Two and a half centuries after the American Revolution the United States stands as one of the greatest powers on earth and the undoubted leader of the western hemisphere. This stupendous evolution was far from a foregone conclusion at independence. The conquest of the North American continent required violence, suffering, and bloodshed. It also required the creation of a national government strong enough to go to war against, and acq...

The 1876 events known as Custer’s Last Stand, Battle of Little Big Horn, or Battle of Greasy Grass have been represented over 1000 times in various artistic media, from paintings to sculpture to fast food giveaways. Norman Denzin shows how these representations demonstrate the changing perceptions―often racist―of Native America by the majority culture, juxtaposed against very different readings shown in works composed by Native Ameri...

Truk Lagoon is quite simply the greatest wreck diving location in the world. Scores of virtually intact large WWII wrecks filled with cargoes of tanks, trucks, artillery, beach mines, shells and aircraft rest in the crystal clear waters of the Lagoon—each a man-made reef teeming with life. Truk was the main forward anchorage for the Japanese Imperial Navy and merchant fleet during the early days of WWII. The lagoon had been fortified...

The Civil War tends to be remembered as a vast sequence of battles, with a turning point at Gettysburg and a culmination at Appomattox. But in the guerrilla theater, the conflict was a vast sequence of home invasions, local traumas, and social degeneration that did not necessarily end in 1865. This book chronicles the history of “guerrilla memory,” the collision of the Civil War memory “industry” with the somber realities of irregula...

Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico examines the ways in which urbanization and religion intersected in pre-Columbian central Mexico, with a primary focus on the later Formative period and the transition to the Classic period. The major societal transformations of this interval occurred approximately two-thousand years ago and over a millennium before Mexico's best known early civilization, the Aztecs. David M. Carbal...

With production in excess of 55,000 the Sherman tank was eventually in service with most Allied armies of the Second World War and by the time of the Normandy landings was the mainstay of Britain's armoured battalions. In his second book in the TankCraft series, Dennis Oliver uses wartime photos and extensively researched, exquisitely presented colour illustrations to cover the Sherman tanks used by the units of the Royal Armoured Co...

The Luftwaffe was the official Nazi air force during World War II and The Luftwaffe Fighter Force features thirty-four accounts of its missions given by pilots and members of its flight crews. Stories included give a rarely heard perspective on the war and Luftwaffe members are frank in revealing the difficulties they encountered and what they believe led to their downfall. The Luftwaffe pilot and crew members featured in this unusua...

The Russian Revolution, 1905-1921 is a new history of Russia's revolutionary era as a story of experience-of people making sense of history as it unfolded in their own lives and as they took part in making history themselves. The major events, trends, and explanations, reaching from Bloody Sunday in 1905 to the final shots of the civil war in 1921, are viewed through the doubled perspective of the professional historian looking backw...

The first book to explore in detail the wrecks of these two vessels from Force Z which in December 1941 was sent to defend Singapore. It grippingly narrates the lead up to the siege of Singapore and the battle far out at sea in which Force Z was decimated in the Royal Navy's greatest loss in a single engagement. The force was attacked by 85 Japanese torpedo bombers, with huge loss of life. It was the first time a modern battleship ha...

Written over five years, this engrossing and enlightening book stretches to over a quarter of a million words and is a fast paced read as it races through the exploits and achievements of an astonishing gallery of the Scots who make up this Scottish Empire. Although household names such as Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, John Logie Baird and Charles Rennie Mackintosh are mentioned to underpin the strength and breadth of the E...