The Kings and the Pawns

The Kings and the Pawns
Author: Leonid Rein
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2011-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857450433

For many years, the history of Byelorussia under Nazi occupation was written primarily from the perspective of the resistance movement. This movement, a reaction to the brutal occupation policies, was very strong indeed. Still, as the author shows, there existed in Byelorussia a whole web of local institutions and organizations which, some willingly, others with reservations, participated in the implementation of various aspects of occupation policies. The very sensitivity of the topic of collaboration has prevented researchers from approaching it for many years, not least because in the former Soviet territories ideological considerations have played an important role in preserving the topic’s “untouchable” status. Focusing on the attitude of German authorities toward the Byelorussians, marked by their anti-Slavic and particularly anti-Byelorussian prejudices on the one hand and the motives of Byelorussian collaborators on the other, the author clearly shows that notwithstanding the postwar trend to marginalize the phenomenon of collaboration or to silence it altogether, the local collaboration in Byelorussia was clearly visible and pervaded all spheres of life under the occupation.

Three Kings

Three Kings
Author: Lloyd C. Gardner
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2011-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1459617754

Three Kings reveals a story of America's scramble for political influence, oil concessions, and a new military presence based on airpower and generous American aid to shaky regimes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Iraq. Marshaling new and revelatory evidence from the archives, Lloyd Gardner deftly weaves together three decades of U.S. moves in the region to offer the first history of America's efforts to supplant the British empire in the Middle East. From the early efforts to support and influence the Saudi regime (including the creation of Dhahranairbase, the target of Osama bin Laden's first terrorist attack in 1996) and the CIA-engineered coup in Iran to Nasser's Egypt and, finally, the rise of Iraq as a major petroleum power, Three Kings is ''a valuable contribution to our understanding of our still-deepening involvement in this region'' (Booklist).As American policy makers and military planners grapple with the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, Gardner uncovers the largely hidden story of how the United States got into the Middle East in the first place.

The King's War

The King's War
Author: Peter Conradi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2019-09-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1643132695

The broadcast that George VI made to the British nation on the outbreak of war in September 1939—which formed the climax of the multi-Oscar-winning film The King's Speech—was the product of years of hard work with Lionel Logue, his iconoclastic, Australian-born speech therapist. Yet the relationship between the two men did not end there. Far from it: in the years that followed, Logue was to play an even more important role at the monarch's side.The King's War follows that relationship through the dangerous days of Dunkirk and the drama of D-Day to eventual victory in 1945—and beyond. Like the first book, it is written by Peter Conradi, a London Sunday Times journalist, and Mark Logue (Lionel's grandson), and again draws on exclusive material from the Logue Archive—the collection of diaries, letters, and other documents left by Lionel and his feisty wife, Myrtle. This gripping narrative provides a fascinating portrait of two men and their respective families—the Windsors and the Logues—as they together face the greatest challenge in Britain's history.

The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens

The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens
Author: Helen Fry
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2007-07-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0752496204

Most of the Germans and Austrians who fought with the British were Jews but a significant number were political opponents of the Nazi regime and so-called 'degenerate artists'. They arrived in Britain between 1933 and 1939, and at the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 became enemy aliens. They volunteered to serve in the British forces, donned the King's uniform, swore allegiance to George VI and became affectionately known as the King's most loyal enemy aliens. This compelling story includes previously unpublished interviews with veterans and an impressive selection of archive photographs, many of which are reproduced for the first time.

King's African Rifles

King's African Rifles
Author: Malcolm Page
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2011-03-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0850525381

Whatever one may think about the rights and wrongs of colonial rule, it is hard to deny that during the first half of the this century those African countries, which then came under British administration enjoyed a period of stability which most now look back upon with a profound sense of loss. Paradoxical though it may seem, one of the bulwarks of that stability was each country’s indigenous army. Trained and officered by the British, these force became a source of both pride and cohesion in their own country, none more so than the King’s African Rifles. founded in 1902 and probably the best known of the East African forces. In this, the first complete history of the East African forces, Malcolm Page, who himself served in the Somaliland Scouts for a number of years, has had access to much new material while researching the history of each unit from it’s foundation to the time of independence. Historians in several fields will be grateful to him for having put on record this very important period in the annals of both Great Britain and East Africa while the memories of many who served there were still fresh, and they themselves will perhaps be most grateful of all for this lasting tribute to the men they served and who served them, for in that shared sense of duty lay the true spirit of East African Forces.

The First World War

The First World War
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 849
Release: 2014-06-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 079533723X

“A stunning achievement of research and storytelling” that weaves together the major fronts of WWI into a single, sweeping narrative (Publishers Weekly, starred review). It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced U-boat packs and strategic bombing, unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. But the war changed our world in far more fundamental ways than these. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, and whole populations lost their national identities. As political systems and geographic boundaries were realigned, the social order shifted seismically. Manners and cultural norms; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions; all underwent a vast sea change. As historian Martin Gilbert demonstrates in this “majestic opus” of historical synthesis, the twentieth century can be said to have been born on that fateful morning in June of 1914 (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “One of the first books that anyone should read . . . to try to understand this war and this century.” —The New York Times Book Review

The Book of Kings

The Book of Kings
Author: James Thackara
Publisher: Overlook Books
Total Pages: 788
Release: 2000-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781585670505

In this electrifying grand-scale novel set on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Europe, the idyllic student life of four friends in Paris gives way to the frenzy of war.

Kings and Queens of England

Kings and Queens of England
Author: John Green
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 35
Release: 2005-08-23
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0486446662

More than 1,200 years of ruling British monarchs — from Alfred the Great (871-899) to Elizabeth II (1952-). Background scenes evoke dramatic highlights of each era. 30 illustrations.