Fatal North

The #1 New York Times bestselling author reveals “the chilling story” of disaster and suspected murder on the19th century Polaris expedition (Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter) Sponsored by the United States government, the Polaris expedition of 1871 was intended to be the first to reach the North Pole. By its end, the ship was sunk, Captain Charles Hall was dead under suspicious circumstances, and thirty-three men, women, and children were struggling to survive while stranded on the polar ice for six months. News of the disastrous expedition and accusations of murder lead to a national scandal, an official investigation, and a government cover-up. The true cause of the captain’s death remained unknown for nearly 100 years, until Charles Hall’s grave was found by a search party and opened. #1 New York Times bestselling author Bruce Henderson combines the transcripts of the U.S. Navy’s original inquest, the personal papers of Captain Hall, as well as his autopsy and forensic reports relating to his death, the ship’s log, and personal journals of the crew to tell the complete story of this mysterious tragedy. “Rewardingly suspenseful…Rousing sea adventure.” —Seattle Weekly “A factual historical mystery written by a gifted storyteller.” —Library Journal “The story is nothing short of incredible.” —Baton Rouge Advocate

Drawing on letters, illustrations, engravings, and neglected manuscripts, Christopher Iannini connects two dramatic transformations in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world--the emergence and growth of the Caribbean plantation system and the rise of natural science. Iannini argues that these transformations were not only deeply interconnected, but that together they established conditions fundamental to the development of a distinctive literary culture in the early Americas. In fact, eighteenth-century natural history as a literary genre largely took its shape from its practice in the Caribbean, an oft-studied region that was a prime source of wealth for all of Europe and the Americas. The formal evolution of colonial prose narrative, Ianinni argues, was contingent upon the emergence of natural history writing, which itself emerged necessarily from within the context of Atlantic slavery and the production of tropical commodities. As he reestablishes the history of cultural exchange between the Caribbean and North America, Ianinni recovers the importance of the West Indies in the formation of American literary and intellectual culture as well as its place in assessing the moral implications of colonial slavery.

An account of the first U.S. expedition to the North Pole describes a mission that ended in the suspicious death of its leader, Charles Hall, and a desperate struggle for survival on the polar ice.

In the long history of warfare, a recurring theme is the combined use of regular and irregular forces to pursue victory. The practice of employing regular and irregular forces together was not only applied, but also instrumental in bringing victory to the side that at the beginning of the conflict seemed clearly inferior to its opponent. The term “compound warfare” is used to describe this phenomenon of regular and irregular forces fighting in concert. This book is a compilation of examples of this pattern of warfare in many other times and places. Knowing how the dynamics of compound warfare have affected the outcome of past conflicts will better prepare us to meet both present crises and future challenges of a similar nature.