Darkness at Chancellorsville


Book Description

Ralph Peters' Darkness at Chancellorsville is a novel of one of the most dramatic battles in American history, from the New York Times bestselling, three-time Boyd Award-winning author of the Battle Hymn Cycle. Centered upon one of the most surprising and dramatic battles in American history, Darkness at Chancellorsville recreates what began as a brilliant, triumphant campaign for the Union—only to end in disaster for the North. Famed Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson bring off an against-all-odds surprise victory, humiliating a Yankee force three times the size of their own, while the Northern army is torn by rivalries, anti-immigrant prejudice and selfish ambition. This historically accurate epic captures the high drama, human complexity and existential threat that nearly tore the United States in two, featuring a broad range of fascinating—and real—characters, in blue and gray, who sum to an untold story about a battle that has attained mythic proportions. And, in the end, the Confederate triumph proved a Pyrrhic victory, since it lured Lee to embark on what would become the war's turning point—the Gettysburg Campaign (featured in Cain At Gettysburg). At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Chancellorsville


Book Description

A new look at the Civil War battle that led to Stonewall Jackson’s death: A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and “tour de force in military history” (Library Journal). From the award-winning, national bestselling author of Gettysburg, this is the definitive account of the Chancellorsville campaign, from the moment “Fighting Joe” Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac to the Union’s stinging, albeit temporary, defeat. Along with a vivid description of the experiences of the troops, Stephen Sears provides “a stunning analysis of how terrain, personality, chance, and other factors affect fighting and distort strategic design” (Library Journal). “Most notable is his use of Union military intelligence reports to show how Gen. Joseph Hooker was fed a stream of accurate information about Robert E. Lee’s troops; conversely, Sears points out the battlefield communications failures that hampered the Union army at critical times . . . A model campaign study, Sears’s account of Chancellorsville is likely to remain the standard for years to come.” —Publishers Weekly “The finest and most provocative Civil War historian writing today.” —Chicago Tribune Includes maps




Cain at Gettysburg


Book Description

Winner of the American Library Association's W. Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction Two mighty armies blunder toward each other, one led by confident, beloved Robert E. Lee and the other by dour George Meade. They'll meet in a Pennsylvania crossroads town where no one planned to fight. In this sweeping, savagely realistic novel, the greatest battle ever fought on American soil explodes into life at Gettysburg. As generals squabble, staffs err. Tragedy unfolds for immigrants in blue and barefoot Rebels alike. The fate of our nation will be decided in a few square miles of fields. Following a tough Confederate sergeant from the Blue Ridge, a bitter Irish survivor of the Great Famine, a German political refugee, and gun crews in blue and gray, Cain at Gettysburg is as grand in scale as its depictions of combat are unflinching. For three days, battle rages. Through it all, James Longstreet is haunted by a vision of war that leads to a fateful feud with Robert E. Lee. Scheming Dan Sickles nearly destroys his own army. Gallant John Reynolds and obstreperous Win Hancock, fiery William Barksdale and dashing James Johnston Pettigrew, gallop toward their fates.... There are no marble statues on this battlefield, only men of flesh and blood, imperfect and courageous. From New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Army officer Ralph Peters, Cain at Gettysburg is bound to become a classic of men at war. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Surviving Southampton


Book Description

The local community around the Nat Turner rebellion The 1831 Southampton Rebellion led by Nat Turner involved an entire community. Vanessa M. Holden rediscovers the women and children, free and enslaved, who lived in Southampton County before, during, and after the revolt. Mapping the region's multilayered human geography, Holden draws a fuller picture of the inhabitants, revealing not only their interactions with physical locations but also their social relationships in space and time. Her analysis recasts the Southampton Rebellion as one event that reveals the continuum of practices that sustained resistance and survival among local Black people. Holden follows how African Americans continued those practices through the rebellion’s immediate aftermath and into the future, showing how Black women and communities raised children who remembered and heeded the lessons absorbed during the calamitous events of 1831. A bold challenge to traditional accounts, Surviving Southampton sheds new light on the places and people surrounding Americas most famous rebellion against slavery.




Valley of the Shadow


Book Description

Winner of the 2015 Boyd Award for Literary Excellence in Military Fiction In the Valley of the Shadow, they wrote their names in blood. From a daring Confederate raid that nearly seized Washington, D.C., to a stunning reversal on the bloody fields of Cedar Creek, the summer and autumn of 1864 witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of our Civil War—in mighty battles now all but forgotten. The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, breadbasket of the Confederacy and the South's key invasion route into the North, pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: runty, rough-hewn Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart, stubborn, raw-mouthed and deadly; the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon, a charismatic Georgian who lived one of the era's greatest love stories. From hungry, hard-bitten Rebel privates to a pair of Union officers destined to become presidents, from a neglected hero who saved our nation's capital and went on to write one of his century's greatest novels, to doomed Confederate leaders of incomparable valor, Ralph Peters brings to life yesteryear's giants and their breathtaking battles with the same authenticity, skill and insight he offered readers in his prize-winning Civil War bestsellers, Cain at Gettysburg and Hell or Richmond. Sharp as a bayonet and piercing as a bullet, Valley of the Shadow is a great novel of our grandest, most-tragic war. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The War After Armageddon


Book Description

Imagines a post-apocalyptic war launched by America in retaliation against Islamic extremists who have used nuclear weapons to destroy Los Angeles, Israel, and parts of Europe, a battle that is complicated by anti-Muslim Christian zealots.




Twilight of Heroes


Book Description

Twilight of Heroes is a tale of international suspense set amid the recent drug wars in Latin America. The novel follows an American colonel plagued by his conscience, a female doctor fighting deadly odds, a dangerously arrogant American ambassador, a Bolivian playboy who falls in love with the woman he planned to betray, and a teenage assassin from the slums of Colombia. Ranging from the lawless South American backcountry to the halls of Washington, D.C., this is the finest novel--or work of any kind--written about the men and women whose fates are tied to politics, cocaine, and the gun.




Shadows of Glory


Book Description

In a snow-swept Northern town, Union officer Major Abel Jones struggles to solve the riddle of Federal agents tortured to death.




Endless War


Book Description

Endless War features controversial strategist Ralph Peters at his most provocative and popular, raising perceptive, often shocking questions others fear to ask. In a sweeping collection that ranges from Muslim military triumphs a thousand years ago through the turning of the tide between East and West to the brutal unconventional struggles of today and tomorrow, former Military Intelligence officer Peters extends his successful series of books on strategy and security affairs that have won him diehard fans for his insight, firsthand experience, and frankness. Endless War engages the toughest security issues of our time, including: Does our Afghan war make sense? Can we win? Do we even have a strategy? ; Has flawed military planning left our troops as virtual hostages in combat zones? ; Can Israel survive? What would an Iranian nuclear arsenal mean for the world? ; Is Islam a "religion of peace," or has the war between Islam and Western civilization continued virtually without interruption for almost fourteen centuries? ; Why doesn't the greatest superpower in history win more often? Are we our own worst enemies? ; Have we lost our sense of warfare's reality? Why don't we fight to win? ; Do terrorist prisoners really deserve better treatment than American citizens? ; What's the true price of striking serious history courses from our schools? ; Who does deeper damage to the United States, our violent enemies or arrogant ruling elite? In powerful prose combining clarity with passion, Ralph Peters continues to shape our country's military and strategic thought, while standing up for our troops and American values. No book on strategy or foreign affairs this year will be fiercer or more brutally honest. As ever more dark clouds gather over the world, this is a voice we need!--Publisher description.




Beyond Baghdad


Book Description

In Beyond Baghdad, America's most provocative writer on strategy recounts the liberation of Iraq and analyzes its implications for the future of U.S. military strategy and foreign policy. Author Ralph Peters describes future threats at home and abroad, offers startling insights into today's most pressing issues, and highlights global opportunities that lie, unrecognized, within our grasp. Written in his trademark style--powerful, lively, and accessible--Peters's themes range from the lessons of recent combat experiences to a proposed revolutionary redesign of Washington's international strategy. Certain to be widely read and heatedly discussed, Beyond Baghdad is destined to become one of the most influential books of the decade.