Hardcover Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton The inspiration for the major motion picture 12 Strong from Jerry Bruckheimer, starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon. From the New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory. Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential to defeat their opponent throughout the country. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city, and the streets thronged with Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban regime had been overthrown. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city’s immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed. Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton’s account of the Americans’ quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. Learn More

Paperback Six Silent Men, Book Two by Kenn Miller In the summer of 1967, the good old days were ending for the hard-core 1st Brigade LRRPs of the 101st Airborne Division, perhaps the finest maneuver element of its size in the history of the United States Army. It was a bitter pill. After working on their own in Vietnam for more than two years, the Brigade LRRPs were ordered to join forces with the division once again. But even as these formidable hunters and killers were themselves swallowed up by the Screaming Eagles' Division LRPs to eventually become F Co., 58th Infantry, they continued the deadly, daring LRRP tradition. From saturation patrols along the Laotian border to near-suicide missions and compromised positions in the always dangerous A Shau valley, the F/58th unflinchingly faced death every day and became one of the most highly decorated companies in the history of the 101st. Learn More

Hardcover Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Final Gamble to Halt the Western Allies (The First 24 Hours) by David Jordan ON DECEMBER 16, 1944, in the heavily-forested region of the Ardennes in Belgium, the German army made one final attempt to turn the tide of the war. At 5:30 A.M., 8 German armored divisions and 13 infantry divisions launched an all-out attack on 5 divisions of the US First Army. If the Wehrmacht were to succeed in their plan to split the Allied armies and capture the strategically important port of Antwerp, it was crucial that they make rapid advances into Allied territory and capture key crossroads and bridges on the first day. Nicknamed the Battle of the Bulge, because of the bulge-shaped frontline created by the German advance, the fighting lasted for the next six weeks. It was the largest land battle in the western sector of the European theater: more than a million men fought through cold mid-winter weather, including some 600,000 Germans and 500,000 Americans. With the aid of specially-commissioned maps, Battle of the Bulge: The First 24 Hours describes the dramatic history of the beginning of the Ardennes offensive, with a blow-by-blow account of maneuvers as they occurred. The book begins with a brief overview of the Allied campaign from the Normandy landings onwards, before examining the German preparations for the offensive and the weak Allied defensive positions. Battle of the Bulge: The First 24 Hours then goes on to describe the main assault by the Sixth Panzer Army on the US V Corps and the ensuing battle with the American 7th Armored Division; the Fifth Panzer Army's more successful assault on the US VIII Corps; and the limited effect of the weaker German Seventh Army's push across the River Our in Luxembourg. The author goes on to describe the Allies' response, including the 101st Airborne Division's legendary defense of the crucial town of Bastogne, before summarizing the consequences of the battle. With first-hand accounts from both sides, vivid photographs, detailed fact boxes, and maps of the main combat zones, Battle of the Bulge: The First 24 Hours is a comprehensive examination of the first 24 hours of the campaign whose defeat ensured the ultimate success of the Allied armies in Western Europe. David Jordan is a lecturer at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Wiltshire, England, where he teaches on Intermediate and Advanced Staff courses. He has held posts at the Universities of Birmingham, Worcester, and Keele, and the Open University. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Wolfpack, Aircraft Carriers, The U.S. Navy Seals, and The Fall of Hitler's Third Reich. He currently lives in Wiltshire, England. Learn More

Paperback Covert Ops: The CIA's Secret War In Laos (Naval Institute Special Warfare Series) by James E. Parker Jr. Uncommon war. Uncommon bonds. In 1972, U.S. soldiers battle the North Vietnamese. Behind the headlines, a secret war rages in Laos. Sky, a close knit cadre of daredevil CIA agents, spearheads a daring operation. These gutsy secret agents direct a fearless force of Thai mercenaries and native Hmong tribespeople-- fighting the enemy toe-to-toe. Now Sky veteran James Parker-- codename Mule-- reveals the untold story of the covert war in Laos. Parker takes you inside the often mind-boggling world of extraordinary men living and dying on the edge. Covert Ops captures the brutal training and ferocious land and air battles of Air Force Ravens, Air America, and young Hmong pilots. Above all, this first-person account shows the remarkable bonds formed between American soldiers and a courageous people-- who valiantly fought their fierce enemies to the very end. Learn More

Paperback Baptism: A Vietnam Memoir by Larry Gwin The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry had the dubious distinction of being the unit that had fought the biggest battle of the war to date, and had suffered the worst casualties. We and the 1st Battalion. A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only twenty-three years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highlands, he served almost nine months as executive officer for Alpha Company, 2/7, fighting against crack NVA troops in some of the war's most horrific battles. The bloodiest conflict of all began November 12, 1965, after 2nd Battalion was flown into the Ia Drang Valley west of Pleiku. Acting as point, Alpha Company spearheaded the battalion's march to landing zone Albany for pickup, not knowing they were walking into the killing zone of an NVA ambush that would cost them 10 percent casualties. Gwin spares no one, including himself, in his gut-wrenching account of the agony of war. Through the stench of death and the acrid smell of napalm, he chronicles the Vietnam War in all its nightmarish horror. Learn More

Hardcover Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation by Myra MacPherson (Goodreads Author) Based on more than 500 interviews, Long Time Passing is journalist Myra MacPherson's acclaimed exploration of the wounds, pride, and guilt of those who fought and those who refused to fight the war that continues to envelop the psyche of this nation. Learn More

Hardcover The Vietnam Experience: Setting the Stage (Vietnam Experience, #01) by Edward Doyle, Samuel Lipsman, Henry Cabot Lodge (Contributor) Learn More

Hardcover World At War; World War I And World War Ii In Photographs by Robin Cross Learn More

Hardcover Vietnam: A Visual Encyclopedia by Philip Gutzman The Vietnam War produced a quarter century of violence in faraway swamps and home-front streets, and it still haunts America's view of the world. Take a look back at every aspect of that turbulent era in a visual encyclopedia of over 500 extraordinary photos and alphabetized entries. The breadth of content and size of this massive illustrated volume will stun you with its completeness. The bloodiest battles and the most complex campaigns, the deadliest weapons of air, land, and sea, the heroes and villains, the military leaders and political powers from both sides, receive an A-to-Z treatment from all the experts and all world's best photographers. You'll once again see the angry protesters and patriotic commentators who fueled passions on both sides. Coverage starts in 1950 with post-World War II upheavals, and ends in 1975 with Hanoi's final takeover. Special feature: a blow-by-blow chronology chart of all major military and political events. Photos range from documenting of personnel, tanks, planes, and ships displaying their special insignias to graphic, award-winning scenes of horrific agonies suffered by combatants and innocents alike. Learn More

Paperback Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th (Pearl Harbor #1) by Newt Gingrich (Goodreads Author) President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech on December 8, 1941, lasted a mere six and half minutes. But his words and tone--in a monologue that would later be named the Infamy Speech--sent ripples into a nation and a world that continue even today. The historical implications that emerged from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were unprecedented, launching America not only into the depths of a dangerous war, but forever altering the safety and comfort of everyday living. December 8th became a day of speaking out publicly and declaring war; of action, battle, plotting, and victories. This date's significance is resonant and profound as an indelible moment in American history. Fresh from their series on the American Civil War, bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen now launch a new epic adventure by applying their imaginations and knowledge to the Date of Infamy--the attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor covers the full spectrum of characters and events from that historic moment, from national leaders and admirals to the views of ordinary citizens caught in the chaos of war. From the chambers of the Emperor of Japan to the American White House, from the decks of aircraft carriers to the playing fields of the Japanese Naval Academy, this powerful story stretches from the nightmare slaughter of China in the 1930s to the lonely office of Commander James Watson, an American cryptographer, who suspects the impending catastrophic attack. It is a story of intrigue, double-dealing, the horrific brutality of war, and the desperate efforts of men of reason on both sides to prevent a titanic struggle that becomes inevitable. Gingrich and Forstchen's now critically acclaimed approach, which they term active history, examines how a change in but one decision might have profoundly altered American history. In Pearl Harbor, they pose the question of how the presence of but one more man within the Japanese attacking force could have transfigured the war. More than a retelling, the book also serves as a potent warning, valid still today as an example of what happens when communications and understanding breaks down, and a nation is ill-prepared for the onslaught that might ensue. A compelling, meticulously researched saga, Pearl Harbor is also a novel of valor about those who took part in this cataclysmic moment in world history. It inaugurates a dramatic new Pacific War series that begins with the terrifying account of the day that started it all. Praise for Pearl Harbor: A politician and a novelist, each an accomplished historian in his own right, are emerging as master authors of alternative history. In this 'what if' treatment of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen combine their talents to make the diplomacy as suspenseful as the combat, even for readers who know what happens next---or think they know. The authors' mastery of both the broad sweep of events and the details of naval war and military technology give their counterfactual scenarios an unusual degree of plausibility, concluding with a version of the Japanese attack that guarantees a fictional Pacific war even more terrible than the one that began on December 7, 1941. -- Dennis Showalter, former president of the Society of Military Historians The book is not only a great read, it is a fascinating historical story that applies today in Iraq as it did in the Western Pacific in the late '30s and '40s. ---Captain Alex Fraser (Ret.) Gingrich and Forstchen have done it again. Building on their successful collaboration on their Civil War trilogy that so skillfully combined real history with fiction, they have with Pearl Harbor happily inaugurated another new series. You will not want to put it down, but when you finish you will look, as I do, with great anticipation to the next book. ---Chief of Police William J. Bratton, Los Angeles Police Department Masterful storytelling that not only captures the heroic highs and hellish lows of that horrific day which lives on in infamy---it resonates with today's conflicts and challenges. ---William E. Butterworth IV, New York Times Best-selling Author of The Saboteurs Learn More

Large Hardcover - Great Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War by Alfred Hudson Guernsey Articles, engravings, and maps from Harper's Magazine issues of the 1860s make up a profile of the Civil War, from the firing on Fort Sumter to Lincoln's assassination. Learn More

Hardcover - Great Hu? 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate.Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which 'the end begins to come into view.' The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke. Part military action and part popular uprising, the Tet Offensive included attacks across South Vietnam, but the most dramatic and successful would be the capture of Hue, the country's cultural capital. At 2:30 a.m. on January 31, 10,000 National Liberation Front troops descended from hidden camps and surged across the city of 140,000. By morning, all of Hue was in Front hands save for two small military outposts. The commanders in country and politicians in Washington refused to believe the size and scope of the Front's presence. Captain Chuck Meadows was ordered to lead his 160-marine Golf Company against thousands of enemy troops in the first attempt to re-enter Hue later that day. After several futile and deadly days, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city, block by block and building by building, in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II. With unprecedented access to war archives in the U.S. and Vietnam and interviews with participants from both sides, Bowden narrates each stage of this crucial battle through multiple points of view. Played out over twenty-four days of terrible fighting and ultimately costing 10,000 combatant and civilian lives, the Battle of Hue was by far the bloodiest of the entire war. When it ended, the American debate was never again about winning, only about how to leave. In Hue 1968, Bowden masterfully reconstructs this pivotal moment in the American war in Vietnam. Learn More