Amerikansk historie

"General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. ... Patton seethed, desperate for some change, any change, in the weather. A devout Christian, he telephoned his head chaplain. 'Do you have a good prayer for the weather?' he asked. The resulting prayer was soon printed and distributed to the 250,000 men under Patton's command. 'Pray when driving, ' the men were told. 'Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle. Pray for victory. Pray for peace." Then came the Battle of the Bulge. Amid frigid temperatures and heavy snow, 200,000 German troops overwhelmed the meager American lines in Belgium's Ardennes Forest, massacring thousands of soldiers as the attack converged on a vital crossroads town called Bastogne. There, the 101st Airborne was dug in, but the enemy were lurking, hidden in the thick blanket of fog that seemed to never dissipate. A hundred miles of frozen roads to the south, Patton needed an answer to his prayer, fast, before it was too late"--

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLERIn this spectacular, newsmaking exposé that has the entertainment industry abuzz and on its heels, Vanity Fair's Maureen Ryan blows the lid on patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited.It is never just One Bad Man.Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised.In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood's corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Lost, Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more.Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability?myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more.Weaving together insights from industry insiders, historical context, and pop-culture analysis, Burn It Down paints a groundbreaking and urgently necessary portrait of what's gone wrong in the entertainment world?and how we can fix it.

In this heart-warming story, we follow the story of a loving father who, on the eve of his son's wedding, gifts him an acre of land - a symbolic gesture that sparks a captivating exploration into the rich tapestry of African American history and the quest for liberation and prosperity.As the father and son stand on the lush acre, the father recounts the persistent legacies of resilience and hope forged by their ancestors in the face of adversity. The characters engage in profound conversations about the promises of "forty acres and a mule" and the Biblical tale of the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land, drawing powerful parallels that span generations and cultures.As the story unfolds, the father soberly reflects on the historical injustices and land dispossession experienced by African Americans, highlighting the importance of landownership as a path to economic autonomy, vibrant health, and intergenerational wealth. Together, they rekindle the entrepreneurial spirit and determination that has long coursed through the veins of Black America, propelled by the belief that freedom and prosperity can only be fully realized once every family owns at least a piece of land, free from debt.Through the intimate exchanges between father and son, their bond transcending time, "The Black Promise Land: A Father's Gift and a Legacy Reclaimed" inspires readers to embrace their roots, tap into the collective resilience that shapes African American history, and forge a new chapter of landownership and prosperity for themselves and generations to come. As the story culminates with the son stepping forward into married life, armed with the knowledge of his ancestral wisdom and an acre of promise, the reader is left with a renewed sense of purpose, determination, and hope for a brighter future.

This book provides the reader access to more than 20,000 death records, and is the result of six years of work by volunteers of the South King County Genealogical Society. Information contained in this book has been extracted from microfilmed records of the Seattle-King County (Washington) Health Department, and are not confined to deaths which occurred in Seattle but also include many deaths in outlying areas of King County. These extractions are alphabetically arranged by surname of the deceased, and list: set, reel, page and record number; full name of the deceased, date of death, age, sex, place of birth, and place of death. At the beginning of the book is a list of dozens of towns and a number of hospitals mentioned in the records, explaining their locations and other facts about them.

Espionage has been called the second oldest profession, and has become one of the newest fields of scholarly study. More than forty American colleges and universities offer courses in espionology (the study of intelligence and espionage), ranging from "Espionage in the Ancient World," taught at Georgetown University through "Espionage and History" at the University of New Hampshire, to Yale University's "Intelligence and Covert Operations." The Defense Intelligence College, an accredited educational institution operated by and for the U. S. government, granted the degree of Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence to those government employees and military personnel who complete its twelve-month program. Several private institutions are dedicated to the advance of espionology. The National Intelligence Study Center, The Consortium for the Study of Intelligence, and the Hale Foundation (named after Natham Hale, the patriot spy of the American Revolution) encourage and sponsor the study of intelligence and the teaching of espionology, that is "the study of the history, organization, and methods of intelligence", in colleges and universities, and work to improve public understanding of the role of intelligence in national security. So, just out of curiosity, let's take an open-minded close look at my irreverent look at the second oldest profession. I am sure you are going to like it. Real-life spy stories are much more interesting than any spy book written by John Le Carré, Len Deighton, Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy ... and, similar to what we have read in these highly entertaining novels, most of "true" spy stories are pure fiction, that is, pure bovine manure!

As I did research for this book, it became apparent that extreme consequences are possible when a nation becomes deeply divided. This division occurred in the 1850's and 1860's, and is with the United States again as of 2023. In 1861, civil strife lead to a civil war. President Abraham Lincoln had to deal with a nation at war with itself. This book has unique features. There are links to songs of slaves and soldiers incorporated into the narrative; there is discussion of issues of the present time, which were unresloved by the Civil War; Lincoln's leadership was of profound importance; also discover that:Lincoln got the support of the mass of the white population by representing their interests and attitudes.One thousand women joined the Union army and fought in battles alongside the men.Two hundred thousand recently freed black slaves fought as Union soldiers and sailors.Native Americans (Indians) were involved in the war, including General Eli Parker, an Iroquois SenecaAnti-slavery foreign troops from Italy, Scotland and Germany fought with the Union army.Russia was the only major European power to support Lincoln's war against slavery. England and France aided the Confederacy.I teach United States History in a special and unique way. Accompanying myself on guitar, I sing songs of the time period we are discussing. I've included many of these songs in this book.

"American Revolution: Soldier Motivations" offers a captivating journey through the American Revolution, weaving together the personal stories of eight individuals whose lives were indelibly shaped by this transformative period in history. Through the lens of their biographies, journals, and memoirs, this comparative social history delves into the motivations, aspirations, and experiences of four enlisted soldiers and four officers who became key figures in the struggle for American independence.

This book critically examines the association between the notions of crisis and migration in the context of Latin America, and from three different perspectives: first, it analyzes the discourses based on the concept of crisis employed by the media, academic researchers, civil society organizations and the state to frame human mobility issues; second, it investigates migrants' agency under conditions of crisis; and third, it discusses whether "e;migration crisis"e; is a conjunctural or structural phenomenon in the region.Chapters in this contributed volume investigate the crisis-migration nexus in seven Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay - by discussing different human mobility phenomena, such as the migrant caravans that departed from Central America bound to Mexico and the United States; the Nicaraguan exodus caused by the political crisis in the country; the perception of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia's media; the presence of Caribbean migrants in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.Crisis and Migration: Critical Perspectives from Latin America will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists interested in migration studies, as well as to policy makers and civil society organizations. This book offers a fresh look at the way we conceive, represent, and think about the relationship between crisis and human mobility. As the volume's contributions show, a critical examination of the notion of crisis is a first step towards a more comprehensive understanding of the plight of present-day migrants worldwide.

This report provides findings on U.S. locations where unidentified aerial phenomena are being reported to increase awareness about the types of activities that might be mistaken for unexplained phenomena or that point to potential threats.

The U.S. and Chinese militaries have been shaped by a distinct set of direct and indirect experiences. The U.S. military has focused its energy and resources on combating terrorism and performing counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even in 2023, U.S. emphasis on major power competition contends with other national security priorities, including current crises and continued deployments around the globe. The People's Liberation Army (PLA), on the other hand, has largely focused its military modernization and restructuring to prepare for a regional conflict that would likely involve U.S. military intervention. Despite having no combat experience since the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, the PLA has conducted an in-depth study of all aspects of the U.S. military's technological and operational capabilities-including its organization, command and control, logistics, joint operations, and concepts of operation-since the 1990s. The dichotomy presented by the experiences of both militaries raises several questions about how they are preparing for the possibility of a major power conflict. Since 2001, the U.S. military has gained significant direct combat experience, but has done so against technologically inferior, nonpeer adversaries. In contrast, the PLA had no direct combat experience. Even though its concepts of operation are designed to fight a major power, these concepts are largely derived from indirect observations and lessons from U.S. operations since 1991. The ways that each side gains and processes experience and incorporates it into training will heavily affect readiness for and performance in a future war.

This informative and easy-to-follow guidebook makes the ancient sites of Maui, Molokai and Lanai available to the general public for the first time. Grouping the sites by location, the book characterizes the cultural background of five main types of sites: heiau (temples), pohaku (sacred stones), petroglyphs, caves and fishponds. Now this entirely revised, updated, full color edition of the book includes numerous additional sites and expanded site descriptions with photographs.

"Even before the guns fell silent at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee was preparing for the arduous task of getting his defeated army back safely into Virginia. It was an enormous, complex, and exceedingly dangerous undertaking, told here in exciting fashion"--