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The final days of the Confederacy saw a kaleidoscope of action in the Eastern Theater, with most Civil War historians focusing on the imminent demise of the Army of Northern Virginia. However, to both Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, it was the inexorable advance of the Union armies up through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865 that dictated their final moves.William Tecumseh Sherman’s Carolinas campaign has long been overshadowed by the events in Virginia, even as the Confederates recognized it as the crucial, war-winning blow, and pitted a luminous array of their best generals—Johnston, Hardee, Hampton, A. P. Stewart, D. H. Hill, and others—against it. In this work, career military officers Mark A. Smith and Wade Sokolosky rectify the oversight with “No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar,” a careful and impartial examination of Sherman’s advance up the seaboard now in paperback.After his largely unopposed “March to the Sea,” in March 1865 Sherman struck off again north, aiming to unite with Grant and crush Lee between them. The Confederacy in the Carolinas, however, was not yet finished. While Sherman rampaged through South Carolina, Confederate authorities gathered forces to resist him in its northern neighboring state.In North Carolina, the Rebels conceded their vast arsenal at Fayetteville, which the Federals destroyed, but under General Hardee prepared to receive Sherman’s host in the narrow corridor between the Black and Cape Fear rivers at Averasboro. With a number of untried units (former coastal battalions) plus a scattering of veterans in Lafayette McLaws’ division and Joe Wheeler’s cavalry, Hardee created a defense-in-depth reminiscent of four-score years earlier at the battle of Cowpens.At Averasboro, described here in intimate detail, Hardee arrayed his disparate forces into three lines that nearly fought Sherman’s veterans to a standstill until a flank attack won the day for the Union.Strategically, along with Braxton Bragg’s command fighting off a Union thrust from the coast, the battle of Averasboro provided time for Joe Johnston to assemble his forces and contest Sherman’s advance at Bentonville. Without Averasboro, there would have been no Bentonville.Meticulously researched and gracefully written, “No Such Army” explores a long-overlooked clash that had consequences beyond the gallant sacrifices of the men, who by then on both sides knew that the war was approaching its culmination.

The first book of its kind, Less than Victory explores both the impact the Vietnam War had on American Catholics, and the impact of the nation's largest religious group upon its most controversial war. Through the 1960s, Roman Catholics made up one-quarter of the population, and were deeply involved in all aspects of war. In this book, Steven J. Brady argues that American Catholics introduced the moral, as opposed to the prudential, argument about the war earlier and more comprehensively than other groups. The Catholic debate on morality was three cornered: some saw the war as inherently immoral, others as morally obligatory, while others focused on the morality of the means – napalm, torture, and free-fire zones – that the US and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam were employing. These debates presaged greater Catholic involvement in war and peace issues, provoking a shift away from traditional ideas of a just war across American Catholic thinking and dialogue.

In the wake of Napoleon's defeat in 1815, French liberals set out to create an informal empire. Their efforts to cultivate unequal partnerships with Christian, Greek-speaking elites in southeast Europe shaped national identities and structured global civilizational hierarchies over the decades that followed. Unintended Nations tracks a notion of civilization that developed in early nineteenth-century France. Alex Tipei explores the constellation of ideas, beliefs, and practices this concept invoked – what she calls civilization-speak – and charts the cross-continental networks that employed it as an organizing principle. Drawing on archival and printed primary sources in six languages, Tipei maps out the uses of this civilization-speak on both sides of the continent, focusing on France and the lands that make up significant parts of present-day Greece and Romania. She shows how and why French liberals mobilized civilization-speak to, offering an innovative analysis of liberalism and capitalism's relationship to informal empire. Calling into question long-standing assumptions about the rise of nationalism in southeast Europe, Unintended Nations explores how Franco-Balkan exchanges helped define political, civilizational, and biopolitical boundaries in the post-Napoleonic era.

The shocking story of Nazi Germany’s naval assault in American waters, told through the eyes of seafarers who experienced it off the Jersey Shore._x000D__x000D_It is January 1942. Six weeks after the United States entered World War II, Imperial Japan is annihilating American forces across the Far East while the Nazis stand triumphant over much of Europe. Adolf Hitler’s forces are about to commence an assault along the East Coast of the United States, but this “Atlantic Pearl Harbor” would prove far more devastating than Japan’s attack on Hawaii. The wolves are closing in, and few Americans realize their beaches and coastal cities are about to witness the worst naval defeat in American history. The Western Hemisphere holds the key to victory for the beleaguered Allies, but only if the vast economic and military resources of North and South America can be carried across the Atlantic by Allied merchant ships. These civilian-manned cargo vessels are the backbone of the American war economy and the lifeline enabling Britain and the Soviet Union to survive—but Hitler’s favorite admiral also knows this, and he has set in motion a plan of unprecedented boldness. Germany’s dreaded submarines, or “U-boats,” are going to the United States. The fiery months that followed would pit American servicemen against German U-boat sailors in a desperate struggle that stained East Coast waters with oil and blood. In the crosshairs of this deadly cat-and-mouse game was a stalwart contingent of civilian mariners who crewed the tankers and freighters supplying the war against the Axis Powers. Thousands of them would perish as hundreds of merchant ships were sunk. Every American coastal state became a battlefront in 1942, and the events that transpired off New Jersey illustrate the perils and brutality of this forgotten campaign. The seafloor along the Garden State is today strewn with shipwrecks that bear witness to the innumerable ways to die faced by friend and foe alike only miles from the boardwalk. Though these seafarers’ lives were forfeit, the battle they fought would decide the fates of millions.

Vietnam Fire Mission reflects on Larry Hiton’s time in the U.S. Marine Corps, initially enlisting at 18 with the belief that all Marines were infantrymen. However, upon completing boot camp, he was assigned to artillery as a cannoneer (MOS 0811), which was a significant surprise. In this first hand account Hilton explains that artillery units, while typically thought of as being behind the lines, were often directly targeted during the Vietnam War, where there were no front lines. Artillery positions were frequently attacked by mortars, snipers, and enemy forces, requiring Marines to defend themselves.The author describes the initial confusion among Marines in 1965, as many had no knowledge of Vietnam before being abruptly deployed there. Marines who had been stationed in the Pacific were quickly shipped to Vietnam, with some arriving without their proper gear. The deployment to Vietnam, especially in the early stages, caused frustration for those whose service was extended.Reflecting on his own experiences, the author recounts how the stress of war sometimes led to memory lapses. For instance, they struggled to recall the details of November 10, 1966, despite it being the U.S. Marine Corps’ birthday, only to later discover that they had participated in a ceremony in Vietnam that day. Hilton concludes that by acknowledging the challenges of recalling events accurately under the intense conditions of war he is able to share his story to the best of his ability to give the reader a glimpse in to one of the most contentious conflicts.

The projecting of military force to a distant shore has come to be seen as a uniquely British way of waging war. To be sure, many of these operations would now be classed as administrative landings with battle, if occurring at all, only following sometimes afterward. Others, of course, merit the label of opposed landings. To contemporaries of the period covered by this study, the evolutions went by the appellation of conjoint or combined operations. Less important than how they were styled remains the thought and the purpose giving rise to these ventures. In the decades before the First World War, professionals appreciated the myriad difficulties and dangers associated with amphibious operations. The laity, including statesmen, thought rather less of these matters but could recount numerous examples of their occurrence before 1914. Indeed, whatever operational failings Britain demonstrated during the World War a corpus of relevant experience was the least of these.What is now styled joint amphibious operations were difficult because they were never of a single type. Naval support to a military force standing on the defensive, raids, feints, blocking operations, riverine operations, and, yes, an opposed landing, spoke to a series of joint operations of ever-increasing complexity. Meanwhile, as every operation must at some point end, even the manner of evacuation came to be viewed as a special type of combined operation to be understood and learned. Finally, it remained that in a campaign of the grandest scale, examples of each might feature at differing moments along the way. Landings before 1914 were difficult and what military and naval authorities thought feasible before the onset of the World War in the realm of joint operations is a neglected field of study—a surprising omission given the ink that has been spilt retelling the debacles experienced at Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and East Africa. Every campaign has its context—operational and strategic to be sure—but also political, doctrinal, and bureaucratic. How Britain elected to wage war in 1914 proved a product of these variables just as surely as the military and naval capabilities it could muster. Tying the strands of pre-war military experience and thought in the realm of joint operations is the chief purpose of this study which takes as its starting point 1882 and the British assault against Egypt. The choice is far from arbitrary as the moment saw several earning their spurs who would later play a central role in the amphibious operations executed during the Great War.To the extent learning is more than the product of self-experience, this work pays special attention to the Russo-Japanese War. Thinking officers appreciated that fundamental changes were occurring in the nature and style of war. A learned public also appreciated this courtesy of works such as Ivan Bloch’s Is War Now Possible? Notwithstanding what British officers understood on the eve of the World War, the problem of time and scale remained. This alone should give one pause before chiding others over past mistakes. This study looks at what was thought, what was taught, what was expected, and what occurred in the thirty years before Britain found herself facing a scale of conflict not witnessed in a century.

Joseph Stalin and the Art of Tyranny examines authoritarian rule, revealing how tyrants sustain power through a mix of comfort, terror, love, and fear, often convincing their subjects of their divine purpose. Such leaders build systems of loyalists and subservient institutions, enabling unchecked authority.Joseph Stalin exemplifies this tyranny. As Soviet leader from 1929 to 1953, he implemented totalitarian policies, nationalizing industry and agriculture, controlling economic production through five-year plans, and eliminating dissent through imprisonment, forced labour, or execution. His brutal regime caused an estimated 20 million deaths.Despite this grim legacy, Stalin’s reputation remains divisive. In Western democracies, he is remembered as a genocidal dictator, but in Russia he often ranks among the most admired historical figures, illustrating the paradox of his influence.Stalinism served as a model for Communist regimes in China, Vietnam, and Cuba, shaping their governance. While many of these nations transitioned toward democracy, countries like Russia, China, and North Korea continue to echo Stalinist practices. Modern leaders such as Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping have adopted similar strategies of control.Joseph Stalin and the Art of Tyranny offers crucial insights into authoritarianism, revealing the enduring appeal and devastating impact of totalitarian rule.

Her name was Hazel Smith, but everyone called her Jicky. Whether it was a cover name or affectation, she never said, but  it was also the name of her favourite perfume from the historic French perfume house, Guerlain, established in  Paris in 1800. Born into a well-to-do family, she grew-up in Hertfordshire, enjoying the privileged life of a magnificent country house and domestic servants.In Paris, Jicky worked for the British Embassy in those tumultuous days leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War, operating as an undercover agent playing an important role in the intelligence community for the SIS (MI6).After war broke out, Jicky displayed extraordinary courage and suffered for her loyalty to the cause. At one point she was captured and tortured by the Nazis; she was pregnant at the time. Her partner was a member of the French resistance but she did not betray him, or her country.Among her tasks, she used her previous education in graphology to decipher the personality of subjects under surveillance by means of handwriting analysis. One of her professors was a disciple of Jung, who trained her in the techniques of psychoanalysis for divining truth and lies. She was even an expert in homing pigeons, the unit known as MI14.After the war, she moved to a small town in Italy taking her secrets with her, and her undiminished passion for life.This is her story.

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the world focussed heavily on Nazi Germany’s growing military power, but few grasped the true danger of Adolf Hitler and his regime. Why Appeasement Failed argues that the critical insight into Hitler''s intentions was already available, yet largely ignored.The author starts by examining the turbulent political climate of the 1930s, the tensions with Germany and the issues between the French and the British, as well as the Munich Conference and its successes and failures.Drawing attention to the overlooked warnings in Mein Kampf and several publications from the 1930s, this book reveals that these texts clearly outlined Hitler’s vision for expansion and conquest long before it became a global reality. Mein Kampf made sinister references to what Hitler called defective people, namely, both mentally and physically handicapped, and his racist obsession. He dwelled on the Party’s philosophy, propaganda, and projected a unified pan-Germany based on military power — evidence that should have sounded alarm bells but was dismissed.Attention that moves to an outstanding but neglected book published in Germany in 1937 written by an Australian academic investigating 1936 Germany. While appreciated by some, the findings were dismissed by Chamberlain. In places, this writer’s almost prophetic forecasts read almost like a post-war analysis of the situation. He met most Nazi leaders, studied the political paramilitary, the German Army and attended a Nuremberg rally. Having studied German economics, he saw for himself the indoctrination of Nazism from the schools to Hitler Youth, to young men in the Labour Service all trained in military discipline. He observed that the public mind was controlled, and the laws changed to suit Nazism. Had political leaders paid closer attention to these early clues, they might have heeded Winston Churchill’s urgent call to rearm.Why Appeasement Failed sheds light on the missed opportunities to understand and counter the Nazi threat before it was too late.

A seemingly endless parade of books, films and television shows have kept Marie Antoinette in the spotlight for over two centuries since her execution in October 1793. For many, she is the ignorant embodiment of foolish, careless, decadent excess, and a deserving example of the terrible fate that on occasion befalls members of the mega-wealthy ruling class who exploit and ignore the needs of those less fortunate than themselves. Meanwhile, for others, she is a source of endless fascination thanks to the flamboyant fashions of her era, the pastel-hued beauty of her surviving residences and, above all, the extraordinary drama of her almost unbelievable riches-to-rags life. She was a complex woman who lived in a remarkable time, and yet she was also a very simple one whose main desire in life was to love and be loved in return.This engaging and intimate biography of Marie Antoinette takes a fresh look at the story of this most fascinating and misunderstood of queens, exploring her personal tribulations such as her emotionally unfulfilling marriage, rocky friendships and the loss of her children, as well as the series of scandals, mistakes and disasters that took her from the gilded splendour of Versailles to the guillotine.

Medieval Nuns at War by Elizabeth Quillen uncovers the extraordinary lives of nuns who defied expectations, embracing roles that went far beyond contemplation and prayer. From the rebellion of Princess Clothild and her sister Basina, who led mercenaries to storm their abbey, to Queen Radegund’s quest for autonomy within the cloistered world of Poitiers, these stories reveal women unafraid to wield power in times of crisis. "These women made their marks briefly, but brightly in the pages of chronicles, poems, and letters," Quillen writes, bringing to life their audacity and ambition in shaping medieval society.Quillen’s deeply researched narrative explores how these nuns balanced spiritual devotion with an intense drive for influence, often clashing with both secular and ecclesiastical authorities. Not content to remain within convent walls, women like Leoba, who served as an imperial regent, and Hildegund von Schonau, who disguised herself as a monk to escape persecution, exemplify the resilience of medieval nuns. Quillen illustrates how convents functioned as political centres, not isolated enclaves, with nuns as pivotal figures in military defence, treaty negotiations, and even political rebellion.For readers fascinated by the hidden currents of medieval history, Medieval Nuns at War is a rare treasure. Quillen’s captivating prose and meticulous scholarship shed new light on these “rebellious, resilient, and rowdy women,” who not only fought for survival but also left indelible marks on their societies. Through letters, chronicles, and centuries-old biographies, this book finally gives these fearless women the recognition they deserve as warriors, leaders, and guardians of their communities.

In April 1940, when British cryptographers at Bletchley Park decrypted some German air force messages, Group Captain Frederick Winterbotham recognized the potential of such intelligence and established a secure system to handle it. He created Special Liaison Units, small teams of RAF officers and enlisted men, to receive and securely distribute decrypted Ultra messages to relevant commanders. These messages, transmitted through encrypted radio signals, were kept highly classified, with recipients unaware of their origins.Winterbotham''s units played a critical role in key moments during the war. His selected intercepts provided early insights into the French collapse during the Battle of France and proved crucial in the Battle of Britain, North Africa, El Alamein, and the D-Day invasion. The Ultra intelligence was vital for informing Allied military decisions, with Winston Churchill receiving urgent messages directly via a secure phone line.By 1944, the system was highly efficient, delivering time-sensitive information, such as the rapid intelligence on the German evacuation of the Casino line in Italy. Winterbotham also analyzed the surprise of the 1944-45 Ardennes Offensive, noting that the absence of German signals should have raised alarms.Winterbotham’s first-hand account of the Enigma program offers an unmatched perspective on its strategic importance.

The Georgian era was unique, so unlike what preceded it and never since repeated. What would it have been like to live there? With no welfare and little charity, people lived on their wits alone, and the sweat of their brow. There was a huckster on every street corner, a pickpocket in every crowd, and cheap gin was readily available to drown every conceivable sorrow. What was it like to live in a smuggling community where the criminals made the rules and enforced them arbitrarily, brutally, and without hindrance? How would you survive the highwayman intent on taking your riches, your dignity, and your life too, if require? ut Georgian Britain also underwent a great flourishing in the arts, commerce, industry and innovation. It was a time of great opportunity should you have the means to seize it. For all its harsh realities, the Georgian era is also famous for its gentility and refinement, for the pottery of Josiah Wedgwood, the furniture of Thomas Chippendale, the sculpted landscapes of Capability Brown, the elegance of the Georgian Ball, the romantic and evocative novels of Jane Austen, but also the tawdry excesses of the Prince Regent and the cutting edge of the satirist’s pen.Let this book be your guide to the past, and learn from their own lips the conversation, what drove the narrative, what was whispered in the taverns and shouted in the streets. It was a time of excess, but of great achievement too, a transformative time that changed Britain forever. So be prepared, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.

The life of Honor, Lady Lisle, follows a dizzying narrative arc. Born into a West Country family, her second marriage propelled her into Anne Boleyn''s court, as the new step-aunt to Henry VIII. Her husband, Arthur, was the illegitimate son of Edward IV, bearing the dangerous surname Plantagenet, one of a few survivors of the old regime. At his side, Honor witnessed tumultuous change in England, before heading out to run the Tudor enclave of Calais. Her surviving letters speak of a happy family, domestic arrangements, clothes and food, as well as including snippets of news about Henry''s love life and the unfolding Reformation. A devout Catholic, Honor found herself in a difficult position when instructions arrived to carry through religious reforms in a reluctant, rebellious town. As the pressure increased upon the couple, and one by one, the giants of the Tudor court fell, did Honor ever fear that she may suffer the same fate? What exactly caused accusations to be made against Honor and Arthur? What role did Honor''s faith play? Just how close did she come to dishonour? This is the first complete biography of Honor, presenting the story of a significant Tudor woman against the backdrop of immense political change.

In October 1941, 19-year-old Dennis Varey volunteered for the RAF, despite being in a reserved occupation as an engineer. The bombing of his hometown had pushed him to fight back. After basic training, he became an Observer in December 1941, and by June 1942, he was accepted for pilot training under the Empire Air Training Scheme. He trained in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), then moved to Cairo before joining the Italian campaign. Dennis participated in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France, in 1944.As the Allied forces struggled in Normandy, Dennis flew sorties to support the landings, providing air cover and ground attacks. Promoted to Flight Sergeant, he continued flying over Italy, Crete, and the Balkans until he was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 109. Wounded and captured, Dennis escaped captivity and returned to his unit, later being posted home to train future pilots.This book recounts the story of Dennis and his comrades in 260 Squadron, whose multi-national crew supported key battles across North Africa and Europe. Using letters, diaries, and first-hand accounts, it highlights the sacrifices of these young men, many of whom never returned or were forever changed by their experiences.

On 15 July 1974, Archbishop Makarios III, the democratically elected president of Cyprus, narrowly escaped death when the Cyprus National Guard shelled the presidential palace in Nicosia. Makarios and his bodyguards fled just as the assault was delayed by a broken tank. The coup was backed by the Greek military dictatorship, or Junta, which had taken power in 1967 and saw Makarios as a communist sympathizer. The Junta’s leader, Dimitrios Ioannidis, assumed that the CIA and the West would support the archbishop''s removal, a major miscalculation.The coup''s aftermath led to the installation of Nicos Sampson as president, sparking fears in Turkey of Cyprus uniting with Greece (Enosis), which threatened Turkey’s security. In response, Turkey invaded Cyprus, sparking conflict with Greek and Cypriot National Guard forces. The crisis nearly led to war between Greece and Turkey.Efforts by Henry Kissinger and British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan to prevent further escalation were complicated by the political turmoil in the U.S. and Britain’s vulnerability due to its military presence on the island. By August, the conflict resulted in 3,000 deaths and 200,000 displaced people. Cyprus remains divided today. In Cyprus 1974, Andrew Southam explores the perspectives of all parties involved, debunking conspiracy theories and highlighting key mistakes.

Between 1800 and 1960, gardening underwent a massive transformation, changing almost beyond recognition. It was a period when the concept of gardening as a leisure activity emerged, along with a vast array of changes in garden styles, plant breeding, the arrival of horticultural societies and shows, brands such as Suttons Seeds, and mass market tourism to garden sites. New retail styles even emerged with the advent of garden centres and containerised plants. Entrepreneurs took advantage of new technology to create products such as lawnmowers, the Wardian case terrarium and the strawberry canopy. Plant specialists searched out exotic plants from far-flung corners of the earth, risking their lives to bring back unusual specimens. Women took up gardening creating careers in a sector that had previously regarded them as little more than capable of doing light weeding or arranging flowers. New standards were established for training, products, plants and seed quality, resulting in the arrival of seeds such as Tom Thumb lettuce and frilly edged sweet peas that are still grown today.As recognition grew of the need for a green environment, green spaces and public parks accessible to all, gardening styles underwent considerable changes. This resulted in the creation of designs that have become extremely familiar such as carpet bedding so beloved of municipal gardens, rockeries, vegetable rotation, shrubberies, walled gardens, cottage gardens, roof and window gardens. It was a period which even saw garden gnomes taking up residence in gardens large and small.

Around the mid-fifth century three Saxon keels cut through the waves towards the southern coast of Britain. They were not the first Germanic warriors or migrants to arrive since direct Roman authority had ended in the early fifth century and would not be the last. Yet the arrival of these particular warriors would prove to be a turning point in the history of these islands.The literary sources that survive point to the arrival of these mercenaries and their subsequent revolt as the pivotal event rather any invasion or mass migration. There have been many books on the Anglo-Saxons. Those that touch on the first arrivals deal only briefly with the fifth and sixth centuries due to the lack of historical records.This book is unique in focusing on the events mentioned by the sources such as Gildas and Bede. It will show that the former Roman Diocese limped on outside direct Roman rule for a generation, beset by constant raiding from Picts and Scots in the north and Saxons and other Germanic pirates in the south.It will look at Roman practices of hiring and settling mercenaries and Germanic groups across the empire. A comparison with these will provide important clues, as well as understanding how and why the diocese and provincial structure fell apart, allowing petty kingdoms to emerge in the sixth century.The subsequent centuries have been termed the Anglo-Saxon period. This book goes back to the very beginning, the adventus Saxonum: The Coming of the Saxons.

In northern Britain and parts of Wales and Scotland, your life might well be dominated throughout the 1930s by unemployment, low wages, poor nutrition, ill health, and slum housing. But if you lived in the Midlands, London or the South-East, by the latter 1930s you would probably be enjoying a far better life, as you benefited from the spread of electric power, new factories and products, a greater variety of food, a huge private and public house-building programme and expansion of all sorts, much of it created by the sums spent on rearmament.For people living in prosperous areas, real wages rose substantially between 1936 and 1939, as was shown by their increased consumption of food and clothes. The latter 1930s were years of ever more widespread leisure pursuits, among them near-universal cinema-going, newspaper reading and, for many millions, holiday-making. A well-paid working man or office worker might even be able to buy a car. Even so, most working-class wages, especially for women, remained below those of the middle classes, and class differences were still clearly marked in housing, food, clothing, education, medical treatment, and purchasing power in general. Your views on religion, marriage, sex, and behaviour in general remained sharply defined and changed slowly, and only at the end of the decade could the beginnings of change be seen.At the same time the Second World War, which began on 3 September 1939, was the climax of a long period of increasing anxiety, during which the press, the wireless and the cinema newsreel brought foreign affairs more and more into your daily life.Using varied sources, including personal memories and daily life as pictured in newspapers and novels, Michael Alpert presents a broad picture of life for ordinary people in Britain nearly a century ago.