True Military

Capturing history was Jonathan Alpeyrie's job, but he never expected to become a news story himself. For a decade, the French-American photojournalist weaved in and out of over a dozen conflict zones. But, during his third assignment to Syria, Alpeyrie was betrayed by his fixer and handed over to a band of Syrian rebels. For 81 days, he was bound, blindfolded, and beaten. Over the course of his captivity, Alpeyrie kept his spirits up and strived to see, without his camera lenses, the humanity in his captors.

This book says outright what many have merely hinted at: that President George W. Bush knowingly misused the findings of the erroneous and incompetent U.S. intelligence community to provide a pretext for war with Iraq. The author hones in on the systematic weaknesses of the intelligence agencies that caused them to ignore the crucial signs leading up to the attacks of 9/11.

America after the Civil War was a land of shattered promises and entrenched hatreds. In the explosive South, danger took many forms: white extremists loyal to a defeated world terrorized former slaves, while in the halls of government, bitter and byzantine political warfare raged between Republicans and Democrats.

Set against the backdrop of the war in Afghanistan, Saving Cinnamon chronicles the love story of Navy Reservist Mark Feffer and a stray puppy he bonded with while stationed outside of Kandahar. When Mark is about to return stateside, he decides to adopt Cinnamon and sets up her transport back to the United States. But the unthinkable happens: Cinnamon is abandoned by the dog handler who was supposed to bring her home and disappears without a trace.

Zak's fast and furious fling in high school, Amy Dobson, is still the wild child daughter of the local Chief of Police, doing her best to exercise her demons by partying with half the male population of their town. Barging back into his life, they spend one stolen night together before Zak ships off for his first deployment. But will this be enough to sustain them to a happily ever after when she's targeted by a homegrown terrorist cell?

According to Doss's account in a documentary film titled The Contentious Objector, as he rescued soldiers one-by-one, he breathed into the air with each go-around, "Lord, please help me get one more". The modest man of faith claims to have saved 50 wounded soldiers from certain death. His comrades claim that he saved 100. President Harry S. Truman presented him with the Congressional Medal of Honor upon his return to the United States, for his heroics on Okinawa, and the citation credits him with saving 75 lives, splitting the difference.

Want the true facts of the '20s, '30s, and '40s? This is not just a book by historians, but by real people who lived in the best of times, the worst of times, and the most tragic times. I assigned my students to interview people who lived through the Great Depression and World War II, and the stories were so incredible, intoxicating, and captivating that I promised them I would write the best US history book using their great grandparents, relatives, and neighbors who lived during those crucial periods of United States history.

Years after meeting Pablo Escobar, Peter was hired by the Cali Cartel to assassinate the Colombian drug lord. After months of grueling training, Peter and his group of mercenaries were alerted that the day had come to pick up their weapons and board two helicopters bound for Escobar’s mansion. This book also details Peter’s 25 years of engaging in hair-raising conflict worldwide, from Britain's parachute regiment and the SAS to private military companies and an almost fatal skydiving incident.

Bestselling author and producer of the hit cable series Masters of Sex Thomas Maier tells the untold WWII story of a former NFL player turned White House insider who worked with Churchill’s undercover agents in New York City to conduct the biggest foreign spy operation ever within the US, and inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond.

In Manitoba, Winnipeg, a bronze statue of Sir William Stephenson proudly stands as a testament to this hero’s legacy. He was a dedicated soldier, a gifted inventor, an extraordinary businessman, and a spy. From his humble Canadian beginnings, William Stephenson enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps and rapidly moved through the ranks of the armed forces.

In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn't been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan - a saga of lives saved, not wasted.

True Faith and Allegiance: An American Paratrooper and the 1972 Battle for An Loc is an intimate and compelling account of the most brutal infantry warfare and is also a critique of the mishandling of America's departure from Indochina. An unintended consequence of Washington's stampede to get out of Indochina was an upsurge in combat on a scale not seen before in Vietnam, peaking with the Easter Offensive of 1972.

Barksdale’s Charge describes the exact moment when the Confederacy reached its zenith, and the soldiers of the Northern states just barely succeeded in retaining their perfect Union.

In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer", William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation. Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation.

The Second World War changed the course of modern history. It is filled with incredible stories of daring risks and exceptional struggles, but in the popular imagination, these stories are more often than not the stories of men. There is, however, a hidden treasure trove of untold stories of heroic women who have risked their lives in the monumental battle against fascism. We’ve heard of women who became nurses treating soldiers with battlefield injuries, partisans who fought occupying armies, and skilled laborers who worked in wartime industries.

World War II was raging, with thousands of American soldiers fighting overseas against the injustices brought on by Hitler. Back on the home front, the injustice of discrimination against African Americans was playing out as much on Main Street as in the military. Enlisted black men were segregated from white soldiers and regularly relegated to service duties. At Fort Benning, Georgia, First Sergeant Walter Morris’s men served as guards at The Parachute School while the white soldiers prepared to be paratroopers.

When it comes to ancient history, there are some names that will never be forgotten, and Alexander the Great is, without doubt, a perfect example of this timeless phenomenon. But beyond his rather illustrious title, few people could tell you very much more about Alexander, except, perhaps, that he was rather partial to conquering, had an amazing horse, and died very young.

The U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay - known to the public as Gitmo - has been called the American Gulag, a scene of medieval horrors where innocent farmers and goat herders swept up in Afghanistan and Iraq have been sequestered, tortured, and abused for years on end without access to legal counsel or basic medical services.

For 32 days, they were chased across the mountains as they headed for the coast and a rendezvous with a Royal Navy launch waiting to spirit the general to Cairo. Rick Stroud, whose Phantom Army of Alamein won plaudits for its meticulous research and its lightness of touch in the telling, brings these same gifts to bear in this new project.

Back home on her family's Texas Longhorn ranch, Grace Murray is busy preparing for her wedding. After a scruffy tattooed drifter saves her life, she takes on the mission of helping her savior, Heath Carter, find peace. The steady friendship and unconditional acceptance she receives from him encourages her to trade an old dream for a new one - a dream true to her heart. When she calls off her wedding, Grace is finally set free to fully love Heath. After a decade of military service, special forces veteran Heath Carter is living with war's tragic consequences.