Our hero spent three years in Africa and Italy. He was never shot at, hit no beach, dug no foxhole, but his memoir shows that it was was exciting behind the lines, too; not everyone could be in the front lines. In January of 1944 he joined the crew of a B25 bomber being ferried overseas to be used in "Operation Dragoon" - the invasion of southern France. In March, his troopship en route to Casablanca dodged a U-Boat in mid-Atlantic by turning back and sailing westward for half a day. He was stationed in exotic Marrakech, then Dakar, and then in Italy. He experienced rousing flights into Russian-controlled Budapest and Bucharest; encounters in Naples alleys with black marketers in cigarettes; young prostitutes pimped by kid brothers; and on days off, the Opera. At wars end he married a beautiful girl he had met in Chicago while in the Service. A Hollywood ending.

Ebbie is the autobiography of James E. Martin, who as an infant suffered the loss of his mother, a victim of a post-World War I influenza epidemic. For reasons never clarified, Martin's father abandoned him. The child's aunt and uncle took custody of him and planned to rear him as their own, but further family tragedy intervened which cast him upon a cruel journey of mistreatment and intrigue. A forty year saga transpired before Ebbie was able to discover his roots' leading him back his relatives. By telling his story of perseverance, the author does not wish himself to be perceived as a victim', but rather as an inspiration to many youth of today who are struggling to survive similar or worse circumstances than his own. His message to them is: Childhood is temporary. It is a time when others are in charge of your life. If your existence is dire, learn how to survive, to keep your sanity, and resolve not to allow your present conditions to wreak and sour your ultimate goal to endure and to become the kind of person which you will be proud of. It can be done. Others have done it and you can also do it.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first comprehensive account of the epoch-making Six-Day War, from the author of Ally—now featuring a fiftieth-anniversary retrospective Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Michael B. Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power changed—in the Middle East and in the world. A towering work of history and an enthralling human narrative, Six Days of War is the most important book on the Middle East conflict to appear in a generation. Praise for Six Days of War “Powerful . . . A highly readable, even gripping account of the 1967 conflict . . . [Oren] has woven a seamless narrative out of a staggering variety of diplomatic and military strands.”—The New York Times “With a remarkably assured style, Oren elucidates nearly every aspect of the conflict. . . . Oren’s [book] will remain the authoritative chronicle of the war. His achievement as a writer and a historian is awesome.”—The Atlantic Monthly “This is not only the best book so far written on the six-day war, it is likely to remain the best.”—The Washington Post Book World “Phenomenal . . . breathtaking history . . . a profoundly talented writer. . . . This book is not only one of the best books on this critical episode in Middle East history; it’s one of the best-written books I’ve read this year, in any genre.”—The Jerusalem Post “[In] Michael Oren’s richly detailed and lucid account, the familiar story is thrilling once again. . . . What makes this book important is the breadth and depth of the research.”—The New York Times Book Review “A first-rate new account of the conflict.”—The Washington Post “The definitive history of the Six-Day War . . . [Oren’s] narrative is precise but written with great literary flair. In no one else’s study is there more understanding or more surprise.”—Martin Peretz, Publisher, The New Republic “Compelling, perhaps even vital, reading.”—San Jose Mercury News

War has always been a dangerous business, bringing injury, wounds, and death, and--until recently--often disease. What has changed over time, most dramatically in the last 150 or so years, is the care these casualties receive and who provides it. This book looks at the history of how humanity has cared for its war casualties and veterans, from ancient times through the aftermath of World War II.