Vietnam is sometimes called the land of the rising serpent, or dragon, because its geographical landmass resembles a serpent (or dragon) in an upward configuration. In this book, taken from Colonel Fer's personal experience of more than six years of Communist incarceration at the hands of the North Vietnamese, one learns of his surprising, actually shocking, awakening from the idyllic world of an idealistic, future-oriented combat pilot backward into the ancient world of warfare, where brutality toward POWs was the norm. Wounded by shrapnel when his EB-66C aircraft was shot down by surface-to-air missiles on February 4, 1967, he recounts his seventy-three months of captivity, which brought him face-to-face with mistreatment and deprivation and Communist charge that he was a war criminal and subject to tribunals. It was also a world of deprivation that ignored any considerations of treatment according to international diplomatic agreements or international humanitarian law. A bachelor when he was captured, and denied any communication with them for over three years, Colonel Fer articulates his parents' actions in trying to learn his fate for the nearly four years it was unknown to them. Throughout his imprisonment, his resistance to brutal treatment and intense Communist attempts to indoctrinate him with anti-Americanism, Colonel Fer relied on his three faiths: in God, in America, and in his fellow POWs. The release of the POWs in 1973 was a joyous international event of immense proportions, and he describes his return to America on March 8, the attention, and the numerous requests for speaking engagements and other public appearances. The events of his return also eventually brought his marriage to Nancy, whom he still holds in great reverence. Colonel Fer describes his experience as a POW as "the best thing that ever happened to [him]" because it brought clarity of how to better understand America and its people.

When Lieutenant Robert Wideman's plane crashed on a bombing run in the Vietnam War, he feared falling into enemy hands. Although he endured the kind of pain that makes people question humanity, physical torture was not his biggest problem. During six years as a prisoner of war, he saw the truth behind Jean-Paul Sartre's words: "Hell is other people." Unexpected Prisoner explores a POW's struggle with enemies and comrades, Vietnamese interrogators and American commanders, his lost dreams and ultimately himself.

In May 1969, at the peak of the Vietnam War, two American prisoners of war escaped from a brutal North Vietnamese prison camp. Their story is one of incredible bravery against the longest of odds-and also one of bitter conflict. Air Force Captains John Dramesi and Ed Atterberry escaped with help from their fellow prisoners, but that help was not given freely. Their attempt killed one man and brought many others a lifetime of pain.THE PARTY DOLLS tells the true, tragic story of an escape code-named the "Party." The story is told by the men who lived it, American POWs, via interviews conducted by the author some two decades ago, but never published until now. For decades, questions lingered about how Dramesi and Atterberry did it, and how Atterberry died, even among their fellow prisoners. Indeed, the story of the Party is virtually unknown outside Vietnam POW circles. THE PARTY DOLLS opens the door into one of the most tortured stories of the Vietnam War.The story opens in April 1968, in a Hanoi POW camp called the Annex. John Dramesi believed it was American POWs' duty to escape, mandated by the U.S. military's Code of Conduct, even though there was virtually no chance of successfully reaching freedom. Dramesi's cellmates believed any attempted escape would violate standing orders and the Code of Conduct, whose articles were vague and conflicting, and subject them to horrible tortures and suffering. Nonetheless, Dramesi recruits one man, quiet and unassuming Ed Atterberry, to go with him. They and their reluctant cellmates spend the next year devising a way out of the cell, building, and camp, while amassing props and supplies that can aid the escape. Their story, told by Dramesi and nearly a dozen other former POWs, includes anecdotes, arguments, conflicts and incidents, some humorous, some horrifying, and some graphically raw. Ultimately, Dramesi and Atterberry escape, only to be recaptured, and causing months of suffering for dozens of American POWs throughout the summer of 1969.

Discover the untold story of Hak Ja Han Moon, the North Korean village girl who is now known to millions as the Mother of Peace. Her heart-wrenching story reveals details of a war-torn childhood and trials of faith as she and her late husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, built a vast and still-growing international movement capable of fulfilling God's will for peace in the 21st century.A major milestone of her life, described in never-told-before detail, was her marriage in 1960, at age 17, to the charismatic Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon. For the next 52 years, she joined him in the daunting task of building a global interfaith movement to fulfill God's will for peace in the 21st century.Mother Moon's journey as a religious woman leader is breathtaking: Born in Japanese-occupied Korea in 1943, she spent her early life in nature so she could commune with God. War forced her to flee south with her mother and grandmother; they crossed the Han River Bridge minutes before it was blown up. Later, she walked and worked side-by-side with Father Moon, one of history's most energetic and visionary men. They visited every corner of the earth and, despite relentless persecution, met with world leaders, including Mikhail Gorbachev and Kim Il Sung, to bring God's message for them.During this time, she bore 14 children and buried four. She stood with Father Moon for hours as they officiated at Marriage Blessing Ceremonies for hundreds of thousands of couples. Together, they launched hundreds of organizations and businesses to serve youth, family and peacemaking.Since Father Moon's passing in 2012, Mother Moon has shouldered the leadership of their still-growing movement. She has led "Peace Starts With Me" rallies in six continents and plans to bring Blessing Ceremonies to all people.

Like music, art is a universal language. Although looking at works of art is a pleasurable enough experience, to appreciate them fully requires certain skills and knowledge." --Carol Strickland, from the introduction to The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern * This heavily illustrated crash course in art history is revised and updated. This second edition of Carol Strickland's The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern offers an illustrated tutorial of prehistoric to post-modern art from cave paintings to video art installations to digital and Internet media. * Featuring succinct page-length essays, instructive sidebars, and more than 300 photographs, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern takes art history out of the realm of dreary textbooks, demystifies jargon and theory, and makes art accessible-even at a cursory reading. * From Stonehenge to the Guggenheim and from Holbein to Warhol, more than 25,000 years of art is distilled into five sections covering a little more than 200 pages.

From the earliest period of its existence, Christianity has been recognized as the "religion of the cross." Some of the great monuments of Western art are representations of the brutal torture and execution of Christ. Despite the horror of crucifixion, we often find such images beautiful. The beauty of the cross expresses the central paradox of Christian faith: the cross of Christ's execution is the symbol of God's victory over death and sin. The cross as an aesthetic object and as a means of devotion corresponds to the mystery of God's wisdom and power manifest in suffering and apparent failure. In this volume, Richard Viladesau seeks to understand the beauty of the cross as it developed in both theology and art from their beginnings until the eve of the renaissance. He argues that art and symbolism functioned as an alternative strand of theological expression -- sometimes parallel to, sometimes interwoven with, and sometimes in tension with formal theological reflection on the meaning of the Crucifixion and its role insalvation history. Using specific works of art to epitomize particular artistic and theological paradigms, Viladesau then explores the contours of each paradigm through the works of representative theologians as well as liturgical, poetic, artistic, and musical sources. The beauty of the cross is examined from Patristic theology and the earliest representations of the Logos on the cross, to the monastic theology of victory and the Romanesque crucified "majesty," to the Anselmian "revolution" that centered theological and artistic attention on the suffering humanity of Jesus, and finally to the breakdown of the high scholastic theology of the redemption in empirically concentrated nominalism and the beginnings of naturalism in art. By examining the relationship between aesthetic and conceptual theology, Viladesau deepens our understanding of the foremost symbol of Christianity. This volume makes an important contribution to an emerging field, breaking new ground in theological aesthetics. The Beauty of the Cross is a valuable resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the passion of Christ and its representation.

A collection of short stories from Africa covering a range of subjects, from the conflict between traditional and new ways of life and values, to the role of women in society. The main introduction provides a background for discussion, as well as ideas for students to use in their own writing.