In The Trenches

“My name is Weetaltuk; Eddy Weetaltuk. My Eskimo tag name is E9-422.” So begins From the "Tundra to the Trenches." Weetaltuk means “innocent eyes” in Inuktitut, but to the Canadian government, he was known as E9-422: E for Eskimo, 9 for his community, 422 to identify Eddy. In 1951, Eddy decided to leave James Bay. Because Inuit weren’t allowed to leave the North, he changed his name and used this new identity to enlist in the Canadian Forces: Edward Weetaltuk, E9-422, became Eddy Vital, SC-17515, and headed off to fight in the Korean War. In 1967, after fifteen years in the Canadian Forces, Eddy returned home. He worked with Inuit youth struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and, in 1974, started writing his life’s story. This compelling memoir traces an Inuk’s experiences of world travel and military service. Looking back on his life, Weetaltuk wanted to show young Inuit that they can do and be what they choose. From the Tundra to the Trenches is the fourth book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or underappreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This new English edition of Eddy Weetaltuk’s memoir includes a foreword and appendix by Thibault Martin and an introduction by Isabelle St-Amand.

This moving book about peace, understanding, and unity is based on the real-life World War I event known as the Christmas Truce. It is cold and clear on Christmas Eve night in 1914. Suddenly, a strange sound pierces the darkness. Someone is singing a Christmas carol in German. Francis Tolliver and his fellow British soldiers are holed up in muddy trenches along the Western Front. Their enemies—German soldiers—lie in wait just across a field known as "No Man's Land." As the Germans' carol ends, Tolliver and the other British soldiers sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Soon carols are being sung back and forth. Then a figure emerges in the dark, carrying a small Christmas tree with lighted candles. The British and German soldiers slowly leave their trenches—and the war—behind to stand together in the open field. This haunting story is adapted by award-winning songwriter John McCutcheon from his song of the same name. Henri Sørensen's traditional, full-color oil paintings reinforce the emotional power and dignity of the story. Back matter provides more information about the historical event, and a CD featuring readings of the story and recordings of "Silent Night" and "Christmas in the Trenches" is included.

In the Trenches at Petersburg, the final volume of Earl J. Hess's trilogy of works on the fortifications of the Civil War, recounts the strategic and tactical operations around Petersburg during the last ten months of the Civil War. Hess covers all aspects of the Petersburg campaign, from important engagements that punctuated the long months of siege to mining and countermining operations, the fashioning of wire entanglements and the laying of torpedo fields to impede attacks, and the construction of underground shelters to protect the men manning the works. In the Trenches at Petersburg humanizes the experience of the soldiers working in the fortifications and reveals the human cost of trench warfare in the waning days of the struggle.

Part of the million-selling MY STORY series that brings the past into the real world, giving it a truly human touch. TRENCHES is set in 1917 and is the story of Billy Stevens, a telegraph operator, stationed near Ypres. The Great War has been raging for three years when Billy finds himself taking part in the deadly Big Push. But he is shocked to discover that the bullets of his fellow soldiers aren't just aimed at the enemy. Vividly imagined and historically accurate, readers are taken on a first-hand journey of danger and peril.

The experiences of World War I from the perspectives of soldiers on the battle field and their families at home.

Tatiana L. Dubinskaya’s autobiographical novel of life in the Russian army marked the first major work published by a female World War I soldier in the Soviet Union. Often compared to All Quiet on the Western Front, Dubinskaya’s stark and unsparing story presents a rare look at women in combat and one of the few works of fiction set on the eastern front. Zinaida, a Russian schoolgirl, runs away from home to join the army. Sent to the front, she endures the horrors of trench warfare and the hardships of military life. Undercurrents of revolutionary thinking filter into the ranks as morale begins to crumble. Zinaida must come to grips with the havoc unleashed by the czar’s overthrow and the new socialist government’s attempts to impose revolutionary reforms on the army. Destabilization and desertion follow, and her regiment joins the chaotic mass retreat of the Russian army in the summer of 1917. In addition to Dubinskaya’s original novel, this edition includes selections from her 1936 autobiographical work, Machine Gunner, which she rewrote to satisfy Stalinist censors.

The urban crisis of the 1960s revived a dormant social activism whose protagonists placed their hoped for radical change and political effectiveness in community action. Ironically, the insurgents chose the local community as their terrain for a political battle that in reality involved a few strictly local issues. They failed to achieve their goals, Ira Katznelson argues, not so much because they had chosen their ground badly but because the deep split of the American political landscape into workplace politics and community politics defeats attempts to address grievances or raise demands that break the rules of bread-and-butter unionism on the one hand or of local politics on the other. A fascinating record of the encounter between today’s reformers—the community activists—and the powers they challenge. City Trenches is also a probing analysis of the causes of urban instability. Katznelson anatomizes the unique workings of the American urban system which allow it to contain opposition through “machine” politics and, as a last resort, institutional innovation and co-optation, for example, the authorities’ own version of decentralization used in the 1960s as a counter to a “community control.” Washington Heights–Inwood, a multi-ethnic working-class community in northern Manhattan, provides the setting for an absorbing close-up view of the historical evolution of local politics: the challenge to the system in the 1960s and its reconstitution in the 1970s.

The IT management profession is not for the faint of heart. Anyone who has worked in this field is familiar with the unique (and borderline impossible) challenges of keeping pace with technological innovation while maintaining legacy systems, reskilling existing staff members and operating on shrinking budgets. Truth from the Trenches passes on the hard-won leadership lessons that six-time CIO Mark Settle gained over years of working in IT management. Settle describes the key constituencies that an IT leader needs to influence, seduce, leverage, and manage to be successful. His practical recommendations will allow readers to improve their organizational impact and accelerate their career advancement. In a sector where competency stems not from formal certification but on-the-job learning, Truth from the Trenches is a valuable and unique resource that is based on Settle’s deep experience working in a wide variety of industries. By applying Settle’s strategies, IT leaders will be able to avoid common pitfalls, save themselves from wasting time and on hopeless initiatives, and successfully do battle with the people issues, financial challenges, customer problems and technology opportunities they confront on a daily basis.