African Wars

The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event - known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 - galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa.

“You never know when you’re going to say the wrong thing that will make someone hate you forever. It’s like a rip tide. You can’t even see it from the surface. Then you step into it, and the next thing you know, you’re drowning.” – Liz Stolz A small town in Maine has begun to recover from a school shooting when another mass shooting and divisive politics threaten to divide friends and end relationships. Town doctor Liz Stolz and Episcopal rector Lucy Bartlett, used to bringing people together, find their own alliances threatened. Can these two healers find ways to bind up ...

More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth.

When Sergeant Major Sylvester “Sly” Morgan is killed while on a mission, his daughter Zoey tells General Garrett Sinclair that her father's death wasn’t random. Morgan had recorded a high-level meeting between Chinese, American, and French diplomats as they spoke about a plan for a new global government. The “Chinese-U.S. Partnership”, or CUSP, intends to combine the world’s two largest economies and militaries to usher in a new era of partnership and leadership. But China’s offer has a deadline and penalties for noncompliance.

A finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize: A stunning work of investigative reporting by a Canadian journalist who has risked her own life to bring us a deeply disturbing history of the Rwandan genocide that takes the true measure of Rwandan head of state Paul Kagame.

America after the Civil War was a land of shattered promises and entrenched hatreds. In the explosive South, danger took many forms: white extremists loyal to a defeated world terrorized former slaves, while in the halls of government, bitter and byzantine political warfare raged between Republicans and Democrats.

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond.

Against the backdrop of bloody battles and political maneuvering, thousands of African Americans spent the Civil War trying to hold their families together. Whether enslaved or free, they strove not only to survive but also to cultivate bonds of family, friendship, and community. This moving book illuminates that struggle through the letters exchanged by African Americans before, during, and just after the war.

Step into the heart of a turbulent era with a gripping historical memoir that chronicles one woman’s extraordinary journey in Africa. In this vivid recounting—which one Pulitzer nominee says, “reads like a political thriller, women’s history, and African adventure rolled into one,”—Bee Bloeser unveils the raw reality of her family’s part in the mission to eradicate smallpox, revealing triumphs and trials faced along the way.

Born free in 1821 to two parents who had been enslaved, William Still was drawn to anti-slavery work from a young age. Hired as a clerk at the Anti-Slavery office in Philadelphia after teaching himself to read and write, he began directly assisting enslaved people who were crossing over from the South into freedom. Andrew Diemer captures the full range and accomplishments of Still’s life, from his resistance to Fugitive Slave Laws and his relationship with John Brown before the war, to his long career fighting for citizenship rights and desegregation until the early 20th century.

He saw his father executed in battle. He spent his youth avenging that death. And now Henry "Hal" Courtney is a man with a ship - and a family - of his own. But fate has not finished with Hal. On a voyage along the eastern shore of Africa, a powerful enemy abducts his wife, the fearless warrior Judith...and with her Hal's unborn child.

Social statistics of 1900 indicate that material quality of life was lower for most black Americans than under slavery. Kirkpatrick Sale marshals much forgotten evidence to cast this glorious part of American history in a realistic and critical light. Emancipation, yes. But as a military measure during a cruel war of invasion? Slavery once existed throughout the western hemisphere, but almost everywhere except the United States, it ended peacefully.

This searing story of slavery and freedom in the Chesapeake reveals the pivot in the nation’s path between the founding and civil war. Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom’s swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Drawn from new sources, Alan Taylor's riveting narrative re-creates the events that inspired black Virginians, haunted slaveholders, and set the nation on a new and dangerous course.

If a mere seven more MPs had voted with Prime Minister JBM Hertzog in favour of neutrality, South Africa's history would have been quite different. Parliament's narrow decision to go to war in 1939 led to a seismic upheaval throughout the 1940s: black people streamed in their thousands from rural areas to the cities in search of jobs; volunteers of all races answered the call to go 'up north' to fight; and opponents of the Smuts government actively hindered the war effort by attacking soldiers and committing acts of sabotage.

A Texas Legacy Family Saga - Book 3 Just before the Civil War, in the dark corners of the New Orleans waterfront, Billy Jefferson's dreams are yanked from him before he'd barely walked off the ship from Scotland. In the summer of 1860, America is a tinder box, ready to blow. Issues of states' rights, slavery and regionalism have come to a boiling point. Citizens across the South are willing to fight and die to maintain their Southern way of life. The South is a tough place to be if you disagree with that philosophy. It's especially tough if you are a free person of color or their friends. ...

Something About Ann, a historical fiction novella, is accompanied by twelve interconnected short stories that follow a group of soldiers who faced traumatic experiences in Vietnam, as depicted in the novel A Long Way Back. Although they managed to remain close after returning to the States, violence and turmoil continue to haunt the soldiers as they try to normalize their lives, sometimes depending on the help of each other or relying on the skills they acquired in combat. In the novella Something About Ann, a black Vietnam veteran and a Vietnamese woman fall in love in Cleveland, Ohio, not...

He came to destroy her world. She recoded his. Alaia Evans is a genius coder on the brink of her big break. Her interactive art installation is more than a thesis; it is the soul of her work. But on opening night, a ghost in the machine tears it all down, leaving her humiliated in a storm of glitched light and mocking laughter. The attack is surgical, personal, and it has a name: Griffin. As the university's resident hacker and digital enforcer, Griffin was supposed to put the ambitious new artist in her place. He expected a simple victory, but Alaia’s fiery defiance sparks a dangerous ...

Beyond stereotypes and sensationalism, "African Polygamy" dives deep into the lived experience of this complex cultural practice. In this autobiography's 8th book, the author navigates the nuances and realities of polygamy in Africa, challenging misconceptions and offering a genuine, human perspective. Forget sensational headlines and simplified narratives. This book: Demystifies the practice: Forget "multiple wives" - delve into the diverse forms of polygamy, exploring its historical roots, social implications, and personal impact on both men and women. Offers an insider's view: Experience...

“It isn’t every day you learn monsters exist. Demons are real, and that you are destined to destroy the universe…” Kalib Andrews thought he knew who he was. But six months ago, that all changed when a stranger from his past revealed that Kalib is an Angel Warrior, one of the most powerful beings ever to exist. But what happened to the original Angel Warriors? How could such powerful beings simply disappear? And why? Legend has it that “Ambrose,” the first Magicborne, was behind their annihilation. Now, Kalib fears that the mysterious Heir of Ambrose is determined to fulfill ...

Brought to Japan in the 16th century by Portuguese traders, he was the first person of African origin who became an instant celebrity. Rumored to be about seven feet tall and possessing the strength of 10 men, he garnered the attention of the famed warlord Oda Nobunaga. He served his master diligently through many battle victories. He is most famously associated with the title of African Samurai. This is the story of Yasuke.