Showing titles in Weapons

Britain was the first country to ever suffer a ballistic missile attack from beyond its borders. This book tells the story of that attack. During 1942 and 1943, confusing rumours circulated about the German development of a 'giant rocket'. Most experts, including Winston Churchill's own scientific adviser Lord Cherwell, declared that such a weapon was impossible. It was only after the patient sifting of European intelligence that the most influential doubters were convinced such a weapon was being built. Then on 8 September 1944, the first V-2 landed in Chiswick. Between then and the final rocket impact on 27 March 1945, more than a thousand landed on British soil, killing nearly three thousand people and seriously injuring more than six thousand.

For America, the gun is a story of innovation, power, violence, character, and freedom. From the founding of the nation to the pioneering of the West, from the freeing of the slaves to the urbanization of the 20th century, our country has had a complex and lasting relationship with firearms. Now, in First Freedom, nationally syndicated columnist and veteran writer David Harsanyi explores the ways in which firearms have helped preserve our religious, economic, and cultural institutions for more than two centuries.

This one-volume anthology provides a comprehensive analysis of the role that air power has played in military conflicts over the past century. Comprising 16 essays penned by a global cadre of leading military experts, A History of Air Warfare chronologically examines the utility of air power from World War I to the second Lebanon war, campaign by campaign.

This groundbreaking work provides an unprecedented, in-depth examination of the global arms trade as a sophisticated business enterprise, uncovering the logistical, financial, and strategic mechanisms that underpin one of the world’s most resilient industries. Moving beyond traditional narratives that cast arms dealing in purely moral or political terms, The Merchants of Death repositions the arms trade industry as a complex economic ecosystem defined by adaptability, alliances, and logistical prowess. Through meticulously researched case studies and incisive analysis, this work reveals ...

The most important place in American nuclear history are the Marshall Islands - an idyllic Pacific paradise that served as the staging ground for more than 60 US nuclear tests. It was here, from 1946 to 1958, that America perfected the weapon that preserved the peace of the post-war years. It was here - with the 1954 Castle Bravo test over Bikini Atoll - that America executed its largest nuclear detonation, a thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima.

There are simularities and differences between the European and Japanese medieval warrior traditions that reflect the social evolutions within those cultures. Over the years publishing the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, we published articles that presented the main themes found in this unique area of comparitive studies. The most important of these writings are assembled in this anthology for your convience. Chapters 1 and 2 are by Dr. Willy Pieter, a leading scholar with a thorough grasp of European and Japanese martial art traditions. His first chapter examines the feudal system and how ...

In Night Hunters, air power historian William P. Head provides the first detailed study of the development and deployment of the AC-130 gunship. While other airframes and other types of close air support (CAS) and interdiction weapon systems preceded or flew with the AC-130s, this four-engine cargo airframe proved to be not only the longest serving fixed-wing gunship but also the most effective by far.

For over a century, the United States of America has been the mightiest nation the world has ever seen This is due, in large part, to its citizen servants who risk life and limb for the preservation of the American way of life. Among these citizen soldiers, there exists an elite few who have dedicated their lives to the art of the rifle. Today, they bare the hard earned title “Sniper,” and while it is regarded as a relatively modern method of warfare, it turns out that they have been there since the birth cry of America. Discover the hidden history of America's elite snipers beyond the ...

Major revelations about the US government's drone program - best-selling author Jeremy Scahill and his colleagues at the investigative website The Intercept expose stunning new details about America's secret assassination policy.

Firearms-related incidents kill more than 45,000 people in the US every year and are the leading cause of death for US children and adolescents. But talking about guns doesn't have to be scary or divisive. With this easy-to-listen-to and politics-free guide, you can arm yourself with the facts and strategies to calmly discuss firearms laws, firearms ownership, court decisions, and the Founding Fathers’ thinking behind the Second Amendment.

Many myths have grown up around President Harry S. Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons against Imperial Japan. In destroying these myths, Truman and the Bomb will discomfort both Truman's critics and his supporters, and force historians to reexamine what they think they know about the end of the Pacific War. Using previously unpublished material, D. M. Giangreco busts myths and more. Truman and the Bomb will prove to be a classic for studying presidential politics and influence on atomic warfare and its military and diplomatic components.

Americans have always loved guns. This special bond was forged during the American Revolution and sanctified by the Second Amendment. It is because of this exceptional relationship that American civilians are more heavily armed than the citizens of any other nation. Or so we're told. In The Gunning of America, historian Pamela Haag overturns this conventional wisdom. American gun culture, she argues, developed not because the gun was exceptional but precisely because it was not.

Breaking the German Enigma codes was not only about brilliant mathematicians and professors at Bletchley Park. There is another aspect of the story which it is only now possible to tell. It takes in the exploits of spies, naval officers and ordinary British seamen who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives snatching the vital Enigma codebooks from under the noses of Nazi officials and from sinking German ships and submarines. This book tells the whole Enigma story.

This New York Times best-seller delivers the untold story behind the last battle of the Cold War, the rise of militant Islam, and how a colorful congressman from Texas conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the most successful covert operation in CIA history.

In November 1944, the U.S. Navy fleet lay at anchor in Ulithi Harbor, deep in the Pacific Ocean, when the oiler USS Mississinewa erupted in a ball of flames. Japan's secret weapon, the Kaiten - a manned suicide submarine - had succeeded in its first mission. The Kaiten was so secret that even Japanese naval commanders didn't know of its existence. And the Americans kept it secret as well. Embarrassed by the shocking surprise attack, the U.S. Navy refused to salvage or inspect the sunken Mighty Miss.

Gunsmiths in early 19th-century America were helped along by noted artisans from Germany, Switzerland, and other European powers, but despite advances made in the European and American musket, the requirement of an exterior spark and percussion to ignite powder for a single-shot discharge remained the paradigm. Similarly, the era was unable to move past the cumbersome weapon that required at least half a minute to reload. The military compensation for such an ungainly and vulnerable process was the alternation of troop lines, in which one fired while the other reloaded from behind.

Guerras de Drones: El Futuro de los Conflictos es una exploración innovadora sobre cómo los sistemas no tripulados están transformando el campo de batalla, alterando el equilibrio del poder global y redefiniendo las reglas de la guerra. Desde la Edad de Bronce hasta la era nuclear, la historia ha demostrado que las revoluciones en tecnología militar han reconfigurado sociedades enteras. Hoy, el rápido auge de los drones—accesibles, autónomos y cada vez más letales—representa la siguiente evolución. Lo que antes era exclusivo de las superpotencias, ahora ha sido democratizado. ...

We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology. Empire of Guns, a rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia, 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.

Las pequeñas historias que se esconden bajo las grandes batallas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial: los hombres que perecieron por cambiar el destino del mundo. Si alguien todavía piensa que un hombre de a pie, una persona corriente, se debería resignar y presenciar la Segunda Guerra Mundial agazapado en su casa, está equivocado. Operaciones Secretas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial viene a refutar esa idea y supone una novedad en el tratamiento del conflicto armado más complejo de la historia.

This was a decade-long struggle that toppled a dictatorship, reshaped the nation's social fabric, and set the stage for modern Mexico. This turbulent conflict pitted revolutionary leaders like Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and Venustiano Carranza against the oppressive regimes of Porfirio Díaz and Victoriano Huerta, leading to sweeping political and social reforms. In this concise yet comprehensive book, you'll explore the revolutionary battles, shifting alliances, and the fight for land reform that defined the era.