Western Wars

In the scorching July of 1866, James Taliaferro Cunningham, a formidable Confederate Army colonel, walked into a small Kansas saloon. His military bearing and battle-hardened demeanor commanded respect. Across the room is Billy Corbin, a fellow Southerner and Confederate sergeant, marked by his accent and war-worn spirit. The two men met when a local troublemaker threatened Billy because of his Southern heritage. The Colonel intervened, diffusing the situation without firing a shot. United by their shared roots and mutual respect, the Colonel invited Billy to join him on a journey to Texas....

In1914 Australia joined England and declared war on Germany and it's allies. In the small New South Wales town of Cootamundra 6 young Australians, all from the same family, individually joined the fight. This saga follows their journeys through Gallipoli and the Western Front. The saga also covers time in Egypt, England and France away from the fighting. This is a story of a family and how it was affected by a on the other side of the world. It tells of the battles, the wounding and sickness endured by these young men as well as the lighter moments. A readable history that shows some ...

In this monumental history of the First World War, Germany's leading historian of the 20th century's first great catastrophe explains the war's origins, course, and consequences. With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora's Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come. Jörn Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy, the everyday tactics of dynamic movement and slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of frontline soldiers.

When Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 Mexico’s foreign minister in Washington, D.C. angrily left the country and returned to Mexico. Mexico had warned the United States that if Texas became a U.S. state it would be cause for war. By April of the next year a shooting skirmish had broken out along the contested border between Mexico and the state of Texas. -- General Zachary Taylor, who was in charge of the U.S. forces along the border alerted President James K. Polk with the message “Hostilities may now be considered as commenced.” President Polk wasted no time, alerting ...

This is the first volume of the memoir of Rick L. Scifres, relating his early life and the first half of a twenty-year Naval career during the Cold War. The author was born in Texas, raised in New Mexico, and eventually reached maturity while serving in the U. S. Navy. He attained the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer before retiring as a CTOCS (NAC). He specialized in the field of Cryptologic Technician (Communications) and was qualified as a Naval Aircrewman. This volume chronicles part of his childhood and the first eleven and a half years of his career serving with the Naval Security ...

Six years before the American Civil War, a pair of 27-year-old Helena, Arkansas residents remained in the town to care for victims of an 1855 yellow fever epidemic when nearly everyone else evacuated to save their own skins. One, Pat Cleburne, was a Protestant Irish immigrant who had earlier served in the British Army. The other, Tom Hindman, was a a Mexican War veteran. He was also a well-educated second son of a Mississippi Planter family who sought his fortune in Helena where good cotton lands were cheaper than in Mississippi. The two became lawyers and best friends. Pat was Tom's best ...

Civil War veteran Clint Turner is a happy man working as a blacksmith in Macon, Texas. He loves to see his neighbors use the metals forged from his hands until all that changes dramatically when an outlaw gang kills his brother-in-law and his sister. From then on, he has only one thing on his mind – a mixture of justice and vengeance. To accomplish his mission, Clint campaigns to become sheriff of Macon County. The law enforcement job for Clint would see him put to good use his six shooter, his wits, and his sense of justice.

In the years before the First World War, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Together, they presided over the last years of dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war the world had ever seen, a war that set twentieth-century Europe on course to be the most violent continent in the history of the world.

Born and raised in Toronto, Sam Dhillon is a second-generation Canadian who no longer recognizes his country. Inflation is out of control. Crime skyrockets. Even subway rides have become a hellish experience. He wonders if he's the only one noticing the decline. Yet over time, he discovers there are indeed others who feel the same way. In New York City, midwestern girl Jennifer Moore is indoctrinated. Once a faithful Christian, she now fights for social justice and proudly works for a progressive America alongside the rising tide of wokeness. But when tragedy strikes, she begins to question...

Most of us would agree that there’s a clear—and even obvious—connection between the things we believe and the way we behave. But what if our actions are driven not by our conscious values and beliefs but by hidden motivations we’re not even aware of? The “hidden brain” is Shankar Vedantam’s shorthand for a host of brain functions, emotional responses, and cognitive processes that happen outside our conscious awareness but have a decisive effect on how we behave.

U.S. Marshal Frank Kennedy is on a relentless pursuit through 100 miles of harsh, lawless land. Each mile more dangerous than the last… In 1869, Frank’s quarry is the notorious outlaw Amos Pickett, whose brutal crime of murdering innocent men with dynamite has made him a wanted man across the West. Frank’s mission is fraught with peril as he ventures into the treacherous No Man’s Land – a dangerous expanse between Texas and Kansas where Pickett and his gang thrive. To capture Pickett, Frank enlists the aid of Fierce Warrior, a Comanche with a personal vendetta, and Ida Bishop, a ...

A breakneck, edge-of-your-seat thriller that moves from a resurgent Russian threat in the Aleutian Islands to North Korean spy ships to secret Sudanese prisons as former marines Logan West and John Quick, now members of an FBI special task force, uncover a global conspiracy that threatens America's position in the current international balance of power.

The northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union's 35th state. In Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, authors Eric J. Wittenberg, Edmund A. Sargus, and Penny L. Barrick chronicle those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of the West Virginia.

Callum Logan is a man of quick decision and execution. His fast gun has saved him on more than one occasion. Though hardened by the horrors of the Civil War, he gives each man a chance, unless they prove it’s undeserved. Now, on his way to begin a new life in the Colorado West, Callum is eager to put the killing behind him. But while rescuing a family from despicable outlaws, he is forced to kill the leader of the small band, putting himself in direct conflict with the outlaw’s brother, Elwood Wister, whose gang has become the scourge of Southwest Colorado.

Bart Fulton feels compelled by fate to pin on a deputy’s badge in Arizona Territory’s Plain Creek. The young twenty-two-year old has drawn an almost impossible first challenge – putting an end to the evil and murderous ways of criminal Weed Meadows. Weed doesn’t bat an eye killing innocent people and threatening others. He wants to expand a silver mine he stole. To do that he’ll have to get land from two families, the Lees and the Rileys. There’s one problem – both families have been feuding for years. Bart knows about Weed’s nefarious plans. But convincing the Lees and the ...

The fearless and famous Dory McLee, and her friend Evan Henson, are back and facing yet another daunting challenge in the New Mexico Territory. This time it involves a caravan freight wagon company, J.C. Holdings Co. The business founder, Jed Coburn, has been murdered by a disgruntled former worker named Flint Mattox. And now Jed’s daughter, Ruth, wants to find Mattox and bring him to justice. Evan is out to help the Coburn family after they previously saved the life of his brother Baxter. Once again, it will take bravery and quick thinking for Dory and Evan to capture the thoroughly evil...

Civil War veteran and cowboy Gabriel Hansen is called to serve as a deputy in order to stop Rube Bauer, an evil and unstable man who has a sinister plan to become wealthy. Bauer’s plan involves murder and illegal land sales in Arizona Territory. He wants to swoop up lands in small towns Newton and nearby Grove. But the town of Newton is an all-black settlement, which no longer trusts white authorities especially in the aftermath of the killing of a black family. The lynching has concerned officials from Tucson to Washington. Helping the investigation is famed black lawman Baker Reed. Both...

Bryn felt sickened as he felt the ground shake, knowing that one of the two shafts had collapsed. Now, he stood in the pump room and watched the two thrumming pumps as they pulled water out of the deep mines. He knew that one of them would strain when the water became fouled with coal dust and debris from the collapse, and if it was pump number two, it would mean that his father and older brothers were probably dead.

Sawyer McCade came up tough and mean, trained as a killer for the Confederate Army. But those days are behind him now, and he’s eager to begin a new—and peaceful—chapter of his life back home in Kansas. His ranch is almost up and running, and his army buddies are on their way, driving a herd of cattle from the wilds of South Texas. He’s even more excited about the arrival of a girl he was sweet on down in Texas. Everything is falling into place. But halfway between Clarksville, Texas and Humboldt, Kansas. Sawyer gets word that his friends and the animals he's relying on for his new ...

The award-winning author of The Battle of Bretton Woods reveals the gripping history behind the Marshall Plan—told with verve, insight, and resonance for today.

In the wake of World War II, with Britain’s empire collapsing and Stalin's on the rise, US officials under new secretary of state George C. Marshall set out to reconstruct western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism. Their massive, costly, and ambitious undertaking would confront Europeans and Americans alike with a vision at odds with their history and self-conceptions. In the process, they would drive the creation of NATO, the European Union, and a Western identity that continues to shape world events.

Focusing on the critical years 1947 to 1949, Benn Steil’s thrilling account brings to life the seminal episodes marking the collapse of postwar US-Soviet relations—the Prague coup, the Berlin blockade, and the division of Germany. In each case, we see and understand like never before Stalin’s determination to crush the Marshall Plan and undermine American power in Europe.

Given current echoes of the Cold War, as Putin’s Russia rattles the world order, the tenuous balance of power and uncertain order of the late 1940s is as relevant as ever. The Marshall Plan provides critical context into understanding today’s international landscape. Bringing to bear fascinating new material from American, Russian, German, and other European archives, Steil’s account will forever change how we see the Marshall Plan and the birth of the Cold War. A polished and masterly work of historical narrative, this is an instant classic of Cold War literature.