The author of Wellington in the Peninsula presents an in-depth study of the British military commander's early career in Colonial India.Before Arthur Wellesley, the future 1st Duke of Wellington, faced Napoleon's armies, he developed his skills as a military commander in the far reaches of the British Empire. In India, Wellesley led his men to victory against the Tipu Sultan at the Battle of Mallavelly, and suffered injury at the Battle of Seringapatam. He...

The author of Wellington at Waterloo delivers an in-depth history of the military commander's tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War.After gaining strategic and tactical experience in Colonial India, Arthur Wellesley went to battle against French forces in the Peninsular War. With his decisive victories there, he ascended to the peerage of the United Kingdom as the 1st Duke of Wellington. In this volume, historian Jac Weller delivers a complete account ...

This military memoir examines one of the most vicious and tragically forgotten battles of the Vietnam War from a variety of perspectives.In June of 1967, the Viet Cong sought to isolate and destroy an elite South Vietnamese unit as part of a new offensive strategy. They sent a voluntary POW as an "informant" to dupe the 52nd Vietnamese Ranger Battalion into taking a dangerous position in the III Corps sector of South Vietnam. In the midst of an ambush, the members ...

A look at the 1918 influenza pandemic from its outbreak to its effects on the global population and its legacy.On the second Monday of March, 1918, the world changed forever. What seemed like a harmless cold morphed into a global pandemic that would wipe out as many as a hundred-million people—ten times as many as the Great War. German troops faltered, lending the allies the winning advantage, and India turned its sights to independence while South Africa turned to ...

The little-known story of a fierce rebellion against the Romans: " A very good read for anyone interested in ancient military history and historiography." — The NYMAS ReviewIn the year AD 9, three Roman legions were crushed by the German warlord Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This event is well known, but there was another uprising that Rome faced shortly before, which lasted from AD 6 to 9, and was just a...

Unravels facts from fiction about one of the most controversial episodes in military history: the British cavalry's Crimean War disaster.This book shatters many long-held conceptions of how and why this military action happened, and who was to blame. You'll ride with the Regiments down the valley, visit the Russian guns as they frantically fire from three sides, before limping painfully back up the valley with the survivors. The story switches skillfully from the s...

The author of Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation continues his revealing history of the Ancient Greek city-state in this chronicle of its decline and defeat.Universally admired in 479 BC, the Spartans became masters of the Greek world by 402 BC, only for their state to collapse in the next generation. What went wrong? Was the fall of Sparta inevitable? In Sparta: Fall of a Warrior Nation, Philip Matyszak examines the political blunders and failures ...

Illustrated with 9 maps and 5 portraitsThe 1807-14 war in the Iberian Peninsula was one of the most significant and influential campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. Arising from Napoleon's strategic need to impose his rule over Portugal and Spain, it evolved into a constant drain on his resources. Sir Charles Oman's seven-volume history of the campaign is an unrivalled and essential work. His extensive use and analysis of French, Spanish, Portuguese and British participants' accounts a...

A renowned military historian closely examines the first month of World War I in France.On August 1, 1914, war erupted into the lives of millions of families across France. Most people thought the conflict would last just a few weeks . . .Yet before the month was out, twenty-seven thousand French soldiers died on the single day of August 22 alone—the worst catastrophe in French military history. Refugees streamed into France as the German army advanced, spr...

An account of the early years of World War II based on extensive new research: "A genuinely fresh approach . . . exceptional" (The Wall Street Journal).James Holland, one of the leading young historians of World War II, has spent over a decade conducting new research, interviewing survivors, and exploring archives that have never before been so accessible to unearth forgotten memoirs, letters, and official records.In The Rise of Germany 1938–1941, Holland d...

This cultural history of Ancient Sparta chronicles the rise of its legendary military power and offers revealing insight into the people behind the myths.The Spartans of ancient Greece are typically portrayed as macho heroes: noble, laconic, totally fearless, and impervious to pain. And indeed, they often lived up to this image. But life was not as simple as this image suggests. In truth, ancient Sparta was a city of contrasts.We might admire their physical...

How the death of a childless monarch sparked a bloody conflict that raged across Europe and beyond.The War of the Spanish Succession, fought between 1701 and 1714 to decide who should inherit the Spanish throne, was a conflict on an unprecedented scale, stretching across most of western Europe, the high seas, and the Americas. Yet this major subject is not well known and little understood. James Falkner's absorbing new study fills that gap.In a clear and pe...