The War Chronicles, from Flintlocks to Machine Guns

The War Chronicles, from Flintlocks to Machine Guns PDF Author: Joseph Cummins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781742370316
Category : Military history, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
A global survey of modern warfare, from the first fervid days of the French Revolution of 1789 to the bloody stalemate that ended the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. In the modern era, warfare entered a new phase. Technological innovation yielded evermore destructive weaponry, international communications and alliances greatly extended the reach of conflicts, and military strategists increasingly targeted infrastructure and civilians, while new media - first photography, then film and television - conveyed the horror and brutality of industrialised comabt to those who had the good fortune to live beyond the battle zones. The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns adopts the innovative and accessible format of its predecessor, which spanned the period from 500 BC to the American Revolution, to chart the astonishingly rapid evolution of modern warfare. In doing so, it traces the transformation of battle tactics, from the prearranged set-piece encounters of the Napoleonic Wars to the massive naval landings and aerial bombardments of World War II, explains the scientific innovations that yielded the machine gun, the tank, and the atom bomb, an vividly renders the key victories that turned the tide of war, from Waterloo to Gettysburd to D-Day. At the same time, it reiterates the constants of conflict: the slaughters and massacres, including the Holocaust and the little-known Taiping Rebellion, which killed up to forty million Chinese; the personal sacrifices made by those battling tyranny, among them the rebels of revolutionary France, Greece and Mexico; and the extraordinary influence of charismatic leaders, ranging from Napoleon and Pancho Villa to Mao Zedong and Hitler. Sweeping in its scope, yet intimate in its insights into the motivations of politicians, strategists, commanders, and soldiers, this is a collection that will enhance your understanding of the modern world and your own place in it.

The War Chronicles, from Flintlocks to Machine Guns

The War Chronicles, from Flintlocks to Machine Guns PDF Author: Joseph Cummins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781742370316
Category : Military history, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Get Book Here

Book Description
A global survey of modern warfare, from the first fervid days of the French Revolution of 1789 to the bloody stalemate that ended the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. In the modern era, warfare entered a new phase. Technological innovation yielded evermore destructive weaponry, international communications and alliances greatly extended the reach of conflicts, and military strategists increasingly targeted infrastructure and civilians, while new media - first photography, then film and television - conveyed the horror and brutality of industrialised comabt to those who had the good fortune to live beyond the battle zones. The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns adopts the innovative and accessible format of its predecessor, which spanned the period from 500 BC to the American Revolution, to chart the astonishingly rapid evolution of modern warfare. In doing so, it traces the transformation of battle tactics, from the prearranged set-piece encounters of the Napoleonic Wars to the massive naval landings and aerial bombardments of World War II, explains the scientific innovations that yielded the machine gun, the tank, and the atom bomb, an vividly renders the key victories that turned the tide of war, from Waterloo to Gettysburd to D-Day. At the same time, it reiterates the constants of conflict: the slaughters and massacres, including the Holocaust and the little-known Taiping Rebellion, which killed up to forty million Chinese; the personal sacrifices made by those battling tyranny, among them the rebels of revolutionary France, Greece and Mexico; and the extraordinary influence of charismatic leaders, ranging from Napoleon and Pancho Villa to Mao Zedong and Hitler. Sweeping in its scope, yet intimate in its insights into the motivations of politicians, strategists, commanders, and soldiers, this is a collection that will enhance your understanding of the modern world and your own place in it.

The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns

The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns PDF Author: Joseph Cummins
Publisher: Fair Winds
ISBN: 1616734043
Category : Military history, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description


Why Some Wars Never End

Why Some Wars Never End PDF Author: Joseph Cummins
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
ISBN: 1610593863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Fourteen of history’s longest-running military conflicts, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the Sudanese Civil War. Sometimes the causes of war are so intractable, the opponents so unyielding, and the rivalries so deep-rooted that the combat continues for years, decades, even centuries. And often when it does abate, the resentments still smolder, so that the slightest spark might reignite the conflagration. An at once captivating and unsettling volume, Why Some Wars Never End shines a spotlight on fourteen of history’s longest-running conflicts. They range from the almost century-long Punic Wars, which saw ancient Rome achieve dominance over the Mediterranean and lay the foundations of its world-changing empire, to the seventy years of uprisings and bloody encounters that triggered the Jewish Diaspora in the second century CE, to the nineteenth-century Seminole Wars, which virtually wiped out the Seminole Indians, to the violent British suppression of Afghan self-rule that set the stage for that nation’s distressing contemporary plight. Each of these wars had consequences and influences far beyond its source and the reach of its battles, not only redrawing political boundaries, but also coloring the worldview of generations of participants and bystanders, and thereby refashioning entire cultures. And all demonstrate, in harrowing fashion, why violence still stains our modern world, and why warfare shows no sign of ending any time soon. Praise for Joseph Cummins “This book is worthy of a place in the libraries of historians and politicians alike. Its stories of the past warn us about the future. Recommended.” —Armchair General on The World’s Bloodiest History “Gripping stories and lively writing.” —Library Journal on History’s Greatest Untold Stories

Arming the Warship

Arming the Warship PDF Author: Iver P. Cooper
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476694990
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In the 16th century, warships engaged at close range, sometimes with yards touching, and small arms fire and hand-to-hand combat were at least as important as the "great guns." As time went on, the big guns became more decisive and increased in destructive power, range and accuracy. This book explores how naval armament, armor, ballistics and gunnery evolved from the 16th to 20th centuries from a scientific and technological perspective. It examines the functional aspects--the guns and their distribution on warships, the propellants, the projectiles and so forth--and examines the development of each.

Fight Sports and American Masculinity

Fight Sports and American Masculinity PDF Author: Christopher David Thrasher
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476618232
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Throughout America's past, some men have feared the descent of their gender into effeminacy, and turned their eyes to the ring in hopes of salvation. This work explains how the dominant fight sports in the United States have changed over time in response to broad shifts in American culture and ideals of manhood, and presents a narrative of American history as seen from the bars, gyms, stadiums and living rooms of the heartland. Ordinary Americans were the agents who supported and participated in fight sports and determined its vision of masculinity. This work counters the economic determinism prevalent in studies of American fight sports, which overemphasize profit as the driving force in the popularization of these sports. The author also disputes previous scholarship's domestic focus, with an appreciation of how American fight sports are connected to the rest of the world.

Anglo-Zulu War, 1879

Anglo-Zulu War, 1879 PDF Author: Harold E. Raugh
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810874679
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 685

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Book Description
The Anglo-Zulu War was one of many colonial campaigns in which the British Army served as the instrument of British imperialism. The conflict, fought against a native adversary the British initially under-estimated, is remarkable for battles that included perhaps the most humiliating defeat in British military history-the Battle of Isandlwana, January 22, 1879-and one of its most heroic feats of martial arms-the defense of Rorke's Drift, January 22-23, 1879. While lasting only six months, it is one of the most examined, studied, and debated conflicts in Victorian military history. Anglo-Zulu War, 1879: A Selected Bibliography is a research guide and tool for identifying obscure publications and source materials in order to encourage continued original and thought-provoking contributions to this popular field of historical study. From the student or neophyte to the study of the Anglo-Zulu War, its battles, and its opponents to the more experienced historian or scholar, this selected bibliography is a must for anyone interested in the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War.

A Guide to Intra-state Wars

A Guide to Intra-state Wars PDF Author: Jeffrey S. Dixon
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 0872897753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 817

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Book Description
This title describes how civil war is defined and categorized and presents data and descriptions for nearly 300 civil wars waged from 1816 to the present. Analyzing trends over time and regions, this work is the definitive source for understanding the phenomenon of civil war.

The World's Bloodiest History

The World's Bloodiest History PDF Author: Joseph Cummins
Publisher: Fair Winds
ISBN: 1616734639
Category : Genocide
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Handsomely illustrated with more than 100 striking, sometimes shocking, archival images gathered from around the world, The World's Bloodiest History combines compelling depictions of momentous events with fascinating character portraits and arresting eyewitness accounts to create an absorbing, multifaceted chronicle of a sobering, all-too-human legacy.

Small Arms

Small Arms PDF Author: Mia Bloom
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501709429
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Why do terrorist organizations use children to support their cause and carry out their activities? Small Arms uncovers the brutal truth behind the mobilization of children by terrorist groups. Mia Bloom and John Horgan show us the grim underbelly of society that allows and even encourages the use of children to conduct terrorist activities. They provide readers with the who, what, when, why, and how of this increasingly concerning situation, illuminating a phenomenon that to most of us seems abhorrent. And yet, they argue, for terrorist groups the use of children carries many benefits. Children possess skills that adults lack. They often bring innovation and creativity. Children are, in fact, a superb demographic from which to recruit if you are a terrorist. Small Arms answers questions about recruitment strategies and tactics, determines what makes a child terrorist and what makes him or her different from an adult one, and charts the ways in which organizations use them. The unconventional focus on child and youth militants allows the authors to, in essence, give us a biography of the child terrorist and the organizations that use them. We are taken inside the mind of the adult and the child to witness that which perhaps most scares us.

Desertion in the Early Modern World

Desertion in the Early Modern World PDF Author: Matthias van Rossum
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474216021
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Early modern globalization was built on a highly labour intensive infrastructure. This book looks at the millions of workers who were needed to operate the ships, ports, store houses, forts and factories crucial to local and global exchange. These sailors, soldiers, craftsmen and slaves were crucial to globalization but were also confronted with the process of globalization themselves. They were often migrants who worked, directly or indirectly, for trading companies, merchants and producers that tried to discipline and control their labour force. The contributors to this volume offer an integrated, thematic study of the global history of desertion in European, Atlantic and Asian contexts. By tracing and comparing acts and patterns of desertion across empires, economic systems, regions and types of workers, Desertion in the Early Modern World illuminates the crucial role of practices of desertion among workers in shaping the history of imperial and economic expansion in the early modern period.