The Path To Victory

Overturning the myth of the Mediterranean Theatre as a sideshow to the massive land war in Europe, a history of World War II explores the important military movements within this region that made it the pivotal struggle in the war.

Revised and with a new foreword from leading reform advocate COL (ret) Douglas MacGregor, PhD, Don Vandergriff revisits his 2002 manifesto for the evolution of the U.S. Army. From the foreword: "Few books in the history of the U.S. Army have made a more convincing argument for change than Don Vandergriff's Path to Victory: America's Army and the Revolution in Human Affairs. It is therefore a great privilege to offer some thoughts on the re-release of this important work. When Don's book appeared for the first time in 2002 it was not simply detailed account of the Army's personnel management system, its promotion policies and unit manning practices. It was also a critical examination of the Army as an institution and its extraordinary resistance to change in the way it identifies, develops and employs human talent. Most important, the book stipulated recommended changes informed by the ageless understanding that really great military success can be achieved only when leadership, technology and organization work hand in hand. If leadership were truly recognized inside and outside of the American military as a vital component of national military power, most of Don's Vandergriff's recommendations would have been embraced and implemented long ago".

World War II had many superlatives, but none like Operation Torch—a series of simultaneous amphibious landings, audacious commando and paratroop assaults, and the Atlantic’s biggest naval battle, fought across a two thousand mile span of coastline in French North Africa. The risk was enormous, the scale breathtaking, the preparations rushed, the training inadequate, and the ramifications profound. Torch was the first combined Allied offensive and key to how the Second World War unfolded politically and militarily. Nonetheless, historians have treated the subject lightly, perhaps because of its many ambiguities. As a surprise invasion of a neutral nation, it recalled German attacks against countries like Belgium, Norway, and Yugoslavia. The operation’s rationale was to aid Russia but did not do this. It was supposed to get Americans troops into the fight against Germany but did so only because it failed to achieve its short-term military goals. There is still debate whether Torch advanced the fight against the Axis, or was a wasteful dispersion of Allied strength and actually prolonged the war. Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory is a fresh look at this complex and controversial operation. The book covers the fierce Anglo-American dispute about the operation and charts how it fits into the evolution of amphibious warfare. It recounts the story of the fighting, focusing on the five landings—Port Lyautey, Fédala, and Safi in Morocco, and Oran and Algiers in Algeria—and includes air and ground actions from the initial assault to the repulse of Allied forces on the outskirts of Tunis. Torch also considers the operation’s context within the larger war and it incorporates the French perspective better than any English-language work on the subject. It shows how Torch brought France, as a power, back into the Allied camp; how it forced the English and the Americans to work together as true coalitions partners and forge a coherent amphibious doctrine. These skills were then applied to subsequent operations in the Mediterranean, in the English Channel, and in the Pacific. The story of how this was accomplished is the story of how the Allies brought their power to bear on the enemy’s continental base and won World War II."

The leading Wellington historian’s fascinating reassessment of the Iron Duke’s most famous victory and his role in the turbulent politics after Waterloo. For Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, his momentous victory over Napoleon was the culminating point of a brilliant military career. Yet Wellington’s achievements were far from over: he commanded the allied army of occupation in France to the end of 1818, returned home to a seat in Lord Liverpool’s cabinet, and became prime minister in 1828. He later served as a senior minister in Peel’s government and remained commander-in-chief of the army for a decade until his death in 1852. In this richly detailed work, the second and concluding volume of Rory Muir’s definitive biography, the author offers a substantial reassessment of Wellington’s significance as a politician and a nuanced view of the private man behind the legend of the selfless hero. Muir presents new insights into Wellington’s determination to keep peace at home and abroad, achieved by maintaining good relations with the Continental powers and resisting radical agitation while granting political equality to the Catholics in Ireland rather than risk civil war. And countering one-dimensional pictures of Wellington as a national hero, Muir paints a portrait of a well-rounded man whose austere demeanor on the public stage belied his entertaining, gossipy, generous, and unpretentious private self. “[An] authoritative and enjoyable conclusion to a two-part biography.” —Lawrence James, Times (London) “Muir conveys the military, political, social and personal sides of Wellington’s career with equal brilliance. This will be the leading work on the subject for decades.” —Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon and Wellington: The Long Duel

The acclaimed author of the USA Today bestseller Pride Runs Deep returns to the pulse-pounding depths of international suspense as an undersea war is waged… Returning from deployment in the Middle East, attack sub USS Providence has received emergency tasking orders only miles from homeport. The mission: head for Indonesia and evacuate U.S. citizens endangered by a violent rebellion. Positioned on the front lines of the war on terrorism, the hunters of the USS Providence are now the hunted as they become engaged with a rebel sub in an epic undersea duel. And only the victor can surface alive.

Americans love to win. But when it comes to soccer, the world’s most popular sport, the US women’s team has delivered three World Cup victories in as many decades, while the men have not advanced past the quarter-finals in nearly ninety years. In October 2017, the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) startled fans by failing to qualify for the upcoming World Cup, an episode that led both USMNT head coach Bruce Arena and US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati to step down from their positions, and which launched a new era of reckoning for US Soccer as a whole. As the 2018 World Cup commences with the US sidelined, fans are becoming impatient: What will it take for the USMNT to finally rise to an elite level and bring home the FIFA World Cup Trophy?In I Believe That We Will Win, veteran soccer journalist Phil West delivers a compelling assessment of the history and future potential of American soccer on the international playing field. With insightful commentary and endless enthusiasm, West examines every aspect of the USMNT and their competition, detailing how the US returned to the World Cup in 1990 after forty years without qualifying, delving into the growing symbiotic relationship between the USMNT and Major League Soccer, and exploring how the US is cultivating young talent through MLS academies and the US Development Academy—and how Latino outreach initiatives, like the Sueño Alianza competition that brought Jonathan González to prominence, can be better integrated into US Soccer’s quest for talented players. Along the way, West touches on the controversial tenure of former coach Jürgen Klinsmann, the role of dual-national players, Christian Pulisic and the new wave of American players playing abroad, and other issues that have engaged American soccer fans in spirited debate. Punctuated with dozens of revealing interviews from players, coaches, and journalists, I Believe That We Will Win is both the definitive history of American World Cup play and an incisive and inspiring analysis of America’s potential to win big in the near future.

"Forster and Marston have delivered a stellar book that attempts to present an exegetical and Scriptural framework for the content presented in the book. Instead of beginning from a set of deductive theological assumptions and then attempting to support that system from Scripture, Forster and Marston examine Scripture and attempt to build their case directly from the text. The authors unabashedly admit that their views are very similar to those of Arminian and Weslyan traditions, but they state in the beginning of the book that they do not want to be labeled with these names, but want to construct a theology that is in line with the teachings of the first 300 years of Christianity. Anyone who reads their appendix will come to understand that the teachings presented in this book were the orthodox consensus of the early Church for the first 300 years, and that it was Augustine who introduced serious deviations into the mainstream orthodox Christianity of his time. Forster and Marston begin by describing the battle that is being waged between God and the spiritual forces that oppose Him. They examine the book of Job and see how this relates to the overall struggle. Then the authors examine the 9th chapter of Romans to see if this book is dealing with election and individual destinies, or God's actions within human history. The authors do an excellent job of arguing for their opinion that this chapter is speaking about God's involvement in human history and it deals with God's choosing of one nation or individual over another nation or individual to accomplish His purpose. Other sections of interest in this book are the sections on foreknowledge and predestination and the chapters on faith and works. The section on faith and works was particularly interesting because it relies on much of the teaching of the new perspective which has shed much light on how a 1st century Palestinian Jew would have approached Scriptural issues. The research, argumenation, and exegesis in this book are solid so every chapter is excellent, but the ones mentioned above were two of my favorites."--Amazon.com.