A comprehensive study of the Florida Brigade, which served under Robert E. Lee in the famed Army of Northern Virginia.

Annotation A comprehensive study of the East Texas unit that served as a part of Walker's Texas division in the Trans-Mississippi Department.

The thrilling look into the last decades of ancient Greek freedom leading up to Alexander the Great's destruction of Thebes--and the saga of the greatest military corps of the age, the Theban Sacred Band.

An introduction to Spartan Races (races meant to challenge, to push, to intimidate, to test) from one of the "founding few" and creators, Joe De Sena.

In the decades before the Civil War, the miserable living conditions of New York City's lower east side nurtured the gangs of New York. This book tells the story of the Bowery Boys, one gang that emerged as part urban legend and part street fighters for the city's legions of young workers. Poverty and despair led to a gang culture that was easily politicized, especially under the leadership of Mike Walsh who led a distinct faction of the Bowery Boys that engaged in the violent, almost anarchic, politics of the city during the 1840s and 1850s. Amid the toppled ballot boxes and battles for supremacy on the streets, many New Yorkers feared Walsh's gang was at the frontline of a European-style revolution. A radical and immensely popular voice in antebellum New York, Walsh spoke in the unvarnished language of class conflict. Admired by Walt Whitman and feared by Tammany Hall, Walsh was an original, wildly unstable character who directed his aptly named Spartan Band against the economic and political elite of New York City and New England. As a labor organizer, state legislator, and even U.S. Congressman, the leader of the Bowery Boys fought for shorter working hours, the right to strike, free land for settlers on the American frontier, against child labor, and to restore dignity to the city's growing number of industrial workers.

“One of the best books about the ancient world I’ve ever read. . . . lively and informative.” —Toy Solder & Model Figure For a period of some 200 years, Sparta was acknowledged throughout the Greek world as the home of the finest soldiers—Xenophon called them “the only true craftsmen in matters of war.” In this book, Nic Fields explains the reasons for this superiority, how their reputation for invincibility was earned (and deliberately manipulated), and how it was ultimately shattered. The Spartan Way examines how Spartan society, through its rigid laws and brutal educational system, was thoroughly militarized and devoted to producing warriors suited to the intense demands of hoplite warfare—professional killers inculcated with the values of unwavering obedience and a willingness to fight and die for their city. The role of Spartan women, as mothers and wives, in shaping the warrior ethic is considered, as are the role of uniform and rigorous training in enhancing the small-unit cohesion within the phalanx and the psychological intimidation of the enemy. The final chapters chart the course of Sparta’s successes through the period of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, through the Corinthian and Theban wars of the fourth century BC, which culminated with the shattering military defeats at Leuctra and 2nd Mantinea, and the years of her decline with the Spartans as a source of mercenaries for the wars of other states. Includes maps