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The #1 New York Times bestselling authors of The Heart of Everything That Is return with one of the most inspiring—and underappreciated—chapters in American history: the story of the Continental Army's six-month transformation in Valley Forge. December 1777. It is 18 months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and some 12,000 members of America's beleaguered Continental Army stagger into a small Pennsylvania encampment 23 miles northwest of British-occupied Philadelphia. The starving and half-naked force is reeling from a string of demoralizing defeats at the hands of King George III's army, and are barely equipped to survive the coming winter. Their commander in chief, the focused and forceful George Washington, is at the lowest ebb of his military career. The Continental Congress is in exile and the American Revolution appears to be lost. Yet a spark remains. Determined to keep the rebel cause alive through sheer force of will, Washington transforms the farmland plateau hard by the Schuylkill River into a virtual cabin city. Together with a dedicated coterie of advisers both foreign and domestic—Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben, the impossibly young Alexander Hamilton, and John Laurens—he sets out to breathe new life into his military force. Against all odds, as the frigid and miserable months pass, they manage to turn a bobtail army of citizen soldiers into a professional fighting force that will change the world forever. Valley Forge is the story of how that metamorphosis occurred. Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, the team behind such bestsellers as The Heart of Everything That Is, The Last Stand of Fox Company, and Halsey's Typhoon, show us how this miracle was accomplished despite thousands of American soldiers succumbing to disease, starvation, and the elements. Here is Steuben, throwing himself into the dedicated drilling sessions he imported from Prussian battlefields. Here is Hamilton, proffering the shrewd advice that wards off his beloved commander in chief's scheming political rivals. Here is Laurens, determined to integrate the Continental Army with freed black men and slaves. Here is Lafayette, thirsting for battlefield accolades while tenaciously lobbying his own king for crucial French aid. At the center of it all is George Washington, in the prime of his life yet confronting crushing failure as he fends off political conspiracies every bit as pernicious as his incessant military challenges. The Virginia planter-turned-general is viewed by many as unqualified to lead the Continental Army after the humiliating loss of Philadelphia, and his detractors in and out of Congress plot to replace him. The Valley Forge winter is his—and the revolution's—last chance at redemption. And, indeed, after six months in the camp, Washington fulfills his destiny, leading the Continental Army to a stunning victory in the Battle of Monmouth Court House. The momentum is never again with the Redcoats. Valley Forge is the riveting true story of a nascent United States toppling an empire. Using new and rarely seen contemporaneous documents—and drawing on a cast of iconic characters and remarkable moments that capture the innovation and energy that led to the birth of our nation—Drury and Clavin provide the definitive account of this seminal and previously undervalued moment in the battle for American independence.
Bob Drury, Tom Clavin (Author), Jeremy Bobb (Narrator)
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The Last Stand of Fox Company is a fast-paced and gripping account of heroism and self-sacrifice in the face of impossible odds. The authors have conducted dozens of firsthand interviews with the battle's survivors, and they narrate the story with the immediacy of such classic accounts of single battles as Guadalcanal Diary, Pork Chop Hill, and Black Hawk Down.
Bob Drury, Tom Clavin (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)
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The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend
An astonishing untold story of the American West. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Quannah Parker—each enjoys a place of honor in the pantheon of the Old West. Lesser known is their contemporary Red Cloud, who may in fact have been the most powerful, and was definitively the most successful, Indian war leader in the history of the West. The great Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud was the only Plains Indian to have a war named after him. More impressive, he was the only war chief to defeat the United States Army in that war, forcing the American government to sue for peace on his terms. At the peak of Red Cloud’s powers the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters. But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the astonishing story of the nineteenth century’s most dynamic and successful Indian warrior can finally be told. Born in 1821 near the Platte River in modern-day Nebraska, Red Cloud lived an epic life of courage, wisdom, and fortitude in the face of a relentless enemy—the soldiers, settlers, and other invaders who represented the “manifest destiny” of an expanding America. He grew up an orphan and had to overcome myriad social disadvantages to advance in Sioux culture. Red Cloud did that by being the best fighter, strategist, and leader of his fellow warriors. Around campfires and in lodges men and women told stories and sang songs of praise for Red Cloud’s exploits that included fearless raids against the Crow, Pawnee, and other tribes who would try to steal horses and hunting grounds where literally millions of buffalo roamed. But it was the nascent United States that soon emerged as his peoples’ greatest threat. As the white man pushed further and further west along the famous frontier trails—the Santa Fe and Oregon, the California and Bozeman—they stole the Indians’ land, slaughtered the venerated buffalo, and murdered with impunity anyone who resisted their intrusions. The final straw for Red Cloud and his warriors was the post–Civil War Army’s frenzied spate of fort building throughout the pristine Powder River Country that abutted the Sioux’s sacred Black Hills—Paha Sapa to the Sioux, or “The Heart of Everything That Is.” The result was a gathering of angry tribes under one powerful leader. “The white man lies and steals,” Red Cloud told his thousands of braves at council fire. “My lodges were many, now they are few. The white man wants all. They must fight for it.” What came to be known as Red Cloud’s War culminated in a massacre of American cavalry troops that presaged the Little Bighorn and served warning to Washington that the Plains Indians would fight, and die, for their land and traditions. But many more American soldiers would die first. In The Heart of Everything That Is, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, the New York Times best-selling authors of Halsey’s Typhoon and The Last Stand of Fox Company, restore Red Cloud to his rightful primacy in American history in a sweeping and dramatic narrative based on years of primary research. As they trace the events leading to Red Cloud’s War they provide intimate portraits of the many and various men and women whose lives Red Cloud touched—epic mountain men such as the larger-than-life Jim Bridger; American Generals like William Tecumsah Sherman who were charged with annihilating the Sioux; fearless explorers such as the dashing John Bozeman; and the memorable warriors whom Red Cloud groomed, the legendary Crazy Horse in particular. And residing in the heart of this narrative is Red Cloud, fighting for the very existence of the Indian way of life. Red Cloud's two-year war featured the deaths of hundreds on both side as well as unspeakable atrocities. The fighting peaked on a bitter cold day in December 1866 when the decorated Civil War hero Major William Judd Fetterman led a column of cavalry and dragoons into the war’s climactic engagement. By the end of that fateful day not a white man was let alive on the blood-soaked battlefield. The government in Washington sued for peace and agreed to abandon the forts defacing the Powder River Country. A triumphant Red Cloud burned them to the ground. This fiery narrative, fueled by contemporary diaries and journals, newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts, and myriad first-hand sourcing, is the definitive story of the conflict between an expanding white civilization and the Plains Indians who stood in its way. The Heart of Everything That Is not only places the reader at the center of this stirring epoch, but finally gives the great warrior-chief Red Cloud the modern-day recognition he deserves. Red Cloud's New York Times obituary December 10, 1909 Red Cloud, the famous old Sioux Indian chief, is dead. This information was received today by Supt. Brennan of the Pine Ridge Indian Agency, who is in Washington attending the meeting of those interesting in the education of the Indian. Red Cloud was formerly one of the greatest of Indian chiefs. He had been desperately ill for the last three years, and toward the end he was blind and decrepit. Although at one time lord of all Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Wyoming and Montana, it is most likely that Red Cloud died practically penniless. For the last twenty-five years he had been living as a pensioner of the government on its reservation in North Dakota. Red Cloud was born about 90 years ago. He was brought up in obscurity, his father being a common Indian warrior, and not one of the chiefs whom his son might have succeeded. By sheer force of will, bravery, and intelligence Red Cloud rose step by step to be the chief of the greatest, most warlike, and most savage tribe of American Indians. In his war of thirty years against the whites Red Cloud became known to the government’s Indian fighters as the boldest and fiercest of Sioux leaders, and it was during those years that he gradually worked his way up until he was recognized as the leader of all the Sioux bands and tribes. In 1866 he went among the restless tribes who had been wasting their strength in feuds among themselves and persuaded them to make common war against the whites. The military authorities were aware that some disturbing influence was at work, but they did not suspect Red Cloud until he appeared suddenly at the head of several thousand members of the Sioux tribe, and by masterly strategy succeeded in wiping out an entire command that had been dispatched against him. His first notable victory, however, is called the “Massacre of Fort Phil Kearney.” In this fight the Indian chief wiped out the entire government force at this little fort, losing several hundred of his own warriors in accomplishing this. Red Cloud was a diplomat of rare ability. In the councils and meetings of his people he ruled them with a stolid hand, and gained his points through an orator whom he would always hire on such occasions. His mouthpiece, however, was instructed what to say and how to handle points under consideration. When Red Cloud fought the whites he did so to the best of his ability. But when he signed the first peace paper he buried his tomahawk, and this peace pact was never broken. At the close of the long campaign against the Sioux Indians, Gen. Crook in 1876 defeated Red Cloud in the presence of thousands of his followers and Spotted Tail was named as his successor. Spotted Tail was later killed by crow dog and Sitting Bull became the real leader of the Sioux, although he was not properly a war chief. Red Cloud was induced to make a trip to Washington to ask the government for assistance to his men, and on this trip he was convinced of the white man’s superiority over the Indian. When Sitting Bull again stirred the tribes Red Cloud refused to join him, and warned the young warriors against listening to evil advice. During this attempted outbreak Indian policemen were dispatched to arrest Sitting Bull, and when he resisted arrest he was killed. This ended the Indian trouble for all time. The government built a house for Red Cloud on the reservation at Pine Ridge, N. D., and there he had lived peacefully ever since.
Bob Drury (Author), George Newbern, Tom Clavin (Narrator)
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Lucky 666: The Impossible Mission
From the authors of the New York Times bestselling The Heart of Everything That Is and Halsey’s Typhoon comes the dramatic, untold story of a daredevil bomber pilot and his misfit crew who fly their lone B-17 into the teeth of the Japanese Empire in 1943, engage in the longest dogfight in history, and change the momentum of the War in the Pacific—but not without making the ultimate sacrifice. It is 1942, the Japanese war machine has rolled up nearly all of the Pacific Theater, and American forces are clinging to what little unconquered territory remains. While US Marines claw their way across Guadalcanal, small contingents of US Army Airmen make their way to the lonely, embattled Allied airbase on Papua New Guinea. Their mission: to defend Australia from invasion, harass Japanese supply lines, fly perilous bombing missions over enemy-held strongholds, and make reconnaissance runs to provide intelligence for America’s nascent island-hopping campaign. Among these men are the pilot Captain Jay Zeamer and the bombardier Sergeant Joseph Raymond Sarnoski, whose swashbuckling reputations precede them. Zeamer, who cannot convince his superiors to give him his own plane, teams up with Sarnoski to recruit a crew of fellow misfits to rebuild a dilapidated B-17 bomber from spare parts in the base’s junkyard. They christen the plane Old 666, naming it from its tail identification numbers. In June 1943, Zeamer and Sarnoski and their crew volunteer for a 1200-mile suicide mission into the heart of the Japanese Empire that may well change the course of the war—but which only one of the two friends will survive. In Lucky 666, Drury and Clavin bring to vivid life one of the last great untold stories of World War II. Featuring personal letters, diaries, US Army Air Force after-action reports, even the translated Japanese Imperial Air Force’s official account of the longest dogfight in history, Lucky 666 is a tale of friendship, heroism, and sacrifice set against the horrific backdrop of vicious aerial warfare, wounded crewmates, and a white-knuckle emergency landing in the jungles of New Guinea—a must-read for anyone who loves pulse-pounding narrative nonfiction.
Bob Drury, Tom Clavin (Author), Jeremy Bobb (Narrator)
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Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue
In the tradition of "The Perfect Storm" and "Flags of Our Fathers" comes a gripping, true account of courage and survival at sea against impossible odds--and one of the finest untold World War II sagas of our time. Unabridged. 8 CDs.
Bob Drury, Tom Calvin (Author), Eric Conger (Narrator)
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A Dog's Gift: The Inspirational Story of Veterans and Children Healed by Man's Best Friend
A decade ago, former military counterintelligence officer Terry Henry joined his precocious young daughter, Kyria, on a trip to a nursing home in order to allow its residents to play with their family dog, a golden retriever named Riley. Terry was astounded by the transformations that unfolded before his eyes. Soon after, Terry and Kyria started their service dog organization, Paws4people, with the goal of pairing dogs with human beings in need of healing, including traumatized and wounded war veterans and children living with physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities. In A Dog's Gift, award-winning journalist and author Bob Drury movingly captures the story of a year in the life of Paws4people and the broken bodies and souls the organization mends. The book follows the journey of pups bred by the organization from their loving, if rigorous, early training to an emotional event that Terry and Kyria have christened "the bump," where each individual service dog chooses its new owner through an almost mystical connection that ignites the healing process. Incorporating vivid storytelling, insights into canine wisdom, history, science, and moving tales of personal transformation, A Dog's Gift is a story of miracles bound to be embraced by not only the sixty million Americans who own dogs but by anyone with a full heart and a loving soul.
Bob Drury (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)
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