depicts the lives of these officers by revealing their class origins, life experiences, party loyalty, and attitudes toward professionalism. He tells how these men were shaped by Russian culture and Soviet politics—and how the Communist Party dominated every aspect of their careers but never allowed them the autonomy they needed to cultivate a high level of military effectiveness.Despite its struggle to develop and maintain professionalism, the officer corps was often hampered by factors inextricably intertwined with the Soviet state: Marxist theory, revolutionary ideology, friction between party and non-party members, and the influence of the army’s political administration organs. Reese shows that by rejecting the Western bourgeois model of military professionalism the state greatly limited its officer corps’ ability to develop a more effective military. While a sense of group identity emerged among officers after World War II, it quickly lost relevance in the face of postwar challenges, especially the war in Afghanistan, which underscored fatal flaws in command leadership.Red Commanders offers new insight into the workings of a military giant and also restores Leon Trotsky to his rightful place in Soviet military history by featuring his ideas on building a new army from the ground up. It is an important look behind the scenes at a military establishment that continues to face leadership challenges in Russia today.
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Why Stalin'S Soldiers Fought - The Red Army'S Military Effectiveness In World War Ii

by Roger R. Reese

~~57,61€~~ 51,85€ 10% OFF

 Inept leadership, inefficient campaigning, and enormous losses would seem to spell military disaster. Yet despite these factors, the Soviet Union won its war against Nazi Germany thanks to what Roger Reese calls its “military effectiveness”: its ability to put troops in the field even after previous forces had been decimated. Reese probes the human dimension of the Red Army in World War II through a close analysis of soldiers’ experiences and attitudes concerning mobilization, motivation, and morale. In doing so, he illuminates the Soviets’ remarkable ability to recruit and retain soldiers, revealing why so many were willing to fight in the service of a repressive regime—and how that service was crucial to the army’s military effectiveness. He examines the various forms of voluntarism and motivations to serve-including the influences of patriotism and Soviet ideology-and shows that many fought simply out of loyalty to the idea of historic Russia and hatred for the invading Germans. He also considers the role of political officers within the ranks, the importance of commanders who could inspire their troops, the bonds of allegiance forged within small units, and persistent fears of Stalin’s secret police. Brimming with fresh insights, Reese’s study shows how the Red Army’s effectiveness in the Great Patriotic War was foreshadowed by its performance in the Winter War against Finland and offers the first direct comparison between the two, delving into specific issues such as casualties, tactics, leadership, morale, and surrender. Reese also presents a new analysis of Soviet troops captured during the early war years and how those captures tapped into Stalin’s paranoia over his troops’ loyalties. He provides a distinctive look at the motivations and experiences of Soviet women soldiers and their impact on the Red Army’s ability to wage war.Ultimately, Reese puts a human face on the often anonymous Soviet soldiers to show that their patriotism was real, even if not a direct endorsement of the Stalinist system, and had much to do with the Red Army’s ability to defeat the most powerful army the world had ever seen.
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The Inland Campaign For Vicksburg - Five Battles In Seventeen Days, May 1-17, 1863

by Timothy B. Smith

~~64,89€~~ 58,40€ 10% OFF

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 In this fifth and final volume of his renowned series detailing the campaign for Vicksburg, Tim Smith sheds much-needed light to this often-misunderstood episode of the Unionâ€™s efforts to take Vicksburg.
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Endgame At Stalingrad - Book One: November 1942, The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 3

by David M. Glantz e Jonathan M. House

69,56€ + 10% CARD

 The campaign intended to secure the Wehrmacht’s flanks had proven one front too many for the German Army. And now the offensive at Stalingrad, the epic clash that marked Germany’s failure on the Eastern Front, was entering its grim final phase. In Book One of the third volume of his acclaimed Stalingrad Trilogy, David Glantz offers the definitive account—the “ground truth” to counter a half-century’s worth of myth and misinformation—of the beginning of the end of one of the most infamous battles of the Second World War, and one of the most costly in lives and treasure in the annals of history.When Volume Two left off, Germany’s vaunted Sixth Army, already deflected from its original goal—the Caucasus oil fields—had been drawn into a desperate war of attrition within the ravaged city of Stalingrad. In Volume Three, Book One, we see the ultimate consequences of the Germans’ overreach and the gathering force of the Red Army’s massive manpower and increasingly sophisticated command. After failing repeatedly to find and exploit the weaknesses in Axis defenses, Stalin and the Stavka (High Command) finally seized their chance in mid-November of 1942 by launching a bold and devastating counteroffensive, Operation Uranus.Glantz draws a detailed and vivid account of how, in Operation Uranus, the Red Army's three fronts defeated and largely destroyed two Romanian armies and encircled the German Sixth Army and half of the German Fourth Panzer Army in the Stalingrad pocket—turning the Germans’ world on its head. Like its predecessor volumes, this one makes extensive use of sources previously out of reach or presumed lost, such as reports from the Sixth Army’s combat journal and newly released Soviet and Russian records. These materials (many cited at length or printed in their entirety in a companion volume) lend themselves to a strikingly new interpretation of the campaign's planning and execution on both sides—a version of events that once and for all gets at the ground truth of this historic confrontation.
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To The Gates Of Stalingrad - Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942
The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume I

by David M. Glantz e Jonathan M. House

69,56€ + 10% CARD

 The confrontation between German and Soviet forces at Stalingrad was a titanic clash of armies on an unprecedented scale—a campaign that was both a turning point in World War II and a lasting symbol of that war’s power and devastation. Yet despite the attention lavished on this epic battle by historians, much about it has been greatly misunderstood or hidden from view—as David Glantz, the world’s foremost authority on the Red Army in World War II, now shows. This first volume in Glantz’s masterly trilogy draws on previously unseen or neglected sources to provide the definitive account of the opening phase of this iconic Eastern Front campaign. Glantz has combed daily official records from both sides—including the Red Army General Staff, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the German Sixth Army, and the Soviet 62nd Army—to produce a work of unparalleled detail and fresh interpretations. Jonathan House, an authority on twentieth-century warfare, adds further insight and context. Hitler’s original objective was not Stalingrad but the Caucasus oilfields to the south of the city. So he divided his Army Group South into two parts—one to secure the city on his flank, one to capture the oilfields. Glantz reveals for the first time how Stalin, in response, demanded that the Red Army stand and fight rather than withdraw, leading to the numerous little-known combat engagements that seriously eroded the Wehrmacht’s strength before it even reached Stalingrad. He shows that, although advancing German forces essentially destroyed the armies of the Soviet Southwestern and Southern Fronts, the Soviets resisted the German advance much more vigorously than has been thought through constant counterattacks, ultimately halting the German offensive at the gates of Stalingrad.This fresh, eye-opening account and the subsequent companion volumes—on the actual battle for the city itself and the successful Soviet counteroffensive that followed—will dramatically revise and expand our understanding of what remains a military campaign for the ages.
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Affective Labor And Alt-Ac Careers

31,08€ + 10% CARD

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 Critically examines aspects of affective and emotional labour involved in alt-ac careers in higher education. Cross-profession and cross-disciplinary, the book takes seriously the invisible labor performed at our institutions by academic staff, work that is essential for the success of our students.
The Idea Of Democracy In The Modern Era

by Ralph Ketcham

39,19€ + 10% CARD

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 Reassessing the fate of democracy for our time, distinguished political theorist Ralph Ketcham traces the evolution of this idea over the course of four hundred years. He traces democracyâ€™s bumpy ride in a book that is both an exercise in the history of ideas and an explication of democratic theory.
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Class And Community In Frontier Colorado

by Richard Hogan

31,08€ + 10% CARD

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 Offers a fresh perspective on the frontier townbuilding experience. Richard Hogan argues that townbuilding in Colorado was not, as some have suggested, monopolized by local boosters or national business interests. It was, instead, a complex, dynamic process that reflected competition, cooperation, and conflict.
Lady Bird Johnson And The Environment

by Lewis L. Gould

39,19€ + 10% CARD

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 Shows Lady Bird Johnson as a catalyst for environmental ideas and as a powerful and persuasive force within her husbandâ€™s administration. Lady Bird Johnson instilled conservation and ecological ideas in the national mind, the book argues, with a skill and adroitness that puts Mrs Johnson in the front rank among modern First Ladies.
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Moral Imperative - 1972, Combat Rescue, And The End Of America''S War In Vietnam

by Darrel Whitcomb

19,86€ + 10% CARD

 Focusing on 1972, Darrel Whitcomb combines stories of soldiers cut off from their units, advisors trapped with allied forces, and airmen downed in enemy territory, with the narratives of the US Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, contract pilots, and special operations teams ready to conduct rescues in Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam.
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U.S. Navy And Its Cold War Alliances, 1945-1953

by Corbin Williamson

61,61€ + 10% CARD

 Brings to light the navy-to-navy links that political concerns have kept out of the public sphere: a web of informal connections that included personnel exchanges, standardization efforts in equipment and doctrine, combined training and education, and joint planning for a war with the Soviets.
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Us Volunteers In The Southern Philippines - Counterinsurgency, Pacification, And Collaboration, 1899-1901

by John Scott Reed

61,61€ + 10% CARD

 In fighting the Philippine-American War, America relied heavily on twenty-five new regiments raised in 1899: the United States Volunteers (USVs). This volume offers the first full account of this unique force - and in the process describes how the USVs contributed to the USâ€™s most successful counterinsurgency campaign outside the Western Hemisphere
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Nature'S Army - When Soldiers Fought For Yosemite

by Harvey Meyerson

15,90€ + 10% CARD

 Blessings on Uncle Sam's soldiers! They have done their job well, and every pine tree is waving its arms for joy."" - John Muir. Muir's words and this book both celebrate a largely forgotten episode in America's history - how the US Army ran Yosemite National Park in an unusual alliance with the preservationist John Muir and his Sierra Club.
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Union Assaults At Vicksburg - Grant Attacks Pemberton, May 17-22, 1863

by Timothy B. Smith

22,51€ + 10% CARD

 It was the third week of May 1863, and after seven months and six attempts, Ulysses S. Grant was finally at the doorstep of Vicksburg. What followed was one of the most important operations of the Civil War. The Union Assaults at Vicksburg is the first comprehensive account of this quick attempt to capture Vicksburg.
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Kazakhstan In World War Ii - Mobilization And Ethnicity In The Soviet Empire

by Roberto J. Carmack

33,11€ + 10% CARD

 The first English-Language study of a non-Russian Soviet republic during World War II, this book explores how the war altered official policies toward the region's ethnic groups - and accelerated Central Asia's integration into Soviet institutions.
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Wolfram Von Richthofen - Master Of The German Air War

by James S. Corum

56,31€ + 10% CARD

 Luftwaffe commander Wolfram von Richthofen was a master of the tactical and operational air war and one of the key catalysts in the resurrection of Germany's air force. This biography reveals how, before WWII, von Richthofen played a central role in developing and building the Luftwaffe and such aircraft as the Me 109 fighter and He 111 bomber.
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Cambodian Wars - Clashing Armies And Cia Covert Operations

by Kenneth Conboy

61,61€ + 10% CARD

 An authoritative history of the violence that plagued Cambodia from World War II until the end of the twentieth century--and an expose of CIA activities there, peeling back the layers of secrecy that surrounded the CIA's covert assistance to anticommunist forces in Cambodia during that span.
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