Download or read book An Empire Wilderness written by Robert D. Kaplan and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-11-12 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having reported on some of the world's most violent, least understood regions in his bestsellers Balkan Ghosts and The Ends of the Earth, Robert Kaplan now returns to his native land, the United States of America. Traveling, like Tocqueville and John Gunther before him, through a political and cultural landscape in transition, Kaplan reveals a nation shedding a familiar identity as it assumes a radically new one. An Empire Wilderness opens in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where the first white settlers moved into Indian country and where Manifest Destiny was born. In a world whose future conflicts can barely be imagined, it is also the place where the army trains its men to fight the next war. "A nostalgic view of the United States is deliberately cultivated here," Kaplan writes, "as if to bind the uncertain future to a reliable past." From Fort Leavenworth, Kaplan travels west to the great cities of the heartland--to St. Louis, once a glorious shipping center expected to outshine imperial Rome and now touted, with its desolate inner city and miles of suburban gated communities, as "the most average American city." Kaplan continues west to Omaha; down through California; north from Mexico, across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas; up to Montana and Canada, and back through Oregon. He visits Mexican border settlements and dust-blown county sheriffs' offices, Indian reservations and nuclear bomb plants, cattle ranches in the Oklahoma Panhandle, glacier-mantled forests in the Pacific Northwest, swanky postsuburban sprawls and grim bus terminals, and comes, at last, to the great battlefield at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where an earlier generation of Americans gave their lives for their vision of an American future. But what, if anything, he asks, will today's Americans fight and die for? At Vicksburg Kaplan contemplates the new America through which he has just traveled--an America of sharply polarized communities that draws its population from pools of talent far beyond its borders; an America where the distance between winners and losers grows exponentially as corporations assume gov-ernment functions and the wealthy find themselves more closely linked to their business associates in India and China than to their poorer neighbors a few miles away; an America where old loyalties and allegiances are vanishing and new ones are only beginning to emerge. The new America he found is in the pages of this book. Kaplan gives a precise and chilling vision of how the most successful nation the world has ever known is entering the final, and highly uncertain, phase of its history.
Download or read book Popular History of Utah written by Orson Ferguson Whitney and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Historical Collections of the Great West written by Henry Howe and published by . This book was released on 1873 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details the history of the Western United States with emphasis on travel explorations and geographic discoveries.
Download or read book Quartermaster Support of the Army written by Erna Risch and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 820 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Privilege vs Equality written by Robert P. Wettemann Jr. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-09-23 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1815-1860, the tiny American army took on many new and often daunting tasks. In the face of civil opposition to the very existence of a professional military, the first battle officers and supporters had to win after 1815 was that of simply preserving some small professional force. As American interests expanded further west and conflict with Native Americans increased, the army was charged with the dual responsibility of peacekeeper and conqueror. Its most dramatic successes, however, came during the Mexican War and the conquest of the American Southwest. Against this back drop, Wetteman crafts a narrative overview of the rivalries, personalities, and events that defined civil-military relations during this era. Beginning in 1815, the U.S. Army struggled for existence within a society that was not convinced that a standing army was worth the expense. At the same time, many questioned the viability of a professional officer corps, citing the innate ability of the American fighting man as demonstrated in earlier conflicts. Although efforts were undertaken early on to define the role and status of a peacetime army, issues of national defense, domestic security, Indian policy, and internal improvements shaped civil military relations over the next 4 12 decades. While the true position of the citizen-soldier in relation to a standing army had not been clearly defined by 1860, the nation had made giant strides towards full acceptance of the idea that the U.S. Army, a standing force commanded by military professionals, was a national necessity.
Download or read book History of Kansas State and People written by William Elsey Connelley and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Kansas Historical Quarterly written by Kirke Mechem and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of the U S Army written by Jerold E. Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2000-12-30 with total page 682 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having evolved over the past two and a quarter centuries to become the premier military force in the world, the U.S. Army has a heritage rich in history and tradition. This historical dictionary provides short, clear, authoritative entries on a broad cross section of military terms, concepts, arms and equipment, units and organizations, campaigns and battles, and people who have had a significant impact on Army. It includes over 900 entries written by some 100 scholars, providing a valuable resource for the interested reader, student, and researcher. For those interested in pursuing specific subjects further, the book provides sources at the end of each entry as well as a general bibliography. Appendixes provide a useful list of abbreviations and acronyms and a listing of ranks and grades in the U.S. Army.
Download or read book Historical Review of Arkansas written by Fay Hempstead and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society written by Kansas State Historical Society and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society written by Kansas State Historical Society and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of Butte County California written by George C. Mansfield and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 1408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of Denver written by Jerome Constant Smiley and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 988 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Doniphan s Epic March written by Joseph G. Dawson and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1846-1847, a ragtag army of 800 American volunteers marched 3,500 miles across deserts and mountains, through Indian territory and into Mexico. There they handed the Mexican army one of its most demoralizing defeats and helped the United States win its first foreign war. Their leader Colonel Alexander Doniphan, also a volunteer, was a "natural soldier" of towering stature who became a national hero in the wake of his wartime exploits. Doniphan was a small-town Missouri lawyer untrained in military matters when he answered President Polk's call for volunteers in the war with Mexico. Working from a host of primary sources, Joseph Dawson focuses on Doniphan's extraordinary leadership and chronicles how the colonel and his 1st Missouri Mounted Regiment helped capture New Mexico and went on to invade Chihuahua. Contending with wildfires, sandstorms, poor provisions, and the threat of attack from Apaches, they eventually came face-to-face with the formidable cannon and cavalry of a much larger Mexican force. Yet, at the Battle of Sacramento, these hardy volunteers outflanked General Jose Heredia's army and claimed a stunning American victory on foreign soil. Dawson explores and analyzes the many facets of Doniphan's exploits, from the decision to proceed to Chihuahua in the wake of the Taos Revolt to the tactics that shaped his victory at Sacramento, describing that battle in heart-stopping detail. He tells how Doniphan's legal expertise enabled him to supervise America's first military government administering a conquered land at Santa Fe and highlights Doniphan's remarkable cooperation with U.S. Army officers at a time when antagonism typified relationships between volunteers and regulars. He also introduces readers to other key personalities of the campaign, from fellow officers Stephen W. Kearny and Meriwether L. Clark to James Kiker, the controversial scout whom Doniphan reluctantly trusted. Dawson's thorough account captures the expansionist mood of America in the mid-nineteenth century and helps us understand how American soldiers were motivated by the idea of Manifest Destiny. His portrait of Doniphan and his troops reinforces the importance of the citizen-soldier in American history and provides a new window on the war that changed forever the hopes and dreams of our border nations.
Download or read book The WPA Guide to Oklahoma written by Federal Writers' Project and published by Trinity University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors—many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures—were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison are among the more than 6,000 writers, editors, historians, and researchers who documented this celebration of local histories. Photographs, drawings, driving tours, detailed descriptions of towns, and rich cultural details exhibit each state’s unique flavor. The WPA Guide to Oklahoma is filled with descriptions of Native American life in the region, accompanied by many photographs. From Black Mesa to Cavanal Hill, this guide to the Sooner State takes the reader on a journey across the state’s vast and varied landscape. Also, notable in this guide is an essay by prominent historian Edward Everett Dale entitled “The Spirit of Oklahoma.”
Download or read book Oklahoma written by Oklahoma and published by US History Publishers. This book was released on 1976 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
