Wars end, struggles persists. An unseen war reaches the far north of Canada. One extended family, relying on the matriarch’s instincts, flee ahead of the attack to seek refuge at a long-forgotten hunting lodge, hoping the deep isolation will protect them. A former military leader, seeing the impending anarchy as an opportunity to establish a realm of his own, consolidates survivors he deems useful and carves out an existence by looting and pillaging the remnants of civilization. Years later, when a young man’s desperate desire to return home causes these two fledgling and disparate societies to collide, the outcome will determine which world order will reign.

A profoundly heartening view of human nature, Beyond War offers a hopeful prognosis for a future without war. Douglas P. Fry convincingly argues that our ancient ancestors were not innately warlike--and neither are we. He points out that, for perhaps ninety-nine percent of our history, for well over a million years, humans lived in nomadic hunter-and-gatherer groups, egalitarian bands where warfare was a rarity. Drawing on archaeology and fascinating recent fieldwork on hunter-gatherer bands from around the world, Fry debunks the idea that war is ancient and inevitable. For instance, among Aboriginal Australians, warfare was an extreme anomaly. Fry also points out that even today, when war seems ever present, the vast majority of us live peaceful, nonviolent lives. We are not as warlike as we think, and if we can learn from our ancestors, we may be able to move beyond war to provide real justice and security for the world.

After thousands of years, the dream of a world without war may seem hopelessly unrealistic. But, as Winslow Myers shows in this concise, eloquent primer, what is truly unrealistic is the notion that war remains a reasonable solution to the conflicts on our planet. He begins by showing why war has become obsolete (though obviously not extinct): it doesn't solve the problems that ostensibly justify it; its costs are unacceptably high; the destructiveness of modern weapons could lead to human extinction; and there are better alternatives. After elaborating on these points, he outlines a new way of thinking that will be necessary if we are to move beyond war, in particular a recognition of our "oneness" and global interdependence. Finally, he outlines practical alternatives and inspiring examples that anticipate the goal of a world "beyond war."

A groundbreaking look at America’s role in the Middle East—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Rope and a Prayer Distilling eleven years of expert reporting for the New York Times, Reuters, and the Atlantic, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Rohde presents an incisive look at the calamitous privatization of the war on terror. Beyond War is a clarion call for change in American policies and attitudes toward a rapidly changing Middle East. Rohde argues that using lethal force is necessary at times, but economic growth and Muslim moderates —not American soldiers—will eradicate militancy in the long term. Vast mistakes have been made, but it is not too late. By scaling back our ambitions, focusing on economics and working with Muslim moderates, we will achieve more.

Beyond All Odds is a memoir of an American soldier in World War II. This firsthand account of the Battle of the Bulge features intense hardship, religious revelation, and the harsh realities of warfare. Written over forty years after returning home, Beyond All Odds is a reflective and anecdotal peek into the bloodiest battle of the war. With additional advice for the present day, Donald F. Vonachen provides readers with the wisdom that only a grandfather can provide.

What we know of war is always mediated knowledge and feeling. We need lenses to filter out some of its blinding, terrifying light. These lenses are not fixed; they change over time, and Jay Winter's panoramic history of war and memory offers an unprecedented study of transformations in our imaginings of war, from 1914 to the present. He reveals the ways in which different creative arts have framed our meditations on war, from painting and sculpture to photography, film and poetry, and ultimately to silence, as a language of memory in its own right. He shows how these highly mediated images of war, in turn, circulate through language to constitute our 'cultural memory' of war. This is a major contribution to our understanding of the diverse ways in which men and women have wrestled with the intractable task of conveying what twentieth-century wars meant to them and mean to us.

Han Solo of Star Wars could learn a thing or two from Firsten Guide, the tough, wise-cracking rebel leader who’s light years ahead of his time—and about to lead his crew into a battle that’s Beyond All Weapons. Because the force is most assuredly with Firsten. He and his fellow colonizers of Mars have faced a brutal crackdown engineered by Earth’s tyrannical government. But the resourceful Firsten has developed an extraordinary new fuel that enables him and his hardy band to escape into space—and time. Escape, however, is not enough. Firsten wants revenge. But the universe is full of unexpected twists and turns. Just as Prometheus flew too close to the sun, Firsten will soon discover that when you break the laws of physics, you can get burned. Hubbard was a pioneer in his use and development of Einstein’s theories of space and time as a plot point in his fiction. In Beyond All Weapons, he explains: “As mass approaches the speed of light ... it approaches infinity. And, as mass approaches infinity, time approaches zero. It was only nine days back from Alpha. But in those nine days, six thousand years have passed by Earth.” It stands as one of the earliest—and most succinct—descriptions of the theory. Also includes the science fiction adventures Strain, the story of a space war’s brutality and one man’s struggle to keep a secret under the pain of torture, and The Invaders, in which the distant crystal mines are under attack until a technician crystallizes a unique strategy to undermine the attackers. “A thrilling space adventure ... the terror and excitement builds through to the end.” —Publishers Weekly