Modern War

Sun Tzu’s Art of War has been read mostly as a book of war strategies that teaches us how to beat our opponents on the battlefield. The Modern Art of War presents a new interpretation: it isn't about conquering your enemies, devising strategies to overtake armies or getting ahead against your competitors. Instead, the real art of war is the fight to control your mind and the thoughts that rule it.

In By Your Blood You Will Live, Leyb Rochman chronicles his life of survival during the Holocaust. Begun in hiding, and completed in the years after World War II, Rochman’s chronicle reads more like a novel than a memoir. Published in Yiddish in Paris, where it won the 1949 Hoffer-Leyb Prize, and first appearing in English in 1983 as part of the Holocaust Library, By Your Blood You Will Live makes palpable both the horrors and the hopes of individuals who did all they could to live rather than die by their blood.

Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East Editor, has been covering the region since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. In this new book, in part based on his acclaimed podcast, Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.

Slavery is a sad part of history that a lot of people would rather not want to talk about, they wish it was swept under the rug as the stories are so distressing & so heart wrenching that it would be better if no one ever spoke about this dark past at all. Debates on such topics have created so much division in the society, social tensions are back on the rise. Descendants of those slaves want these issues to be discussed in public squares, they want this history to be fully taught in school curriculums so as not to repeat itself, many still harbor the grievances and pain they inherited ...

A high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped. A secret British intelligence agency must find out why. But as the quarry is pursued from grimy Soho to the other side of the world, what seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister. With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len Deighton's sensational debut The IPCRESS File rewrote the spy thriller and became the defining novel of 1960s London.

The American Revolution signalled a great change in the course of world history and progress. From this colonial revolt sprouted ideals of liberty and democracy, and all the aspirations and ambitions of a new people. In this work, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood discusses the character and consequences of the revolution, grounding the events and ideas that shaped the American consciousness.

From the acclaimed Modern Library Chronicles comes an exploration of a promising theory that when put to practice wreaked havoc on the world. An expert on communism, Richard Pipes follows the history of the Soviet Union from the 1917 revolution to the Cold War, and finally, to its deterioration and collapse.

New Deal Law and Order follows President Franklin Roosevelt, Attorney General Homer Cummings, and their war on crime coalition, which overcame the institutional and political challenges to the legitimacy of national law enforcement. Promises of law and order helped to manage tensions among key Democratic Party factions—organized labor, Black Americans, and white Southerners. Their anticrime program, featuring a strengthened criminal code, an empowered FBI, and the first federal war on marijuana, was essential to the expansion of national authority previously stymied on constitutional grounds.

Berlin was in ruins when Soviet forces fought their way towards the Reichstag in the spring of 1945. Streets were choked with rubble, power supplies severed and the population close to starvation. The arrival of the Soviet army heralded yet greater terrors: the city's civilians were to suffer rape, looting and horrific violence. Worse still, they faced a future with neither certainty nor hope.

To effectively combat the rise of global terrorism, the US military must now rely on more than traditional weapons and tactics. Don Riley of the US Cyber Command is given charge of a brand new effort: A new team in the CIA Operations Directorate called Emerging Threats. To establish this team he recruits three talented recent commissioned naval officers - Janet Everett, Michael Goodwin, and Andrea Ramirez - and together they uncover a new terrorist group.

Find out how the people of this country fought against nature to cultivate land below sea level. Discover how they survived wars, invasions, and natural disasters and developed a trading nation that would become the envy of Europe. Uncover the truth behind bloody battles fought between medieval royalty, warlords, and rebellious guilds of Dutch workers, all of which shaped the country we know today.

Embark on a journey of strategic mastery with "Modern Art of War: Gift to my 7-year-old self" by Yaser Rashidi. This book is not just about chess; it's a blueprint for success in both chess and life. Through engaging storytelling and insightful lessons, Yaser shares the principles he learned as an adult but wishes he had known earlier.

Nonfiction master Russell Freedman illuminates for young readers the complex and rarely discussed subject of World War I. The tangled relationships and alliances of many nations, the introduction of modern weaponry, and top-level military decisions that resulted in thousands upon thousands of casualties all contributed to the “great war”, which people hoped and believed would be the only conflict of its kind.

A History of Modern Britain confronts head-on the victory of shopping over politics. It tells the story of how the great political visions of New Jerusalem or a second Elizabethan Age - rival idealisms - came to be defeated by a culture of consumerism, celebrity, and self-gratification. In each decade, political leaders have thought they knew what they were doing, but found themselves confounded. Every time, the British people turn out to be stroppier and harder to herd than predicted.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo was a samurai for thirty years, following his father, and grandfather. Tsunetomo did not commit ritual suicide on his master's death (as was the practice) because his master forbid it. Later, Tsunetomo recounted his thoughts and stories to Tashiro Tsuramoto who compiled and published this work in 1716. "Hagakure" (literally "hidden leaves" or "in the shadow of leaves") is also known as "The Way of the Samurai". Aphorisms from the book were popularized in the 1999 Jim Jaramusch film "Ghost Dog" starring Forest Whitaker.

LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.

31 June, 1943. An RAF crew prepare for their next bombing raid on Germany. It is a night that many will never forget. Len Deighton's devastating novel is a gripping minute-by-minute account of what happens over the next 24 hours. Told through the eyes of ordinary people in the air and on the ground - from a young pilot to the inhabitants of a small town in the Ruhr - Bomber is an unforgettable portrayal of individuals caught up in the wreckage of war.

In the tranquil coastal village of Emsworth, retired spy John Rehurt enjoys a quiet morning at the local pub, unaware that a storm is brewing on the horizon. As the community awakens to the aroma of spring, an unexpected blackout plunges the village into eerie silence, signalling the onset of chaos outside its idyllic confines. With critical infrastructures failing and communication systems down, Rehurt’s instincts kick in. The seemingly peaceful day turns chaotic as residents grapple with the unsettling quiet and loss of normalcy. As he observes the unfolding panic, his sharp mind and ...

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the victorious powers turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For the Allied powers, the trials were an opportunity both to render judgment on their vanquished foes and to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war. For the Japanese leaders on trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism and that the court was no more than victors’ justice.

Old Gods never die…or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.