The Yank

1975: A young Irish-American man joins an elite US Marine unit to get the most intensive military training possible — then joins the Irish Republican Army, during the days of some of the bloodiest fighting ever in the Irish-British conflict . . . The Irish "Troubles" were at a murderous fever pitch when John Crawley volunteered for the IRA. Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday, the bombing of the British Houses of Parliament, and other deadly incidents had recently unfolded or were about to ... Civilian casualties were common as British soldiers, Republican militants (who wanted the UK out of Northern Ireland) and Unionist police and militants (who wanted to remain in the UK), engaged in gun battles and car bombing throughout Northern Ireland. The death toll numbered over 1,000. The IRA split over how to react between the old-line IRA, and the new Provisional IRA — the Provos, mostly impassioned young men who were not hesitant to resort to violence. In a powerful, brutally honest, no-holds-barred recounting of his experience, John Crawley details, first, the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training, then how he put his hard-earned munitions and demolitions skills to use back in Ireland in service of the Provos. It is a story that will see him running guns with notorious American mobster — and secret IRA fundraiser — Whitey Bulger; running, under cover of night, from safe house to safe house in the Irish countryside, one step ahead of British troops; being captured, imprisoned, and being part of a mass escape attempt; fending off a recruitment offer from the CIA; and being one of the masterminds behind a campaign to take out London's electrical system. Along the way, Crawley is blisteringly candid about the memorable people he worked with, including behind-the-scenes portrayals of revered IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger, as well as others in the Boston IRA support network. There are vivid portraits of colleagues and enemies, and Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, both military and political. Through it all comes the steadfast voice of a man on a mission, providing an evocative, detailed, and passionate recounting of where that mission led him and why — as well as why, to this day, he remains ready to serve.

Yankee Go Home? traces the winding course of this feeling over two centuries - from the United Empire Loyalists who fled north to escape unbridled republicanism, through the early twentieth century when the barons of business were determined to keep out U.S. competition, to the post-war period when Canadian nationalists took up the cry. Granatstein maintains that what began as a justifiable fear of invasion eventually became a tool of the economic and political elites bent on preserving their power. At first, anti-Americanism was largely the Tory way of keeping pro-British attitudes uppermost in the minds of Canadians. Later, with the right wing embracing the free-trade deal, it became the most important weapon of the nationalist left. Today, anti-Americanism is weaker than ever before. And what of the future?

Will contain the proceedings of the yearly reunions of the First Maine Cavalry, matters of historic value to the Regiment and items of personal interest to all the members.

The northern part of Loudoun County was a Unionist enclave in Confederate Virginia that remained a contested battleground for armies and factions of all stripes throughout the Civil War. Lying between the Blue Ridge Mountains, Harpers Ferry, and Washington, D.C., the Loudoun Valley provided a natural corridor for commanders on both sides, while its mountainous fringes were home to partisans, guerillas, deserters and smugglers. This detailed history examines the conflicting loyalties in the farming communities, the peaceful Quakers caught in the middle, and the political underpinnings of Unionist Virginia.