Cork Wars

Cork Wars PDF Author: David A. Taylor
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 1421426927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
“This well-researched, well-told story takes readers into a world of espionage, industrial ingenuity, and American resilience . . . a compelling history.” —Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic Silver Medal Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award for History (World) In 1940, with German U-boats blockading all commerce across the Atlantic Ocean, a fireball at the Crown Cork and Seal factory lit the sky over Baltimore. Rumors of Nazi sabotage led to an FBI investigation and pulled an entire industry into the machinery of national security as America stood on the brink of war. In Cork Wars, David A. Taylor traces this fascinating story through the lives of three men and their families: Charles McManus, who ran Crown Cork and Seal, a company that manufactured everything from bottle caps to oil-tight gaskets for fighter planes; Frank DiCara, who watched the fire blazed at the factory and got a job at Crown just a few years later; and Melchor Marsa, who managed Crown Cork and Seal’s plants in Spain and Portugal—and was perfectly placed to be recruited as a spy. Drawing on in-depth interviews with surviving family members, personal collections, and recently declassified government records, Taylor weaves this by turns beautiful, dark, and outrageous narrative with the drama of a thriller. From the factory floor to the corner office, Cork Wars reflects shifts in our ideas of modernity, the environment, and the materials and norms of American life. World War II buffs—and anyone interested in a good yarn—will be gripped by this bold and frightening tale of a forgotten episode of American history. “An absorbing and illuminating read.” —Maury Klein, author of A Call to Arms

Cork Wars

Cork Wars PDF Author: David A. Taylor
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 1421426927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
“This well-researched, well-told story takes readers into a world of espionage, industrial ingenuity, and American resilience . . . a compelling history.” —Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic Silver Medal Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award for History (World) In 1940, with German U-boats blockading all commerce across the Atlantic Ocean, a fireball at the Crown Cork and Seal factory lit the sky over Baltimore. Rumors of Nazi sabotage led to an FBI investigation and pulled an entire industry into the machinery of national security as America stood on the brink of war. In Cork Wars, David A. Taylor traces this fascinating story through the lives of three men and their families: Charles McManus, who ran Crown Cork and Seal, a company that manufactured everything from bottle caps to oil-tight gaskets for fighter planes; Frank DiCara, who watched the fire blazed at the factory and got a job at Crown just a few years later; and Melchor Marsa, who managed Crown Cork and Seal’s plants in Spain and Portugal—and was perfectly placed to be recruited as a spy. Drawing on in-depth interviews with surviving family members, personal collections, and recently declassified government records, Taylor weaves this by turns beautiful, dark, and outrageous narrative with the drama of a thriller. From the factory floor to the corner office, Cork Wars reflects shifts in our ideas of modernity, the environment, and the materials and norms of American life. World War II buffs—and anyone interested in a good yarn—will be gripped by this bold and frightening tale of a forgotten episode of American history. “An absorbing and illuminating read.” —Maury Klein, author of A Call to Arms

Cork Wars

Cork Wars PDF Author: David A. Taylor
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421426919
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The surprising story of cork and its critical role in US security and the war effort. Winner of the IPPY Book Award History (World), Silver of the Independent Publisher In 1940, with German U-boats blockading all commerce across the Atlantic Ocean, a fireball at the Crown Cork and Seal factory lit the sky over Baltimore. The newspapers said that you could see its glow as far north as Philadelphia and as far south as Annapolis. Rumors of Nazi sabotage led to an FBI investigation and pulled an entire industry into the machinery of national security as America stood on the brink of war. In Cork Wars, David A. Taylor traces this fascinating story through the lives of three men and their families, who were all drawn into this dangerous intersection of enterprise and espionage. At the heart of this tale is self-made mogul Charles McManus, son of Irish immigrants, who grew up on Baltimore’s rough streets. McManus ran Crown Cork and Seal, a company that manufactured everything from bottle caps to oil-tight gaskets for fighter planes. Frank DiCara, as a young teenager growing up in Highlandtown, watched from his bedroom window as the fire blazed at the factory. Just a few years later, under pressure to support his family after the death of his father, DiCara quit school and got a job at Crown. Meanwhile, Melchor Marsa, Catalan by birth, managed Crown Cork and Seal’s plants in Spain and Portugal—and was perfectly placed to be recruited as a spy. McManus, DiCara, and Marsa were connected by the unique properties of a seemingly innocuous substance. Cork, unrivaled as a sealant and insulator, was used in gaskets, bomber insulation, and ammunition, making it crucial to the war effort. From secret missions in North Africa to 4-H clubs growing seedlings in America to secret intelligence agents working undercover in the industry, this book examines cork’s surprising wartime significance. Drawing on in-depth interviews with surviving family members, personal collections, and recently declassified government records, Taylor weaves this by turns beautiful, dark, and outrageous narrative with the drama of a thriller. From the factory floor to the corner office, Cork Wars reflects shifts in our ideas of modernity, the environment, and the materials and norms of American life. World War II buffs—and anyone interested in a good yarn—will be gripped by this bold and frightening tale of a forgotten episode of American history.

Cork's Revolutionary Dead

Cork's Revolutionary Dead PDF Author: Barry Keane
Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd
ISBN: 1781174962
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
In Part 1 Keane gives a brief introduction to the period and outlines the most important events that took place during the course of the fight against the British in Cork from 1916 to 1921 and during the Civil War of 1922–23. This includes the burning of Cork city, the ambush at Kilmichael (which is examined in great detail), Crossbarry and the story of Tom Barry's trench coat. In Part 2 Keane uses a wealth of new sources to reconstruct every death that can be ascribed to the war, including those caught in the crossfire and some accidental deaths that can be directly linked to one side or the other. Some individuals who did not die in the county, but who were central to the conduct of the war there, are also included. One such example is Terence MacSwiney, who died in Brixton prison in London in October 1920, but was both head of the IRA in Cork and lord mayor of the city, having assumed the role after his predecessor, Tomás MacCurtain, had been assassinated earlier that year.

Not Even Past

Not Even Past PDF Author: David Fitzgerald
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1789202167
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Offers essential perspectives on the Cold War and post-9/11 eras and explores the troubling implications of the American tendency to fight wars without end. “Featuring lucid and penetrating essays by a stellar roster of scholars, the volume provides deep insights into one of the grand puzzles of the age: why the U.S. has so often failed to exit wars on its terms.”— Fredrik Logevall, Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan: Taken together, these conflicts are the key to understanding more than a half century of American military history. In addition, they have shaped, in profound ways, the culture and politics of the United States—as well as the nations in which they have been fought. This volume brings together international experts on American history and foreign affairs to assess the cumulative impact of the United States’ often halting and conflicted attempts to end wars. From the introduction: The refusal to engage in historical thinking, that form of reflection deeply immersed in the US experience of war and intervention, means that this cultural amnesia is related to a strategic incoherence and, in these wars, the United States has failed in its strategic objectives because it did not define, precisely, what they were. If Vietnam was the tragedy, Iraq and Afghanistan were repeated failures. The objectives and the national interests were elusive beyond issues of credibility, identity, and revenge; the end point was undefined because it was not clear what the point was. What did the United States want from these wars? What did it want to leave behind?

The Civil War in Dublin

The Civil War in Dublin PDF Author: John Dorney
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785370908
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
While the Irish Civil War first erupted in Dublin, playing out through the seizure and eventual recapture of the Four Courts, it quickly swept over the entire country. In The Civil War in Dublin, John Dorney extends his study of Dublin beyond the Four Courts surrender, delivering shocking revelations of calculated violence and splits within the pro-Treaty armed forces. Dorney's exacting research, using primary sources and newly available eyewitness testimonies from both sides of the conflict, provides insight into how the entire city of Dublin operated under conditions of disorder and bloodshed: how civilians and guerrilla fighters controlled the streets, how female insurgents operated alongside their male counterparts, how the patterns of IRA violence and National Army counter-insurgency alternated, and-for the first time-how the pro-Treaty 'Murder Gang' emerged from Michael Collins' IRA Intelligence Department, 'the Squad', with devastating and ruthless effect. The Civil War in Dublin brings the chaos of life in the city of Dublin to life through meticulous detail, and it reveals unsettling truths about the extreme actions taken by a burgeoning Irish Free State and its Anti-Treaty opponents. [Subject: Irish Studies, History, Military History, Dublin]

Where Mountainy Men Have Sown

Where Mountainy Men Have Sown PDF Author: Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cork (Ireland : County)
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description


Kilmichael

Kilmichael PDF Author: Eve Morrison
Publisher: Merrion Press
ISBN: 1788551478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The Kilmichael Ambush of 28 November 1920 was and remains one of the most famous, successful – and uniquely controversial – IRA attacks of the Irish War of Independence. This book is the first comprehensive account of both the ambush and the intense debates that followed. It explores the events, memory and historiography of the ambush, from 1920 to the present day, within a wider framework of interwar European events, global ‘memory wars’ and current scholarship relating to Irish, British, oral and military history. Kilmichael: The Life and Afterlife of an Ambush features extensive archival research, including the late Peter Hart’s papers, as well as many other new sources from British and Irish archives, and previously unavailable oral history interviews with Kilmichael veterans. There has always been more than one version of Kilmichael. Tom Barry’s account certainly became the dominant one after the publication of Guerilla Days in Ireland in 1949, but it was always shadowed and contested by others, and in this book, Eve Morrison meticulously reconstructs both ‘British’ and ‘Irish’ perspectives on this momentous and much-debated attack.

Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49

Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49 PDF Author: Pádraig Lenihan
Publisher: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
ISBN: 9781859182444
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
This book evaluates the Confederate Catholic war effort from the preceeding phase of localized insurgency, through the formation of a national self-government in 1642, until the Confederate Catholic regime was finally subsumed in a broad pan-Royalist alliance in 1649. While this alliance held out the prospect of significant religious and constitutional concessons this achievement was nullified by the subsequent Cromwellian catastrophe: the Confederate regime failed. In attributing this failure to political factionalism, historians have neglected the potential and limitations of the Confederate war effort. This study does not substitute crude military determinism but acknowledges that political indecision and strategic incoherence inhibited the war effort at critical junctures. From the conflicting political priorities of Confederates two partially exclusive military strategies, insular, and expeditionary, can be identified. Both strategies were proactive and so demanded standing armies rather than local militia units. This book emphasizes the crucial importance of the tax gathering apparatus in fueling the incremental growth of standing armies. In the absence of large scale foreign patronage, exacting money from an agrarian economy, rather than the shortages of material, or still less, manpower representing the crucial extrinsic limit to Confederate military potential. Given these limits, it was a considerable achievement to contain two British interventions (in 1642 and 1646/7 respectively). The influence of the contemporaneous "military revolution" on the European mainland was mediated by the cadre of returned mercenary officers. Consequently, the Confederates developed a qualitative edge in fortification and siegecraft. The application of the continental model and the shift from putatively "celtic" or irregular tactics of raiding and running battles would be more problematic. This and other explanations for the poor battlefield performance of the Confederate armies are discussed.

The Munster Republic

The Munster Republic PDF Author: Michael Harrington
Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd
ISBN: 1856356566
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This book follows the action that took place in the `Munster Republic' during the Irish War of Independence.

Towards Ireland Free

Towards Ireland Free PDF Author: Liam Deasy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781177600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
An IRA brigade commander's gripping description of the struggle for freedom.