Military Revolution

Serving for seventeen months during the period between the British surrender at Yorktown and the signing of the final treaty, a time when peace was far from secure, Deborah Sampson accomplished her deception by becoming an outstanding soldier. Alfred Young shows us why she did it and exactly how she carried it off. He meticulously reconstructs her early life as an indentured servant; her young adulthood as a weaver, teacher, and religious rebel; and her military career in the light infantry—followed by service as an orderly to a general at West Point.

At the onset of the American Revolution, the British expected to quell the rebellion quickly with a show of overwhelming force. In an experiment in asymmetric warfare, David Bushnell created the first submarine vessel designed specifically “for the destruction of vessels of war”. In Turtle, the authors provide new insight into Bushnell’s “engine of devastation”, tracing the history of undersea warfare before Bushnell and the origin of the many innovations Bushnell understood would be necessary for conducting a covert submarine attack.

The final novel in the War Fleet series. The conclusion to the epic series. Bonds will be tested. Alliances broken. And a new balance of power in the galaxy will reshape everything that has come before. War Fleet: Revolution is a non-stop thrill ride that will leave military science fiction fans hungry for more!

In General Peter Muhlenberg: A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line, historian Michael Cecere cuts away the romanticism surrounding this fascinating character to present him as a highly capable and dedicated officer who served for seven long years in America’s War for Independence; a man of faith who held the high ideals of that office in his conduct with fellow officers and regular soldiers alike.

The Battle of Saratoga in 1777 ended with British general John Burgoyne’s troops surrendering to the American rebel army commanded by General Horatio Gates. Historians have long seen Burgoyne’s defeat as a turning point in the American Revolution because it convinced France to join the war on the side of the colonies, thus ensuring American victory. But that traditional view of Saratoga overlooks the complexity of the situation on the ground.

The year was 2000. Sierra Leone, in West Africa, had been ravaged by years of civil strife. With the intervention of the United Nations, two companies of the Indian Army were deployed in Kailahun as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Soon, the peaceful mission turned into a war-like standoff between Major Punia's company and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Kailahun, with the Indian peacekeepers cordoned off for seventy-five days without supplies. The only way home was by laying down their weapons.

La leyenda de Francisco "Pancho" Villa está saturada de heroísmo, tragedia y romanticismo; es la historia de un campesino pobre que se convierte en bandolero por necesidad, por haber vengado una injusticia sobre su familia; la del genio militar que primero huye del gobierno opresor, y después, frente al ejército revolucionario más grande en la historia de su país, lo derrota y se convierte en el liberador de México, sólo para volver a caer en la desgracia cuando sus tropas lo abandonan o son liquidadas por el enemigo.

Lee is remembered today for constantly defeating the Union’s Army of the Potomac in the Eastern theater from 1862-1865, considerably frustrating Lincoln and his generals. His leadership of his army led to him being deified after the war by some of his former subordinates, especially Virginians, and he came to personify the Lost Cause’s ideal Southern soldier. His reputation was secured in the decades after the war as a general who brilliantly led his men to amazing victories against all odds.

In My American Revolution, Robert Sullivan investigates the true history of the crossing of the Delaware, its down-home reenactment each year for the past half a century, and - toward the end of a personal odyssey that involves camping in New Jersey backyards, hiking through lost "mountains", and eventually some physical therapy - he evacuates illegally from Brooklyn to Manhattan by handmade boat.

In the winter of 1835 Stub Lebeaux, a young, courageous dwarf, in an effort to follow his quest for adventure and his personal need to prove himself, becomes a freedom fighter for Texas’ liberty. After learning what life, loyalty, and the misery of war are all about, he, along with 350 other prisoners of war, finds himself a target in the Massacre at Goliad. A miracle through the sacrifice of his best friend saves him from a horrible death, and the strength of a woman’s love gives him his life back and hope for his future. Through his fortitude, grit, and the determination to be the man...

In this remarkable book, historian Jack Rakove shows how the private lives of these men were suddenly transformed into public careers - how Washington became a strategist, Franklin a pioneering cultural diplomat, Madison a sophisticated constitutional thinker, and Hamilton a brilliant policymaker. Rakove shakes off accepted notions of these men as godlike visionaries, focusing instead on the evolution of their ideas and the crystallizing of their purpose.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages - until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

The Armies of the Revolutionary War reveals to readers the complexity of the organization of the military forces of the rebelling American colonies as well as the British Army and Navy. The book also discloses the intricate intelligence gathering network both armies devised to spy on each other to gain an advantage in the titanic struggle for America's independence.

George Washington didn't really walk around with a mouthful of wooden teeth. Those are real teeth and pearl inlays in Washington's dentures. A recent study by Mary Thompson suggests Washington experimented with early dental transplants. He purchased replacement teeth from his slaves for 13 shillings (roughly $50 in 2015 money).

What would you do if your country was counting on you to deliver an important message? That’s the story of 16-year-old Sybil Ludington’s famous midnight ride. In 1777, Sybil and her family believe the American colonies should be free from British control, and Sybil’s father leads a regiment of New York militiamen. Using spy tactics and codes, the Ludingtons gather intelligence, hoping to stay one step ahead of their enemies. When British troops raid nearby Danbury, Connecticut, Sybil gallops through the night to call out her father’s men.

"We are provincials no longer," said Woodrow Wilson on March 5, 1917, at his second inaugural. He spoke on the eve of America's entrance into World War I, as Russia teetered between autocracy and democracy. Just 10 days after Wilson's declaration, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne, ending a three-centuries-long dynasty and ushering in the false dawn of a democratic Russia. Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany a few short weeks later.

The Napoleonic Wars, which took place between 1803 and 1815, were spearheaded by probably France’s best tactician and military strategist to date: General Napoleon Bonaparte. His tactics and strategies were so grounded that it has served as the basis for many major warfare campaigns and maneuvers, both during his lifetime as well as after his demise. Even France’s sworn enemy for most of the medieval era, the British, acknowledged his ingenuity despite his ultimate defeat at the hands of the British army at the end of life.

Among the pressing concerns of Americans in the first century of nationhood were day-to-day survival, political harmony, exploration of the continent, foreign policy, and - fixed deeply in the collective consciousness - hell and eternal damnation. The fear of fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies exerted a profound and lasting influence on Americans' ideas about themselves, their neighbors, and the rest of the world.

China’s President faces many problems. Some, like conflict at the Indian border and in the South China Sea he created for himself. Others, like pending disasters at the Three Gorges Dam and China’s oldest nuclear plant, just happened. But the biggest threat to Communist rule is revolutionaries with Internet access through American satellites. Access that lets them spread propaganda, organize free of government surveillance, and launch cyberattacks. Four deniable Russian agents will travel to America to stop that threat.

This is the extraordinary story of the mutiny aboard the frigate HMS Hermione in 1797 (eight years after the mutiny on the Bounty) - the bloodiest mutiny ever suffered by the Royal Navy, which led to the extradition from America, and the hanging by the British, of the martyred sailor Jonathan Robbins. This event plunged the two-decades-old American Republic into a constitutional crisis and powerfully contributed to the outcome of the US presidential election of 1800.