On the basis of 1,400 oral histories from the men who were there, Eisenhower biographer and World War II historian Stephen E. Ambrose reveals for the first time anywhere that the intricate plan for the invasion of France in June 1944, had to be abandoned before the first shot was fired. The true story of D-Day, as Ambrose relates it, is about the citizen soldiers - junior officers and enlisted men - taking the initiative to act on their own to break...

Describes the contributions and techniques of American spies over the course of the past two centuries, recounting dramatic missions while profiling such historical figures as anti-slavery spy Elizabeth Van Lew and the "Choctaw code talkers."

Collected here in one omnibus edition are Niccolò Machiavelli's most important works, The Art of War and The Prince. It was Niccolò Machiavelli who essentially removed ethics from government. He did it with The Prince, when he asserted that The Prince (president, dictator, prime minister, etc.) does not have to be concerned with ethics, as long as their motivation is to protect the state. It is this questionable belief that in many ways had lead...

Courage is often enough to drive a soldier forward, to cause him to climb out of his foxhole and face enemy fire. But, it takes something else, something more than courage to keep HIM going when every instinct, every shred of reason dictates that he do otherwise. This hard truth becomes self-evident when the men belonging to Recon Team Kilo, a Special Forces A team operating deep in hostile territory, is overwhelmed by indigenous forces. Stripped...

Chronicles the final months of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Home from Iraq, a lieutenant kills his commanding officer, was it self-defense or premeditated murder? An enthralling novel of suspense about the high cost of war and secrets The McCarrans and the Gallaghers, two military families, have been close for decades, ever since Anthony McCarran-now one of the army's most distinguished generals-became best friends with Jack Gallagher, a fellow West Pointer who was later killed in Vietnam. Now a new generation...

Charged with stopping an imminent terrorist attack, the Taskforce pursues leads to Egypt, where Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill find themselves in charge of a mission involving a weapon of unprecedented destruction.

"From a preeminent presidential historian comes a groundbreaking and often surprising saga of America's wartime chief executives. Ten years in the research and writing, Presidents of Waris a fresh, magisterial, intimate look at a procession of American leaders as they took the nation into conflict and mobilized their country for victory. It brings us into the room as they make the most difficult decisions that face any President, at times sending...

Every year, approximately thirty-eight thousand recruits pour through the gates of Marine Corps Recruit Depots at San Diego, California, and Parris Island, South Carolina, for a chance to line up on the historic yellow footprints. And once on it, the reality of the situation sets in and almost without exception, they immediately ask themselves one question: "What the f---- did I get myself into?"In From maggots to Marines, male and female Marines...