Showing titles in Weapons & Warfare

From the author of the classic The Wizards of Armageddon and Pulitzer Prize finalist comes the definitive history of American policy on nuclear war—and several presidents’ actions in nuclear crises—from Truman to Trump. Fred Kaplan, hailed by The New York Times as “a rare combination of...

The Royal Marines Commandos: Britain’s Amphibious Elite takes listeners deep inside one of the most formidable and respected fighting forces in the world. For more than 350 years, the Royal Marines have stood at the cutting edge of Britain’s military power, combining the traditions of naval service with the skill and ferocity of elite infantry. From their origins in the 17th century as “soldiers of the sea” to their modern role as expeditionary warriors, the Commandos have embodied adaptability, courage, and a relentless will to overcome.

In a world divided by the ideological struggles of the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, more than one-fifth of the people on the planet paused to watch the live transmission of the Apollo 11 mission. To watch as humanity took a giant leap forward. A companion book to the...

The late Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Though his responsibilities in the appalling chaos of a devastated city were awesome, he found time to record the story daily, with compassion and tenderness. Dr. Hachiya's compelling diary was originally published by the UNC Press in 1955, with the help of Dr. Warner Wells of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Originally published more than fifty years ago, this landmark book explores the ways in which military capabilities—real or imagined—are used, skillfully or clumsily, as bargaining power. Anne-Marie Slaughter's new introduction to the work shows how Schelling's framework—conceived of in a time of superpowers and mutually assured destruction—still applies to our multipolar world, where wars are fought as much online as on the ground.

Discover the key themes and big ideas behind the major events and milestones in the history of warfare – from the dawn of civilization to the 21st century. Tracing the epic 5,000-year story of warfare from the earliest battles to the War on Terror, The Military History Book explores and...

The Nanda Devi Mystery: How India and America Lost a Nuclear Device is the thoroughly riveting and sometimes bizarre story of how India and America tried to install a nuclear-powered surveillance device on top of the Himalayas to snoop on China and then lost it forever.

The gripping saga of the plane that carried Britain through the Second World War. In June 1940, the German Army had brought the rest of Europe to its knees. 'Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life...

In this narrative of extraordinary richness, depth, and authority, America’s preeminent biographer/historian explored the German national character as no other writer has done. The Arms of Krupp brings to life Europe’s wealthiest, most powerful family, a four-hundred-year German dynasty that...

On July 16, 1945, just weeks before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought about the surrender of Japan and the end of WWII, the US unleashed the world's first atomic bomb at the Trinity testing site located in the remote Tularosa Valley in New Mexico. In The First Atomic Bomb Janet Farrell Brodie explores the history of the Trinity test and those whose contributions have rarely been discussed—the men and women who constructed, served, and witnessed the first test—as well as the downwinders who suffered the consequences of radiation.

The story of Black Hawk Down is a familiar one. On 3 October 1993 two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, and in the ensuing Battle of Mogadishu eighteen Americans and hundreds of Somalis were killed. But very few appreciate that this was one day in a two-and-a-half-year operation; the most...

Bloomsbury presents Six Minutes to Winter: Nuclear War and How to Avoid It by Mark Lynas read by Tom Lawrence ‘Terrifying and timely, this is a book everyone should read and heed’ - George Monbiot 'Urgent, gripping and sobering, Six Minutes to Winter is a hair-raising wake-up call’ - David...

""The one book you must read if you have any hope of understanding what our fine American soldiers are up against in Afghanistan.” —Former Congressman Charlie Wilson From the author of the award-winning THE LAST SEASON, the untold story of the U.S. Army Special Forces team that conquered the...

'a master class in eyewitness storytelling . . . this gripping narrative chronicles one of history's darkest nightmare moments' - Annie Jacobsen, author of Nuclear War: A Scenario On the 80th anniversary of the devastating bombing of Hiroshima, the stories of the hibakusha are more important...

The world's foremost intellectual activist narrates his irrefutable analysis of America's pursuit of total domination and the catastrophic consequences that are sure to follow. "Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive . . . He is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read...

The culminating volume in Richard Rhodes’s monumental and prizewinning history of nuclear weapons, offering the first comprehensive narrative of the challenges faced in a post–Cold War age. The past twenty years have transformed our relationship with nuclear weapons drastically. With...

“The man to whom the country is most indebted for the great measure of independence is Mr. John Adams. . . . I call him the Atlas of American independence.”So attested one of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress, moved to support independence in July 1776 after months of angst...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Robert Hardy is famous throughout the world as an actor. Not so widely known is his deep interest in archery and its history. An acknowledged expert on the longbow, he is a Trustee of the Royal Armouries at HM Tower of London, and of the Mary Rose Trust...

We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology. Empire of Guns, is a rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia, which upends this conventional wisdom by placing war and Britain’s prosperous gun trade at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the state’s imperial expansion. Satia brings to life this bustling industrial society with the story of a scandal: Samuel Galton of Birmingham, one of Britain’s most prominent gun makers, was condemned by his fellow Quakers that his profession violated their pacifist principles.

This is the story of a British deterrent. Much has been written about the V-bombers—the Valiant, Victor, and Vulcan—but virtually nothing has been said about their strategic nuclear strike role. How would Britain's small force of subsonic bombers have retaliated following a Soviet attack, and would they have succeeded? This book is the product of seven years of research by Dr. Tony Redding.