"First published almost a century ago, this classic text on the history and tactics of naval warfare had a profound effect on the imperial policies of all the major powers. Kaiser Wilhelm is said to have 'devoured' this book, and it was avidly read by presidents (including both Roosevelts), kings, prime ministers, admirals, and chancellors.
Demonstrating through historical examples that the rise and fall of seapower (and of nations) has always been linked with commercial and military command of the seas, Mahan describes successful naval strategies employed in the past-from Greek and Roman times through the Napoleonic wars. Focusing primarily on England's rise as a sea power in the eighteenth century, the book provides not only an overview of naval tactics, but a lucid exposition of geographical, economic, and social factors governing the maintenance of sea power.
Although ships, weapons, and the global balance of power have altered greatly since 1890, the lessons taught here so vividly and compellingly are still applicable today."
"Stephen E. Ambrose's D-Day is the definitive history of World War II's most pivotal battle, a day that changed the course of history.
D-Day is the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their lives, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Distinguished historian Stephen E. Ambrose portrays the faces of courage and heroism, fear and determination—what Eisenhower called "the fury of an aroused democracy"—that shaped the victory of the citizen soldiers whom Hitler had disparaged.
Drawing on more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion had to be abandoned, and how enlisted men and junior officers acted on their own initiative when they realized that nothing was as they were told it would be.
The action begins at midnight, June 5/6, when the first British and American airborne troops jumped into France. It ends at midnight June 6/7. Focusing on those pivotal twenty-four hours, it moves from the level of Supreme Commander to that of a French child, from General Omar Bradley to an American paratrooper, from Field Marshal Montgomery to a German sergeant. Ambrose's D-Day is the finest account of one of our history's most important days."
""Is Paris burning?" is the question Hitler asked over and over as the French Second and American Fourth Divisions battered their way into the city.
Few moments in history are as stirring as the Allied liberation of Paris, yet few people are aware of how narrowly-and how miraculously-the city escaped Hitler's secret plan to reduce it to ashes. Is Paris Burning? reconstructs, in meticulous and riveting detail, the network of fateful events-day by day, moment by moment-that saved the City of Light.
Bestselling authors and renowned journalists Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre spent three years researching this book, drawing on French Resistance radio messages, German military records, countless interviews, and secret correspondence between de Gaulle, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower. Here they re-create the drama, the fervor, and the triumph that heralded one of the most dramatic events of our time."
