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Twentieth-century war is a unique cultural phenomenon and the last two decades have seen significant advances in our ability to conceptualize and understand the past and the character of modern technological warfare. At the forefront of these developments has been the re-appraisal of the human body in conflict, from the ethics of digging up First World War bodies for television programmes to the contentious political issues surrounding the reburial of Spanish Civil War victims, the relationships between the war body and material culture (e.g. clothing, and prostheses), ethnicity and identity in body treatment, and the role of the ‘body as bomb’ in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. Focused on...
The AK-47, or 'Kalashnikov', is the most abundant and efficient firearm on earth. It is so light it can be used by children. It has transformed the way we fight wars, and its story is the chilling story of modern warfare. C. J. Chivers's extraordinary new book tells an alternative history of the world as seen through these terrible weapons. He traces them back to their origins in the early experiments of Gatling and Maxim, and examines the first appearance of the machine-gun. The quest for ever greater firepower and mobility culminated in the AK-47 at the beginning of the Cold War, a weapon so remarkable that, over sixty years after its invention and having broken free of all state control, it has become central to civil wars all over the world.
"This path-breaking study is about how ordinary people are gaining the means to be extraordinarily lethal. States are also concentrating their technological power, but their gains lag behind a shift in relative capacity that is already disrupting the role of conventional armed forces. The dispersal of emerging technologies such as roboics, cyber weapons, 3-D printing, autonomous systems, and various forms of artificial intelligence is widening popular access to unprecedented destructive power. Based on hard lessons from previous waves of lethal technology such as dynamite and the assault rifle, the book explains what the future may hold and how we should respond"-
Julius Holthaus, a humble American farm boy, went to France to help fill the depleted ranks of the Allies in America's largest battle of World War I, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He had no idea what he was getting into. The fight would involve more than a million American doughboys, span forty-seven days, and result in the deaths of tens of thousands of people in one of the bloodiest battle in American military history. Countless books focus on great military leaders, war heroes, and battle tactics, but one must look at war on a human scale to truly understand its toll. That understanding comes through examining the life and diary of Holthaus. Author Clyde Cremer explores them in detail, sup...
From the very earliest days of organized warfare, combatants have wanted to develop weapons with more firepower. This has inevitably led to a wide variety of repeating weapons, capable of a degree of sustained fire without reloading. Based largely upon new research, this book explores the history of repeating and multi-fire weapons, beginning with the Chinese repeating crossbow in the 4th century BCE, and ending with the world's most common firearm, the Kalashnikov AK-47. The author describes the potency of the machine gun in World War I, the development of the semiautomatic pistol and the role of the submachine gun in improving the effectiveness of the infantryman.
Established in Waco in 1968, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum honors the iconic Texas Rangers, a service that has existed, in one form or another, since 1823. Thirty-one individuals—whose lives span more than two centuries—have been enshrined in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. They have become legendary symbols of Texas and the American West. In The Ranger Ideal Volume 3, Darren L. Ivey presents capsule biographies of the twelve inductees who served Texas in the twentieth century. In the first portion of the book, Ivey describes the careers of the “Big Four” Ranger captains—Will L. Wright, Frank Hamer, Tom R. Hickman, and Manuel “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas—as well as those ...
The World's Assault Rifles is a definitive, comprehensive reference book covering the militaries of 50 countries in 71 chapters. Comprising more than 1,900 photographs, this book includes extensive assault rifle history, operating and locking systems, ammunition types, individual specifications and much more. With the 1200-page hardcover version weighing 9 pounds and now selling for hundreds of dollars, The World's Assault Rifles, as an eBook, offers convenient transportation and comfortable reading pleasure in the office, at home and during travel, not to mention the low cost. Now used by hundreds of military scholars and agencies world wide, The World's Assault Rifles in eBook format will provide instant fingertip access to information unavailable from any other source at an unbeatable price!
The Russian word that is most frequently spoken throughout the world isn't Lenin, gulag or perestroika, it’s ‘Kalashnikov’. The reason for this is simple: there are 80 million Kalashnikovs in circulation on five continents. Once invented, the AK-47 assault rifle became the most widely used weapon in the world: from Vietnam to Palestine, from Cuba to Iraq, it was at the heart of conflicts and struggles everywhere. It is the only firearm that has ever been depicted on a national flag – that of Mozambique, where it symbolizes liberation. Mikhail Kalashnikov himself, who was born in 1919, here tells his life story, with the help of Elena Joly, for the first time: his deportation to Siberia with his family while still a child; his time as a soldier in a tank regiment; his invention of the world’s most famous weapon and his turbulent life under Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin. This is a remarkable portrait of a man of ingenuity and vitality in the context of the often frightening and terribly unforgiving Russia of the twentieth century.
Far more than just a family history, this book draws on a range of reference works to take us to next level in genealogical research methods. The author questions and challenges conventional genealogical research beliefs. He applies a style of interpretation to some of the known historical events in history, in relation to that of his own family.