A man’s home is his castle, or so the saying goes, but could it withstand an attack by Attila and the Huns, Ragnar and the Vikings, Alexander and the Greeks, Genghis Khan and the Mongols, or Tamerlane and the Tartars? Backyard Ballistics author William Gurstelle poses this fascinating question to modern-day garage warriors and shows them how to build an arsenal of ancient artillery and fortifications aimed at withstanding these invading hordes. Each chapter introduces a new bad actor in the history of warfare, details his conquests, and features weapons and fortifications to defend against him and his minions. Clear step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build a dozen projects, including “Da Vinci’s Catapult,” “Carpini’s Crossbow,” a “Crusader-Proof Moat,” “Alexander’s Tortoise,” and the “Cheval-de-frise.” With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also gives tips on troubleshooting, explains the physics behind many of the projects, and shows where to buy the materials. By the time they’ve reached the last page, at-home defenders everywhere will have succeeded in creating a fully fortified home.

In this buried chapter of American history, a nearly forgotten case of famed attorney Clarence Darrow comes hauntingly to the surface. In 1925 the NAACP approached Darrow to defend Ossian Sweet -- a highly respected black doctor who, after integrating an all-white neighborhood in Detroit, found himself the victim of a community attack. When Sweet and his family fought back, they were caught in a melee in which a white man was fatally shot. The trial that ensued, one of the most urgent and compelling in the nation's history, would test the basic tenets of the American Dream -- the right of a man to defend his own home. Tautly researched and harrowingly reported, One Man's Castle is an important slice of American legal history and the history of the civil rights (Kirkus Reviews).

"Text and detailed drawings follow the planning and construction of a "typical" castle and adjoining town in thirteenth-century Wales."--Title page verso.

A history of America’s Stand Your Ground gun laws, from Reconstruction to Trayvon Martin After a young, white gunman killed twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, conservative legislators lamented that the tragedy could have been avoided if the schoolteachers had been armed and the classrooms equipped with guns. Similar claims were repeated in the aftermath of other recent shootings—after nine were killed in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and in the aftermath of the massacre in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Despite inevitable questions about gun control, there is a sharp increase in firearm sales in the wake of every mass shooting. Yet, this kind of DIY-security activism predates the contemporary gun rights movement—and even the stand-your-ground self-defense laws adopted in thirty-three states, or the thirteen million civilians currently licensed to carry concealed firearms. As scholar Caroline Light proves, support for “good guys with guns” relies on the entrenched belief that certain “bad guys with guns” threaten us all. Stand Your Ground explores the development of the American right to self-defense and reveals how the original “duty to retreat” from threat was transformed into a selective right to kill. In her rigorous genealogy, Light traces white America’s attachment to racialized, lethal self-defense by unearthing its complex legal and social histories—from the original “castle laws” of the 1600s, which gave white men the right to protect their homes, to the brutal lynching of “criminal” Black bodies during the Jim Crow era and the radicalization of the NRA as it transitioned from a sporting organization to one of our country’s most powerful lobbying forces. In this convincing treatise on the United States’ unprecedented ascension as the world’s foremost stand-your-ground nation, Light exposes a history hidden in plain sight, showing how violent self-defense has been legalized for the most privileged and used as a weapon against the most vulnerable.

When a large scale disaster happens emotions will run high. After just a few days, starving people will become desperate and convince themselves that they need to turn on their friends and their neighbors for food and other necessities. Other people will take advantage of the crisis and begin to loot from the victims. Politics will also no doubt play a role in the disaster as people quickly turn to the government for help only to then quickly turn against the government once they start blaming politicians for the catastrophe. You will encounter dangerous riots, violent demonstrations, organized raiding parties and marauders, looters, burglars, and once ordinary people who have turned into savages. Antagonistic people will emerge as leaders during the demonstrations and begin to push their agendas. As an ordinary citizen, you have to consider all of this during a disaster. You will be confronted with people who are hellbent on inflicting physical harm on you in order to loot your home. Not only do you need to have plenty of emergency essentials, such as water, food, and medicines stocked up, but you also need to strongly consider home defense as well. The typical American house is ill-equipped to withstand a home invasion. This is why you must take the necessary steps to modify your house to make it more defensive friendly and to increase your chances of successfully defending it should you be attacked. What I am asking you to do is to treat your house like its your castle. In the Medieval ages, castles were well fortified and defended in order to protect the supplies and the lives of the people inside. Your house should be no different. You must fortify it and defend it in order to protect your survival stockpile and the lives of your family. This book is going to discuss thirty one lessons (plus a bonus lesson) on how to transform your ordinary house into an impenetrable fortress to keep you and your family safe from attack during disaster. During disaster, you may be attacked by any of the following parties: Violent Demonstrators Violent Rioters Organized Raiding Parties Burglars Your Own Neighbors If people in any of those above categories have any reason to take your house, such as if word gets out that you have food and water, then you will be attacked. You have to know how to modify your home to make it more easily defensible and how to defend it, and that's exactly what this book is going to teach you how to do. After reading this book and applying what it teaches you, your home will become more than just your home. It will become your castle.

K. J. Parker's new novel is the remarkable tale of the siege of a walled city, and the even more remarkable man who had to defend it. A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all. To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job. Sixteen Ways To Defend a Walled City is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the deeds and sufferings of great men may never be forgotten.

Synopsis coming soon.......