Regnery History – serie

It's unimaginable today, even for a generation that saw the Twin Towers fall and the Pentagon attacked. It's unimaginable because in 1814 enemies didn't fly overhead, they marched through the streets; and for 26 hours in August, the British enemy marched through Washington, D.C. and set fire to government buildings, including the U.S. Capitol and the White House.Relying on first-hand accounts, historian Jane Hampton Cook weaves together several different narratives to create a vivid, multidimensional account of the burning of Washington, including the escalation that led to it and the immediate aftermath. From James and Dolley Madison to the British admiral who ordered the White House set aflame, historical figures are brought to life through their experience of this unprecedented attack. The Burning of the White House is the story of a city invaded, a presidential family displaced, a nation humbled, and an American spirit that somehow remained unbroken.

A pivotal month. A presidency transformed. A nation forever changed.In Turning Point, independent historian Ryan S. Walters delivers a gripping, day-by-day narrative of the most decisive month of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—when the paths of Vietnam, the Great Society, and American political history converged.This powerful new work reveals how a single month produced the turning points that shaped LBJ’s legacy. From the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident—and the deceptive intelligence that led to Congress granting Johnson sweeping authority to wage war—to the landmark domestic breakthroughs of the Great Society, Walters exposes how August 1964 set the course for both one of America’s greatest social revolutions and one of its most disastrous foreign wars.Readers will uncover:The truth behind the Gulf of Tonkin, including the attack that never happened and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that pushed the U.S. into Vietnam.How the Economic Opportunity Act and Food Stamp Act, passed in the same month, launched Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty.”LBJ’s dramatic, almost last-minute decision to run for president in his own right—despite deep personal doubts and escalating political crises.The fierce rivalries, race riots, political intrigue at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, and the chilling discovery of three murdered civil-rights workers in Mississippi.How persistent questions about LBJ’s personal wealth nearly derailed his political future.Walters masterfully situates these events within the larger themes of Johnson’s presidency: the feud with Bobby Kennedy, chaos in South Vietnam, fractures within the Democratic Party, and the shadow of corruption that followed LBJ throughout his career.Perfect for readers of presidential history, Cold War studies, political biography, and fans of Robert Caro and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Turning Point delivers a fast-paced, authoritative look at the month that defined—and doomed—a presidency.

It was the endgame for Hitler's Reich.In the winter of 1944–45, Germany staked everything on its surprise campaign in the Ardennes, the “Battle of the Bulge.” But when American and Allied forces recovered from their initial shock, the German forces were left fighting for their very survival—especially on the Eastern Front, where the Soviet army was intent on matching, or even surpassing, Nazi atrocities.At the mercy of the Fuehrer, who refused to acknowledge reality and forbade German retreats, the Wehrmacht was slowly annihilated in horrific battles that have rarely been adequately covered in histories of the Second World War—especially the brutal Soviet siege of Budapest, which became known as the “Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS.”Capping a career that has produced more than forty books, Dr. Samuel W. Mitcham now tells the extraordinary tale of how Hitler’s once-dreaded war machine came to a cataclysmic end, from the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945.Making use of German wartime papers and memoirs—some rarely seen in English-language sources—Mitcham’s sweeping narrative deserves a place on the shelf of every student of World War II.

Best of the Year lists in the Economist, the Guardian, the Jerusalem Post, and the Wall Street JournalIn The Power and the Money, acclaimed presidential historian Tevi Troy takes readers on a riveting journey through the biggest battles between CEOs and the nation’s commander in chief. He unearths the untold stories – both political and personal – that have shaped America.Troy shows how the vast reach of the federal government became a critical fact of life for every business, entrepreneur, and innovator. Today, companies find themselves navigating a competitive landscape defined by stringent regulations, so top CEOs and key business leaders must influence the legislative and regulatory system. As public affairs teams and government relations experts put forward strategies to survive Washington, CEOs have become the most important warrior on the frontlines. The Power and the Money shows how some of the nation’s most important CEOs forged (and fumbled) relationships with the president.Troy also shows how the most powerful man in the world depends on CEOs. CEOs provide assistance in the form of personnel, policy insights, and campaign cash, but they also become essential foils for presidents, serving as both allies and convenient enemies.The Power and the Money reveals an intricate web of power, where CEOs need presidents, and presidents need CEOs. Troy shows how each must step carefully – or risk unpredictable costs and collateral damage. From heavyweights John D. Rockefeller and Mark Zuckerberg to Katherine Graham, Elon Musk, and more, Troy takes readers inside the friendships and the conflicts that shook the American economy and re-shaped America.Drawing on his experiences as bestselling historian and former senior White House aide, Troy offers unique insights and details that shed light on the growing, intertwining behemoths of government and big business – and what it means for the future of our nation.

After years spent honoring the stories of World War II veterans, and hearing their stories, Andrew Biggio, acclaimed author of The Rifle, turned his attention to the men who fought in the jungles, mountains, and villages of Vietnam War.Armed with the same determination to preserve history before it disappears, he traveled across the country to meet with Vietnam veterans from every branch of service to have them sign the rifle and hear their stories. As veterans shared their experiences, many for the first time, Biggio uncovered not only stories of combat, but stories of resilience, sacrifice, guilt, brotherhood, and survival.Killing Charlie: A Vietnam War Saga captures the raw humanity of the Vietnam veteran experience through firsthand accounts that are gripping, heartbreaking, and unforgettable. Through these interviews, Biggio bridges generations of warriors, exploring the lasting cost of war and the bonds forged between those who have carried its burden and shows the experience of the Vietnam War like it has never been seen before. At its core, Killing Charlie is a tribute to the men who fought in Vietnam, a mission to preserve their voices before they are lost to history, and a reminder that every veteran carries a story worth telling.

When John Wilkes Booth died—shot inside a burning barn and dragged out twelve days after he assassinated President Lincoln—all he had in his pocket were a compass, a candle, a diary, and five photographs of five different women. They were not ordinary women. Four of them were among the most beautiful actresses of the day; the fifth was Booth's wealthy fiancée. And those five women are just the tip of the iceberg. Before he shot the president of the United States and entered the annals of history as a killer, actor John Wilkes Booth had quite a way with women. There was the actress who cut his throat and almost killed him in a jealous rage. There was the prostitute who tried to kill herself because he abandoned her. There was the actress who would swear she witnessed him murdering Lincoln, even though she was thousands of miles away at the time. John Wilkes Booth was hungry for fame, touchy about politics, and a notorious womanizer. But this book isn't about John Wilkes Booth---not really. This book is about his women: women who were once notorious in their own right; women who were consumed by love, jealousy, strife, and heartbreak; women whose lives took wild turns before and after Lincoln's assassination; women whom have been condemned to the footnotes of history... until now.

It all started because of a rifle. The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero’s journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all -- WWII veterans.It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories.For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

On January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee climbed into a new spacecraft perched atop a large Saturn rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a routine dress rehearsal of their upcoming launch into orbit, then less than a month away. All three astronauts were experienced pilots and had dreams of one day walking on the moon. But little did they know, nor did anyone else, that once they entered the spacecraft that cold winter day they would never leave it alive. The Apollo program would be perilously close to failure before it ever got off the ground.But rather than dooming the space program, this tragedy caused the spacecraft to be completely overhauled, creating a stellar flying machine to achieve the program’s primary goal: putting man on the moon.Apollo 1 is a candid portrayal of the astronauts, the disaster that killed them, and its aftermath. In it, readers will learn:How the Apollo 1 spacecraft was doomed from the start, with miles of uninsulated wiring and tons of flammable materials in a pure oxygen atmosphere, along with a hatch that wouldn’t openHow, due to political pressure, the government contract to build the Apollo 1 craft went to a bidder with an inferior planHow public opinion polls were beginning to turn against the space program before the tragedy and got much worse afterApollo 1 is about America fulfilling its destiny of man setting foot on the moon. It’s also about the three American heroes who lost their lives in the tragedy, but whose lives were not lost in vain.

In 1939, as the Nazis closed in, Alfred Berger mailed a desperate letter to an American stranger who happened to share his last name. He and his wife, Viennese Jews, had found escape routes for their daughters. But now their money, connections, and emotional energy were nearly exhausted. Alfred begged the American recipient of the letter, “You are surely informed about the situation of all Jews in Central Europe.... By pure chance I got your address.... My daughter and her husband will go... to America.... Help us to follow our children.... It is our last and only hope....”After languishing in a California attic for decades, Alfred’s letter ended up in the hands of Faris Cassell, a journalist who couldn’t rest until she discovered the ending of the story. Traveling across the United States as well as to Austria, the Czech Republic, Belarus, and Israel, she uncovered an extraordinary story of heart-wrenching loss and unforgettable love that endures to this day.Did the Bergers’ desperate letter find a response? Did they—and their daughters—survive? Did they leave living descendants?You will find the answers here.A story that will move any reader, The Unanswered Letter is a poignant reminder that love and hope never die.

Two soliders of World War II, one American, a member of the Easy Company "Band of Brothers," and one a German, fight in the Battle of the Bulge, then meet decades later and help deliver one another from the nightmares of war. Stephen E. Ambrose and E.B. Fledge fans will exult in this tale of conflict and healing.“A quintessential tale. Once read, never to be forgotten.” —Erik Jendersen, lead writer of Band of Brothers on HBOSaving My Enemy is a “Band of Brothers” sequel like no other.Don Malarkey grew up scrappy and happy in Astoria, Oregon—jumping off roofs, playing pranks, a free-range American.Fritz Engelbert’s German boyhood couldn’t have been more different. Regimented and indoctrinated by the Hitler Youth, he was introspective and a loner.Both men fought in the Battle of the Bulge, the horrific climax of World War II in Europe. A paratrooper in the U.S. Army, Malarkey served a longer continuous stretch on the bloody front lines than any man in Easy Company. Engelbert, though he never killed an enemy soldier, spent decades wracked by guilt over his participation in the Nazi war effort.On the sixtieth anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, these two survivors met. Malarkey was a celebrity, having been featured in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, while Engelbert had passed the years in the obscurity of a remote German village.But both men were still scarred— haunted—by nightmares of war. And finally, after they met, they were able to save each other’s lives.Saving My Enemy is the unforgettable true story of two soldiers on opposing sides who became brothers in arms.

Tales of American combat and comradery in World War II all connected to the iconic rifle of the era, the M1 Garand. An award-winning author puts one such rifle into the hands of a series of vets, records their stories, and gathers their signatures on the rifle, in a pilgrimage and homage to heroism.It all started because of a rifle. The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero’s journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all -- WWII veterans.It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories.For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

See the Holocaust through the Eyes of Children.Stefan and Marion Hess's happy childhood was shattered in 1943. Torn from their home in Amsterdam, the six-year-old twins and their parents were deported to a place their mother called "this dying hell"—the infamous concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.Inseparable is the vivid account of one family's struggle to survive the Holocaust. In the camp, the children ran from SS soldiers, making it a game to see who could get closest to the guard towers before being warned they would be shot. Stefan and Marion witnessed their father beaten beyond recognition, dodged strafing warplanes, and somehow survived in a place where "the children were looking for bread between the corpses." Above all, this is the unforgettable story of a young mother and father who were willing to sacrifice everything for their children.From the Hesses' prosperous pre-war life in Germany to their desperate ride in a bulletstrafed boxcar through the rubble of the collapsing Third Reich, Faris Cassell weaves Stefan and Marion’s personal memories and historical details into a gripping narration of their family’s heroic fight for their lives.As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, the Hess twins' account of their childhood ordeal forces the reader to grapple with pure evil. And more important, it is an opportunity to offer the most meaningful of tributes to victims and survivors of the Third Reich—remembrance.

The British Empire, one of the most powerful forces in history, was also one of the most humane. Yet at its twilight, few were willing to defy the anti-colonial reaction that condemned millions to despotism under the regimes that replaced it. Sir Alan Burns was among them.In this lively and provocative work of history, Bruce Gilley vindicates Sir Alan’s view that decolonization was poorly managed and too swiftly executed, a view based not on imperialist nostalgia but on a sober assessment of the ravages of the twentieth century.Gilley demonstrates that Burns understood the benefits of colonial rule and correctly foretold the chaos that accompanied its rapid dissolution.Relying on previously unavailable documentation from Burns’s family, The Last Imperialist dethrones the revisionist historians and shatters their unbalanced accusations against European colonialism. This is history writing at its most courageous.

The myths about Franklin Delano Roosevelt live on.For the Left, FDR was a champion of the working class and the oppressed, suffering abuse as a “traitor to his class.” He gave up the lifestyle of the Hudson River gentry to lead his country out of the Depression and to victory against fascism. For many on the Right, FDR was out of his depth on economics but provided Americans with the optimism and confidence necessary to prevail during the Depression and gain victory in World War II.Debunking FDR: The Man and The Myths exposes the suppressed and distorted facts about FDR’s life and the legends about him (many invented by FDR himself!) promoted by generations of historians. Born into immense wealth and insulated from the struggles of everyday Americans, FDR’s young life was one of vast privilege and mediocre talents. Mary Grabar chronicles FDR’s path to the presidency: his second-rate studies at Harvard, his indifference to law school and the legal profession, and his steady, insouciant rise through the government ranks. You will not think of FDR the same way again.