Promises to keep : on life and politics by Joseph R Biden

"Promises to Keep is the story of a man who faced down personal challenges and tragedy to become one of our most effective leaders. It is also an intimate series of reflections from a public servant who refuses to be cynical about political leadership, and a testament to the promise of the United States." - Editorial Reviews

Magnificent Mind at Any Age Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential by Amen, Daniel G.

"Based on the most up-to-date research, as well as on Dr. Daniel Amen’s more than twenty years of treating patients at the Amen Clinics, where he and his associates pioneered the use of brain imaging in clinical practice, Magnificent Mind at Any Age does exactly that. Dr. Amen shows how many of the traditional approaches to overcoming the mind-centered challenges that hold us back—try harder, work longer, find the sheer willpower—either do not work or may make our problems worse. The true key to satisfaction and success at any age is a healthy brain. " - Editorial Reviews

Forgotten Patriots The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War by Burrows, Edwin

"Despite the extraordinary number of lives lost, Forgotten Patriots is the first-ever account of what took place in these hell-holes. The result is a unique perspective on the Revolutionary War as well as a sobering commentary on how Americans have remembered our struggle for independence—and how much we have forgotten." - Editorial Reviews

The four feathers by A E W Mason

"This classic adventure story -- first published in1902 -- gains new life in a blockbuster motion picture epicfrom Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films and remainsa timeless novel of love, honor, and courage." - Editorial Reviews

The ancient Greeks at war by Louis Rawlings

"This brilliant account covers a millennium of Greek warfare. With specially commissioned battle maps and vivid illustrations, Victor Davis Hanson takes the reader into the heart of Greek warfare, classical beliefs, and heroic battles. This colorful portrait of ancient Greek culture explains why their approach to fighting was so ruthless and so successful." - Editorial Reviews

Killing civilians : method, madness, and morality in war by Hugo Slim

"Bolstering his claims with hard fact, Slim argues that civilian casualties are not only morally reprehensible but also bad military science. His book is a clarion call for action and a passionate defense of civil immunity, a concept that is more urgent and necessary today than ever before." - Editorial Reviews

History upside down : the roots of Palestinian fascism and the myth of Israeli aggression by David Meir-Levi

"In History Upside Down, David Meir-Levi exposes the ideological DNA of Palestinian nationalism and its ludicrous "alternative" histories, revealing how Nazi fascism gave the Arab world's amorphous hatred of the Jews an intellectual structure and how Soviet communism masked its genocidal intentions with the mantle of national liberation. Meir-Levi then explodes the cornerstone myths that the Palestinian movement created--myths that rationalize and celebrate decades of unremitting terror and genocidal ambitions, turning the history of the Middle East upside down and inside out, making the victim the aggressor and the aggressor the victim. " - Editorial Reviews

Occupational hazards : success and failure in military occupation by David M Edelstein

"Occupation is difficult, in Edelstein's view, because ambitious goals require considerable time and resources, yet both the occupied population and the occupying power want occupation to end quickly and inexpensively; in drawn-out occupations, impatience grows and resources dwindle. This combination sabotages the occupying power's ability to accomplish two tasks: convince an occupied population to suppress its nationalist desires and sustain its own commitment to the occupation. ... "- Editorial Reviews

Through the wheat : the U.S. Marines in World War I by Edwin H Simmons

"Two retired Marines, well known for their achievements both in uniform and with the pen, have recorded this rich history in a way that only insiders can. Brig. Gen. Edwin H. Simmons and Col. Joseph H. Alexander recount events and colorful personalities in telling detail, capturing the spirit that earned the 4th Marine Brigade three awards of the French Croix de Guerre and launched the first pioneering detachments of 'Flying Leathernecks.' Here, hand-to-hand combat seen through the lenses of a gas mask is accompanied by thought-provoking assessments of the war's impact on the Marine Corps. " - Editorial Reviews

A history of Palestine : from the Ottoman conquest to the founding of the state of Israel by Gudrun Krämer

"The author pays full due to the dynamism of the Zionist nation-building project and the development it brought to Palestine, often to the benefit of Arabs, but also accords weight and legitimacy to the Arab nationalist reaction—while observing that, even as the two communities remained socially segregated, they were economically interdependent and spatially intertwined. The author's restrained account of Israel's war of independence notes atrocities on all sides as it depicts a sometimes incidental, sometimes deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing of Arabs by the Israeli military." - Editorial Reviews

The Winter War : Russia's invasion of Finland, 1939-1940 by Robert Edwards

"The Russians meanwhile had markedly damaged their international standing and effectively ruined their military reputation-to such an extent, as this probing chapter in World War II history demonstrates, that Germany, with proud-blooded Finland as an ally, dared to launch its 1940 invasion of Russia. At the same time, though, the fiasco of the Winter War forced Stalin to acknowledge the shortcomings of the Red Army and to reform it: Germany would fall at Stalingrad in 1941." - Editorial Reviews

Women as weapons of war : Iraq, sex, and the media by Kelly Oliver

"Kelly Oliver's book offers a brilliant and unforgettable feminist critique of the recent ways in which 'women' have been used, once again, as the terrain and flesh over which to fight yet another war. At stake in this war is also the future of feminism. Challenging the bunker rhetoric coming out of Washington that combines a noxious mixture of anti-Arab racism with the latest version of the white men's burden to save women from pre-modern cultures, Oliver offers an eloquent plea for the continuing relevance of feminist ways of interpreting the world. In these times of shame and sorrow, this book is indispensable reading." -- Eduardo Mendieta, associate professor of philosophy, Stony Brook University

Soldier's heart : reading literature through peace and war at West Point by Elizabeth D Samet

"What does it mean to teach literature to a soldier? How does it prepare a young man or woman for combat? At West Point, Elizabeth Samet reads classic and modern works of literature with America's future military elite, and in this stirring memoir she chronicles the ways in which war has transformed her relationship to the books she and her students read together. While fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Samet's former students share their thoughts on the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the fiction of Virginia Woolf and J. M. Coetzee, the epics of Homer, and the films of Bogart and Cagney." - Macmillan

Last full measure of devotion : a tribute to America's heroes of the Vietnam War by Donald J Farinacci

"There were no marching bands welcoming home returning troops from Vietnam, no ticker-tape parades for its heroes and no celebrations in Time Square. Instead, returning Vets were confronted with a range of reactions, not the least of which were indifference, silent disapproval, criticism, hostility and even contempt, in some quarters, for their lack of cleverness in not avoiding service in a war zone. Most returning Vietnam warriors were bewildered by the reactions of their fellow countrymen;....." - Editorial Reviews

Vimy Ridge : a Canadian reassessment by Geoff Hayes

"Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment draws on the work of a new generation of scholars who explore the battle from three perspectives. The first assesses the Canadian Corps within the wider context of the Western Front in 1917. The second explores Canadian leadership, training, and preparations and details the story of each of the four Canadian divisions. The final section concentrates on the commemoration of Vimy Ridge, both for contemporaries and later generations of Canadians. " - Editorial Reviews

Descent into chaos : the United States and the failure of nation building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

"His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has pro-gressed. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al’ Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest." - Editorial Reviews

Baghdad at sunrise : a Brigade Commander's war in Iraq by Peter R Mansoor

"This book will be read by students at military academies and war colleges for years to come. It also speaks to general readers interested in Iraq, in the voices of our soldiers, and in understanding the problems we faced and those we created, without the hyperbole and politicization of most first-person accounts of the early years of this conflict."-Frederick W. Kagan, American Enterprise Institute

Leningrad under siege : first-hand accounts of the ordeal by Ales· Adamovič

"This book tells the story of that long, bitter siege in the words of those who were there. It vividly describes how ordinary Leningraders struggled to stay alive and to defend their beloved city in the most appalling conditions. They were bombed, shelled, starved and frozen. They dug tank-traps and trenches, built shelters and fortifications, fought fires, cleared rubble, tended the wounded and, for as long as they had strength to do so, buried their dead. Many were killed by German bombs or shells, but most of them died of hunger and cold. " -Editorial Reviews

Diary of a witness : 1940-1943 by Raymond-Raoul Lambert

"A frank portrait of a rather unfortunate good Jew caught in the deadly net of the Nazi extermination machine." -Editorial Reviews

Testing American sea power : U.S. Navy strategic exercises, 1923-1940 by Craig C Felker

"Testing American Sea Power challenges the conventional wisdom that Mahanian theory held the American Navy in a steel grip. Felker's research and analysis, the first to concentrate on the navy's interwar exercises, will make a valuable contribution to naval history for historians, military professionals, and naval instructors. " - Editorial Reviews

Jihad and American medicine thinking like a terrorist to anticipate attacks via our health system by Adam Frederic Dorin

"State-of-the-art counter-terrorism techniques, insights into modern medical practice, medical errors, and disaster prevention all intersect in this groundbreaking book by Adam Dorin, M.D., an anesthesiologist and medical director across 15 years. Dr. Dorin shows us why our healthcare system may be the next Ground Zero for terrorism and how many opportunities there are for terrorists to infiltrate the system. " - Editorial Reviews

Battle of cognition : the future information-rich warfare and the mind of the commander by Alexander Kott

"Looking at the command and control of information-rich warfare, the authors explore its potential new processes, techniques, and organizational structures. As they do so, they find reasons for both optimism and concerns about the limitations of human cognition and supporting technologies in commanding Information Age battles." - Editorial Reviews

Capital in flames : the American attack on York, 1813 by Robert Malcomson

"As Canada's central depot and naval dockyard on the Great Lakes early in the War of 1812, the capital frontier town of York (present-day Toronto) was a prime target for American forces. In April 1813 a squadron of warships under U.S. Commodore Isaac Chauncey sailed up Lake Ontario and landed about 1,800 soldiers there as the renowned explorer Gen. Zebulon Pike led his men into battle. Though the Americans took the town, their victory proved disappointing. Malcomson challenges conventional ideas about the battle as he brings to life the politicians, soldiers, and citizens whose destinies clashed at York. "- Editorial Reviews

The far reaches by Homer H Hickam

"This is Hickam's third WWII action saga featuring Capt. Josh Thurlow, an officer exhibiting military insight and preternatural fighting abilities. The book opens in 1943 as an American fleet assembles off Tarawa, and the Marines prepare to land. Observing from the deck of a transport, Thurlow points out flaws in the attack plan and predicts the disaster that follows. Although only a spectator, Thurlow cannot resist the lure of battle; he leaps into a landing craft, struggles to shore and rallies the few surviving Marines until reinforcements arrive. " - Editorial Reviews

Fixing fragile states : a new paradigm for development by Seth D Kaplan

"Fragile states are a menace. Their lawless environments spread instability across borders, provide havens for terrorists, threaten access to natural resources, and consign millions of people to poverty. But Western attempts to reform these benighted places have rarely made things better. Kaplan argues that to avoid revisiting the carnage and catastrophes seen in places like Iraq, Bosnia, and the Congo, the West needs to rethink its ideas on fragile states and start helping their peoples build governments and states that actually fit the local landscape." - Editorial Reviews

Touching history : the untold story of the drama that unfolded in the skies over America on 9/11 by Lynn Spencer

"Starred Review. While most Americans watched the 9/11 attacks on television, the guardians of the nation's air-control and air-defense systems had the unenviable task of trying to halt them. Working from interviews and tape archives, Spencer's minute-by-minute chronicle recreates their heroics in nerve-racking detail. " - Publishers Weekly

China's energy strategy : the impact on Beijing's maritime policies by Gabriel B Collins

"A variety of viewpoints is offered in this timely analysis of China's economy and the future shape of Beijing's energy consumption. The authors, all noted authorities in the fields of economics, diplomacy, energy, and defense, consider an unprecedented range of influences and factors to avoid the limitations of looking at the subject myopically or with political bias. They conclude that while energy insecurity could eventually lead to an arms race at sea or even a naval conflict that neither side wants, there is ample room for Sino-American energy dialogue and cooperation in the maritime domain. " - Editorial Reviews

Retribution : the battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings

'With unprecedented insight, Hastings discusses Japan’s war against China, now all but forgotten in the West, MacArthur’s follies in the Philippines, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Soviet blitzkrieg in Manchuria. He analyzes the decision-making process that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—which, he convincingly argues, ultimately saved lives. Finally, he delves into the Japanese wartime mind-set, which caused an otherwise civilized society to carry out atrocities that haunt the nation to this day." - Editorial Reviews

The limits of power : the end of American Exceptionalism by A J Bacevich

"In this caustic critique of the growing American penchant for empire and sense of entitlement, Bacevich (The New American Militarism) examines the citizenry's complicity in the current economic, political, and military crisis. A retired army colonel, the author efficiently pillories the recent performance of the armed forces, decrying it as an expression of domestic dysfunction, with leaders and misguided strategies ushering the nation into a global war of no exits and no deadlines. " - Editorial Reviews

Volunteers on the Veld : Britain's citizen-soldiers and the South African War, 1899-1902 by Stephen M Miller

"In Volunteers on the Veld, Stephen M. Miller focuses on the connection between Britain's auxiliary forces--volunteers, militia, and yeomanry--and its imperial mission during the late Victorian era, looking especially at why the British war effort came to depend on their performance. Miller examines motivations for enlistment, the use of citizen-soldiers in guerrilla warfare, and the effects of combat on the soldiers themselves, weaving together the sense of national emergency, the influence of popular culture, and images of manhood that propelled so many Britons into the ranks of volunteers. " - Editorial Reviews

World War I : the African front by Edward Paice

"Starred Review. Paice, a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, has written what is by a significant margin the best book to date on the Great War in East Africa. Paice integrates an impressive spectrum of archival and printed sources into a comprehensive analysis based on the premise that, for economic and emotional reasons, Africa mattered to the European powers. Paice accurately and evocatively describes a campaign in which modern technology was consistently frustrated by terrain, climate and disease. " - Publishers Weekly

The Holocaust by bullets : a priest's journey to uncover the truth behind the murder of 1.5 million Jews by Patrick Desbois

"In this heart-wrenching book, Father Patrick Desbois documents the daunting task of identifying and examining all the sites where Jews were exterminated by Nazi mobile units in the Ukraine in WWII. Using innovative methodology, interviews, and ballistic evidence, he has determined the location of many mass gravesites with the goal of providing proper burials for the victims of the forgotten Ukrainian Holocaust. Compiling new archival material and many eye-witness accounts, Desbois has put together the first definitive account of one of history's bloodiest chapters." - Editorial Reviews

Less safe, less free : the failure of preemption in the War on Terror by David Cole

"In this brilliantly conceived critique, two of the country's preeminent constitutional scholars argue that the great irony is that these sacrifices in the rule of law, adopted in the name of prevention, have in fact made us more susceptible to future terrorist attacks. They conclusively debunk the administration's claim that it is winning the war on terror and offer an alternative strategy in which the rule of law is an asset, not an obstacle, in the struggle to keep us both safe and free. " - Editorial Reviews