Download or read book The Secretary of War Shares Your Grief written by Warren C. Sheldon and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Night Flights written by Philip Reeve and published by Scholastic. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Return to the world of Mortal Engines in this new book of three short stories about the rebellious young aviatrix, Anna Fang, illustrated by Ian McQue. A key character in the Mortal Engines book and film, this is your chance to learn more of her past. Night Flights includes Traction City, the 2011 World Book Day Book by Philip Reeve.
Download or read book Nomads in the Middle East written by Beatrice Forbes Manz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of pastoral nomads in the Islamic Middle East from the rise of Islam, through the middle periods when Mongols and Turks ruled most of the region, to the decline of nomadism in the twentieth century. Offering a vivid insight into the impact of nomads on the politics, culture, and ideology of the region, Beatrice Forbes Manz examines and challenges existing perceptions of these nomads, including the popular cyclical model of nomad-settled interaction developed by Ibn Khaldun. Looking at both the Arab Bedouin and the nomads from the Eurasian steppe, Manz demonstrates the significance of Bedouin and Turco-Mongolian contributions to cultural production and political ideology in the Middle East, and shows the central role played by pastoral nomads in war, trade, and state-building throughout history. Nomads provided horses and soldiers for war, the livestock and guidance which made long-distance trade possible, and animal products to provision the region's growing cities.
Download or read book The Eurasian Way of War written by David A. Graff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a comparative study of military practice in Sui-Tang China and the Byzantine Empire between approximately 600 and 700 CE. It covers all aspects of the military art from weapons and battlefield tactics to logistics, campaign organization, military institutions, and the grand strategy of empire. Whilst not neglecting the many differences between the Chinese and Byzantines, this book highlights the striking similarities in their organizational structures, tactical deployments and above all their extremely cautious approach to warfare. It shows that, contrary to the conventional wisdom positing a straightforward Western way of war and an "Oriental" approach characterized by evasion and trickery, the specifics of Byzantine military practice in the seventh century differed very little from what was known in Tang China. It argues that these similarities cannot be explained by diffusion or shared cultural influences, which were limited, but instead by the need to deal with common problems and confront common enemies, in particular the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes. Overall, this book provides compelling evidence that pragmatic needs may have more influence than deep cultural imperatives in determining a society’s "way of war."
Download or read book The Last Nomad written by Shugri Said Salh and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A remarkable and inspiring true story that "stuns with raw beauty" about one woman's resilience, her courageous journey to America, and her family's lost way of life. Winner of the 2022 Gold Nautilus Award, Multicultural & Indigenous Category Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, predators, and enemy clans, it also held beauty, innovation, centuries of tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learn courage and independence from a fearless group of relatives. Salh grew to love the freedom of roaming with her animals and the powerful feeling of community found in nomadic rituals and the oral storytelling of her ancestors. As she came of age, though, both she and her beloved Somalia were forced to confront change, violence, and instability. Salh writes with engaging frankness and a fierce feminism of trying to break free of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of her forced female genital mutilation, of the loss of her mother, and of her growing need for independence. Taken from the desert by her strict father and then displaced along with millions of others by the Somali Civil War, Salh fled first to a refugee camp on the Kenyan border and ultimately to North America to learn yet another way of life. Readers will fall in love with Salh on the page as she tells her inspiring story about leaving Africa, learning English, finding love, and embracing a new horizon for herself and her family. Honest and tender, The Last Nomad is a riveting coming-of-age story of resilience, survival, and the shifting definitions of home.
Download or read book The Vietnam War written by Barbara Diggs and published by Nomad Press. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 58,000 American troops and military personnel died in the humid jungles and muddy rivers of Vietnam during the 20-year conflict called the Vietnam War. Why? What were they fighting for? And how could the world’s most powerful and technologically advanced military be defeated by a small, poverty-stricken country? These questions have haunted the U.S. government, the military, and the American public for nearly a half century. In The Vietnam War, kids ages 12 to 15 explore the global conditions and history that gave rise to the Vietnam War, the reasons why the United States became increasingly embroiled in the conflict, and the varied causes of its shocking defeat. As readers learn about how the fear of the spread of communism spurred the United States to enter a war that was erupting on the other side of the world, they find themselves immersed in the mood and mindset of the Vietnam Era. Through links to online primary sources, including speeches, letters, photos, and songs, readers become familiar with the reality of combat life for young American soldiers, the frustration of military advisors as they failed to subdue the Viet Cong, and the empty promises made by U.S. presidents to soothe an uneasy public. The Vietnam War also pays close attention to the development of a massive antiwar movement and counterculture that divided the country into “hawks” and “doves.” In-depth essential questions help middle schoolers analyze primary sources and develop their own evidence-supported views on a range of issues. The Vietnam War also fosters critical thinking skills through projects such as creating antiwar and pro-war demonstration slogans, writing letters from the perspective of a U.S. soldier and a south Vietnamese citizen, and building arguments for and against the media’s coverage of the war. Additional learning materials include engaging illustrations, maps, a glossary, a bibliography, and resources for further independent learning. The Vietnam War is one book in a set of four that explore great events of the twentieth century. Other titles in this set include Globalization: Why We Care About Faraway Events; World War II: From the Rise of the Nazi Party to the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb; and The Space Race: How the Cold War Put Humans on the Moon.
Download or read book Nationalists and Nomads written by Christopher L. Miller and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does African literature written in French change the way we think about nationalism, colonialism, and postcolonialism? How does it imagine the encounter between Africans and French? And what does the study of African literature bring to the fields of literary and cultural studies? Christopher L. Miller explores these and other questions in Nationalists and Nomads. Miller ranges from the beginnings of francophone African literature—which he traces not to the 1930s Negritude movement but to the largely unknown, virulently radical writings of Africans in Paris in the 1920s—to the evolving relations between African literature and nationalism in the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout he aims to offset the contemporary emphasis on the postcolonial at the expense of the colonial, arguing that both are equally complex, with powerful ambiguities. Arguing against blanket advocacy of any one model (such as nationalism or hybridity) to explain these ambiguities, Miller instead seeks a form of thought that can read and recognize the realities of both identity and difference.
Download or read book The Nomadic Leviathan written by Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-05-08 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Devised to legitimize the Republic of China’s claim over Inner Asia, the Sinocentric paradigm stems from the Open Door Policy and Chinese nationalism. Advanced against the conquest theory, and rationalized as the pathfinding ecological theory, it is an evolutionary materialist scheme that became the vision of history. Exposing the initial agenda of this paradigm and revealing its fundamental contradictions, The Nomadic Leviathan debunks it as a myth. Resurrecting the conquest theory, and reinforcing it with the idea of extrahuman transportation, this book places pastoralism at the origin of the state and civilization, and the Eurasian steppe at the center of human history; the political emerges as the primary and fundamental order defining the social and economic.
Download or read book Mongols Huns and Vikings written by Hugh N. Kennedy and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2002 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Namads at war, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Mongols, The Arabs, Turks, the Vikings includes Maps, Chronology of events.
Download or read book War Before Civilization written by Lawrence H. Keeley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past"). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world. He reveals, for instance, that prehistorical tactics favoring raids and ambushes, as opposed to formal battles, often yielded a high death-rate; that adult males falling into the hands of their enemies were almost universally killed; and that surprise raids seldom spared even women and children. Keeley cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world, including the discovery in South Dakota of a prehistoric mass grave containing the remains of over 500 scalped and mutilated men, women, and children (a slaughter that took place a century and a half before the arrival of Columbus). In addition, Keeley surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kinds of warfare and again finds little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, he examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples. Keeley is a seasoned writer and his book is packed with vivid, eye-opening details (for instance, that the homicide rate of prehistoric Illinois villagers may have exceeded that of the modern United States by some 70 times). But he also goes beyond grisly facts to address the larger moral and philosophical issues raised by his work. What are the causes of war? Are human beings inherently violent? How can we ensure peace in our own time? Challenging some of our most dearly held beliefs, Keeley's conclusions are bound to stir controversy.
Download or read book Nomadland Surviving America in the Twenty First Century written by Jessica Bruder and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for Chloé Zhao's 2020 Golden Lion award-winning film starring Frances McDormand. "People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book." —Rebecca Solnit From the beet fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older adults. These invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in RVs and modified vans, forming a growing community of nomads. Nomadland tells a revelatory tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy—one which foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, it celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive, but have not given up hope.
Download or read book Last of the Nomads written by W J Peaseley and published by Fremantle Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Peasley's description of the events … is informative, compassionate, exciting and at times deeply moving.' —Don Grant, Australian Book Review ‘The intriguing story of [the rescue of an elderly couple believed to be the last Australian nomads] and how they survived alone for the previous 30 years or so in the unrelenting western Gibson Desert region of WA, is fascinating reading.' — Chris Walters, The West Australian ‘This is a most remarkable book about the recovery during the 1977 drought of an ailing Aboriginal nomadic couple, living in desert regions of Western Australia.' — The National Times Warri and Yatungka were believed to be the last of the Mandildjara tribe of desert nomads to live permanently in the traditional way. Their deaths in the late 1970s marked the end of a tribal lifestyle that stretched back more than 30,000 years. The Last of the Nomads tells of an extraordinary journey in search of Warri and Yatungka.
Download or read book The Civilization of Perpetual Movement written by Nick McDonell and published by Hurst & Company. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Chinese Emperors to the Romans and the Byzantines, from British Foreign Office agents in the Great Game to today's hippies, backpackers and aid workers, a long line of "civilized", sedentary, peoples have again and again misunderstood nomads, and nomadism. Caricatured as backward herders, thieving pastoralists, or members of some vast and undifferentiated horde of humanity forever wandering the planet, nomads are usually perceived as anything but modern and almost always as on the verge of obsolescence. The Civilization of Perpetual Movement is the first examination of nomadism as a vital global political practice. Nick McDonell - bestselling novelist and war correspondent - draws upon his years spent with and research into nomads around the world to illuminate what is, and has always been, a most modern practice. In the lucid, evocative prose which earnt him comparisons with Graham Greene and John Le Carré in the New York Times, McDonell uncovers the ways nomads and states influence each other, historically and today - with surprising consequences, from the plains and mountains of Central Asia to the grasslands of the Great Rift Valley. Part literary meditation, part reflection on international relations, part original history, The Civilization of Perpetual Movement is firmly in the tradition of iconoclastic thinkers from Bruce Chatwin to James Scott to T. E. Lawrence.
Download or read book The War in Darfur written by Anders Hastrup and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No other crisis in Africa has received as much attention in the West during the past 10 years as the war in Darfur, yet the underlying complexities of the war and the background to the crisis remains poorly understood by scholars, activists and aid workers. This anthropological study of the war in Darfur explores the personal experience of war from the perspective of those refugees who have fled from it and puts forward potential solutions to the conflict. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in the refugee camps of neighbouring eastern Chad,The War in Darfur: Reclaiming Sudanese History gives a voice to people who to date have had little opportunity to articulate their experiences. Through facilitating the telling of the refugees’ tale, examining what happened and how, this book will be an interesting contribution to the areas of refugee studies, anthropology and history.
Download or read book On Wars written by Michael Mann and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-08 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of wars through the ages and across the world, and the irrational calculations that so often lie behind them Benjamin Franklin once said, “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” But what determines whether war or peace is chosen? Award-winning sociologist Michael Mann concludes that it is a handful of political leaders—people with emotions and ideologies, and constrained by inherited culture and institutions—who undertake such decisions, usually irrationally choosing war and seldom achieving their desired results. Mann examines the history of war through the ages and across the globe—from ancient Rome to Ukraine, from imperial China to the Middle East, from Japan and Europe to Latin and North America. He explores the reasons groups go to war, the different forms of wars, how warfare has changed and how it has stayed the same, and the surprising ways in which seemingly powerful countries lose wars. In masterfully combining ideological, economic, political, and military analysis, Mann offers new insight into the many consequences of choosing war.
Download or read book The Mongol Art of War written by Timothy May and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2007-03-22 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned historian “combines exhaustive research and accessible prose for this . . . definitive study” of the Mongol empire’s military practices (Publishers Weekly). The armies of the Mongol empire are one of the most successful, yet least understood, military forces in history. Often viewed as screaming throngs of horsemen who conquered by sheer force of numbers, they were in fact highly organized regiments who blindsided their opponents with innovative tactics and combat skills. Through the leadership of brilliant military strategists, they achieved the largest land empire ever established, stretching across Asia and into eastern Europe. In this pioneering study, historian Timothy May demonstrates how the Mongol military developed from a tribal levy into a disciplined and complex military organization. He describes the make-up of the Mongol army from its inception to the demise of the empire. With profiles of Mongol military leaders such as Chinggis Khan—also known as Genghis Khan—May shows how their strength, quality and versatility made them the pre-eminent warriors of their time.
Download or read book The Book of Wars Volume 1 written by Nicasio Gomez and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-08-28 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diego was just crowned emperor of Serug with the help of his friends Athena the warrior, Patroclus the master thief and Vincent the necromancer. When Athena agreed to marry him he had everything a man could want but he wanted more. Patroclus opted for a simpler life, living on a small island off the coast of Xtulphdia with his wives and children. He would soon learn that helping to conquer an empire came with a price that had to be paid. All of them were enjoying their fortunes. All except for Vincent. From within his mountaintop hideout he studied death lore and he knew better. He knew that all good things must come to an end. The seeds of discord start as they often do- with greed and corruption of power. Diego and his allies struggle to maintain the empire, but he has his eye on Patrocluss wives. After he attacks Patrocluss home his former friends ally themselves against him, sparking a war that draws heroes and heroines from various cultures to the banners of Athena and Patroclus. The armies converge on the imperial seat. The city of Quom is transformed from a center of imperial commerce to an inferno, hosting a multitude of the dying, dead and living dead. The living fight alongside the undead as demons of light circle overhead. All hope seemed lost for Patroclus and the allies. They were completely surrounded, cut off from their reserves. And where was Athena?
