Insight into the Middle East from a general with long experience in the region: “His analysis of the revolution in Iran is particularly enlightening.” —John Simpson, BBC journalist With the Middle East in a state of persistent change and upheaval, there has long been a need for a comprehensive yet readable study that can give the intelligent and interested layperson a greater understanding of this diverse, complex region. Simon Mayall, whose links with the area are deep and longstanding, provides just that in Soldier in the Sand. As well as analyzing the Middle East’s history and religions, which strongly influence people’s actions, attitudes, and relationships, Mayall draws on his own experiences and impressions based on his many years in key military and diplomatic appointments in numerous countries. In addition to knowing many of the key players personally, he has studied, at leading universities, British policy and engagement in the area and he understands the effects of this long-term engagement. This invaluable book’s unique mixture of history, politics, academic study, and first-hand experience affords the reader an invaluable insight into a fascinating, fractured, and frustrating area of the world. General Mayall explains complex situations in a thoroughly accessible and human manner, as lecture audiences worldwide already know, and now his knowledge and common sense approach is also available in this important, entertaining book.

Nineteen-year-old Kate Brady joined the army to bring honor to her family and to the Middle East. Instead, she finds herself in a forgotten corner of the Iraq desert in 2003, guarding a makeshift American prison. There, Kate meets Naema Jassim, an Iraqi medical student whose father and little brother have been detained in the camp. Kate and Naema promise to help each other, but the war soon strains their intentions. Like any soldier, Kate must face the daily threats of combat duty, but as a woman, she is in equal danger from the predatory men in her unit. Naema suffers bombs, starvation, and the loss of her home and family. As the two women struggle to survive and hold on to the people they love, each comes to have a drastic and unforeseeable effect on the other’s life. Culled from real life experiences of female soldiers and Iraqis, Sand Queen offers a story of hope, courage and struggle from the rare perspective of women at war.

In 2007-08, Dr. Ray Wiss, a former infantry officer, served with the Canadian Forces at forward operating bases in Khandahar's Panjwayi valley, the area experiencing the most intense combat in Afghanistan. He spent more time in the combat area than any other Canadian physician, and his successful first book, FOB Doc, was the diary of his time "outside the wire" during that tour of duty. Captain Wiss' experience in Afghanistan convinced him that this conflict was a rare example of a moral war. When asked to return for an even longer tour of duty in the combat zone, he readily agreed. Once again, he kept a diary, writing with passion about the efforts, sacrifices and achievements of those Canadians who served with such distinction. Illustrated with over 100 colour photographs, A Line in the Sand tells us about virtually every kind of soldier fighting in Afghanistan: the bomb technician, the engineer, the combat medic, the "grunt" as well as about the Afghans, from whom we are seemingly so different yet with whom we share so much. It is an impassioned insider's view of the war in Afghanistan and a convincing testament to why it matters.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author lends his remarkable narrative skills to the story of the most famous POW this country has known. In I Am a Soldier, Too, Bragg lets Jessica Lynch tell the story of her capture in the Iraq War in her own words--not the sensationalized ones of the media's initial reports. Here we see how a humble rural upbringing leads to a stint in the military, one of the most exciting job options for a young person in Palestine, West Virginia. We see the real story behind the ambush in the Iraqi Desert that led to Lynch's capture. And we gain new perspective on her rescue from an Iraqi hospital where she had been receiving care. Here Lynch’s true heroism and above all, modesty, is allowed to emerge, as we're shown how she managed her physical recovery from her debilitating wounds and contended with the misinformation--both deliberate and unintended--surrounding her highly publicized rescue. In the end, what we see is a uniquely American story of courage and true heroism.

The Sand-Reckoner from author Gillian Bradshaw is a historical account that reimagines the life of one of ancient Greek's greatest minds. The young scholar Archimedes has just had the best three years of his life at Ptolemy's Museum at Alexandria. To be able to talk and think all day, every day, sharing ideas and information with the world's greatest minds, is heaven to Archimedes. But heaven must be forsaken when he learns that his father is ailing, and his home city of Syracuse is at war with the Romans. Reluctant but resigned, Archimedes takes himself home to find a job building catapults as a royal engineer. Though Syracuse is no Alexandria, Archimedes also finds that life at home isn't as boring or confining as he originally thought. He finds fame and loss, love and war, wealth and betrayal-none of which affects him nearly as much as the divine beauty of mathematics. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Since the Second World War, Arab armed forces have consistently punched below their weight. They have lost many wars that by all rights they should have won, and in their best performances only ever achieved quite modest accomplishments. Over time, soldiers, scholars, and military experts have offered various explanations for this pattern. Reliance on Soviet military methods, the poor civil-military relations of the Arab world, the underdevelopment of the Arab states, and patterns of behavior derived from the wider Arab culture, have all been suggested as the ultimate source of Arab military difficulties. Armies of Sand, Kenneth M. Pollack's powerful and riveting history of Arab armies from the end of World War Two to the present, assesses these differing explanations and isolates the most important causes. Over the course of the book, he examines the combat performance of fifteen Arab armies and air forces in virtually every Middle Eastern war, from the Jordanians and Syrians in 1948 to Hizballah in 2006 and the Iraqis and ISIS in 2014-2017. He then compares these experiences to the performance of the Argentine, Chadian, Chinese, Cuban, North Korean, and South Vietnamese armed forces in their own combat operations during the twentieth century. The book ultimately concludes that reliance on Soviet doctrine was more of a help than a hindrance to the Arabs. In contrast, politicization and underdevelopment were both important factors limiting Arab military effectiveness, but patterns of behavior derived from the dominant Arab culture was the most important factor of all. Pollack closes with a discussion of the rapid changes occurring across the Arab world-political, economic, and cultural-as well as the rapid evolution in war making as a result of the information revolution. He suggests that because both Arab society and warfare are changing, the problems that have bedeviled Arab armed forces in the past could dissipate or even vanish in the future, with potentially dramatic consequences for the Middle East military balance. Sweeping in its historical coverage and highly accessible, this will be the go-to reference for anyone interested in the history of warfare in the Middle East since 1945.