Military history.

John C. Tramazzo highlights the relationship between bourbon and military service to show the rich and dramatic connection in American history.

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award: The story of how a Catholic priest uncovered the truth behind the murder of more than a million Ukrainian Jews. Father Patrick Desbois documents the daunting task of identifying and examining all the sites where Jews were exterminated by Nazi mobile units in Ukraine in WWII. Using innovative methodology, interviews, and ballistic evidence, he has determined the location of many mass gravesites with the goal of providing proper burials for the victims of the forgotten Ukrainian Holocaust. Compiling new archival material and many eye-witness accounts, Desbois has put together the first definitive account of one of World War II’s bloodiest chapters. Published with the support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “This modest Roman Catholic priest from Paris, without using much more than his calm voice and Roman collar, has shattered the silence surrounding a largely untold chapter of the Holocaust.” —Chicago Tribune “Part memoir, part prosecutorial brief, The Holocaust by Bullets tells a compelling story in which a priest unconnected by heritage or history is so moved by an injustice he sets out to right a daunting wrong.” —The Miami Herald “Father Desbois is a generation too late to save lives. Instead, he has saved memory and history.” —The Wall Street Journal “An outstanding contribution to Holocaust literature, uncovering new dimensions of the tragedy . . . Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

Military history.

In this raucous new book in Ralph Compton’s Gunfighter series, the only thing Dan Karr can’t shoot down is his suspicion about the man who’s paying him. George Kingsley has more money than sense, and when he’s in trouble he turns to the infamous gunslinger Dan Karr for protection. Dan reluctantly accepts, and he kills every would-be assassin without hesitation or remorse. He’s superstitious, not sentimental, but Kingsley has kids, and Dan doesn’t want to see any child grow up without a father. As the killers keep coming and the bodies stack up, it becomes clear that something is very wrong. Luck favors the prepared, and Dan starts to realize just how little he knows about the family he’s risking his neck for. He’s always been good at dodging black cats and broken mirrors, but he’s spent enough time around gamblers to know that a hot streak can’t last forever. Sooner or later, every man’s luck runs out...

A detailed new account of the British military campaign in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014, based on the experiences of those who served. On 11 September 2001 19 al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists hijacked four aircraft and mounted the deadliest terrorist attack in history. The outrage triggered a chain of events that saw British forces drawn into a lengthy military campaign against a fierce insurgency in Afghanistan. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, NATO invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty that obligated military assistance to the United States. The British government supported the initial US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and subsequently committed troops to Kabul and northern Afghanistan from 2002 onwards. However, in January 2006, following NATO's expansion southwards, Britain committed a battlegroup from the Parachute Regiment to Helmand Province in what became known as Operation Herrick, with Defence Secretary John Reid stating he 'would be perfectly happy to leave in three years and without firing one shot'. The reality was very different. From 2006 to 2014, a succession of British task forces rotated through Helmand and fought against an implacable enemy. When they finally withdrew in 2014, British forces had suffered losses of more than 450 killed and 2,000 wounded. The Taliban were not defeated and would grow stronger. Sergio Miller served in Defence Intelligence in Whitehall throughout the campaign, and Pride and Fall answers the many questions surrounding the conflict. Based on abundant open-source material generated by the war and first-hand testimonies, this is the story of the men and women who served.

The generation of young men and women who joined the British Army during the mid to late 1980s would serve their country during an unprecedented period of history. Unlike the two world war generations, they would never face total war – there was never any declaration of war and there was no one single country to defeat. In fact, it was supposed to have been the end of war, a time of peace and stability. Politicians started to use the term, Peace Dividend, with government officials even planning on how and where it should be spent. But for those in the military, the two decades following the end of the Cold War would not be a time of peace. Government spending and the size of the military was reduced but the Army’s commitments increased exponentially. Those serving not only faced continuous deployment in overseas operations, they would also be involved in immense upheavals that took place within the army. When the Berlin Wall came down, the British Army had not changed for decades. The ending of the Cold War, combined with a technological revolution, a changing society at home, and new global threats mean that the Army of the second decade of the twentieth-first century – the army this generation of soldiers is now retiring from – is unrecognizable from the one they joined in the late 1980s. This is the story of the soldiers who served in the British Army in those tumultuous decades.