The image of the U.S. Marines raising the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima may very well be the most famous photograph of all time. While Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's iconic picture - captured in the final stages of World War II - fuses the men into a single historic unit, they remain six individuals and each was an American woman's precious baby boy. From an overall historical viewpoint, given that what we see in the photograph is American teamwork, courage and victory, the individual identities may not matter; nonetheless, each of the six men has a unique background and traveled a distinctive path to reach the summit of Mt. Suribachi. Through exhaustive research into sources public and private, Ron Elliott has detailed the heart-warming and heart-wrenching drama that is the life and legacy of one of the flag raisers, Franklin Runyon Sousley. Sousley's story is related with all the tragedy, humor and excitement that compose the remarkable life of one chosen by fate to be representative of the thousands of Americans who sacrificed so much to preserve our way of life.

"Investigating Iwo encourages us to explore the connection between American visual culture and World War II, particularly how the image inspired Marines, servicemembers, and civilians to carry on with the war and to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure victory over the Axis Powers. Chapters shed light on the processes through which history becomes memory and gains meaning over time. The contributors ask only that we be willing to take a closer look, to remain open to new perspectives that can deepen our understanding of familiar topics related to the flag raising, including Rosenthal's famous picture, that continue to mean so much to us today"--

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men's paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island—an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo—three were killed during the battle—were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley's father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: “The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back. ” Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.

Preparing for the Rain on Iwo Jima Isle follows the life and military service of Marion Frank Walker, who was born and raised in a peaceful small town in southern Indiana during the Depression years. Frank was just 16 years old when America received that now legendary "wake-up call" on December 7th, 1941, as planes from Japanese aircraft carriers bombed and torpedoed the U.S. naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In Frank's words, "The world as we knew it changed overnight." Thus began the U.S. military involvement in World War II. Eager to serve his country, Frank managed to graduate from high school mid-term of his senior year, and at 17 years old became a proud member of the U.S. Marine Corps. The desire to serve and protect his beloved country would soon send him to the bloody battlefield of Iwo Jima. At 19 years old, he crawled through the volcanic ash that had turned purple from the blood of his fallen comrades, and saw gruesome sights that no person should ever have to witness. Frank is in the posed picture of the flag raising at Iwo Jima as photographed by Joe Rosenthal. He went on from there to become a part of the occupation force at Fukuoka, Japan. After reading of his experiences during this deeply troubling time in history, Frank and his surviving comrades only ask that the people of America remember the sacrifices that have been made for their freedom and that their fallen comrades be remembered.

Twenty years of silence. No one talked about it. No one wanted to. The public was shocked by ghastly televised images of an uncontrollable inferno and of the endless views of twisted, charred remains of what had been billed as "The Showplace of the Nation", now reduced to smoldering rubble with 167 of its guests dead. How could this happen? From its notorious early years of illegal gambling, glamorous night life, and organized crime to its reborn reputation as one of the finest entertainment and dining establishments in the country, the Beverly Hills Supper Club was frequented by the biggest stars, governors, politicians, and athletes of its day and never failed to deliver a good time. But, On May 28, 1977, the final curtain fell. Now you can know what really happened. Follow long-time Beverly Hills dealer, waiter, and finally captain, Wayne Dammert, in his personal inside account, Inside the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, of this renowned showplace and the horrifying events of one of our nations' worst disasters. Wayne Dammert and other survivors tell the inside story: true eyewitness accounts of the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire.

A fascinating exploration of how global cultures struggle to create their own "America" within a post-9/11 media culture, Fabricating the Absolute Fake reflects on what it might mean to truly take part in American pop culture.

Long before Charles Ponzi's name was permanently attached to the word "scheme" and a hundred years before Bernie Madoff mastered the investment con, Kentuckian Philip Arnold put together a plan which, like none before, would bilk rich (and greedy) investors with a "sting" entirely befitting America's stillwild West. Not content with simply swindling some of the country's brightest luminaries, politicians and highprofile celebrities of the day, Arnold did so in grand style, making himself and his story the subject of nationwide headlines. American El Dorado is the true story of how Philip Arnold and John Slack, cousins from Kentucky, convinced some of America's most notable citizens to invest in their discovery of an untouched field of precious stones in an unspecified Western location. So convincing was the scheme that even America's most famous jeweler, Charles Lewis Tiffany, was taken in. The con game made the pair rich - until the fraud was eventually revealed.