In April 1942, a little over two years before the Tenth Mountain Division officially obtained its name, the U.S. Army began the unprecedented construction of a training facility for its newly acquired ski and mountain troops. Located near Pando in Colorado's Sawatch Range, the site eventually known as Camp Hale sits at an elevation of 9,250 feet. Immense challenges in its creation and subsequent training included ongoing racial conflict, the high altitude and blustery winters. However, tha...

Two hundred years later, the War of 1812 has been mostly forgotten. When the United States declared war on England, both sides were unprepared for battle. American troops outnumbered British forces by two-to-one; however, they were led by inexperienced politicians and aging Revolutionary War heroes. Two years later, young and bold U.S. commanders faced hardened veterans of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe."War of 1812 Land Battles" is a bicentennial review that summarizes the most sig...

Army, Air Force, or Marine—read all about them in the latrine!Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard—the patriotic folks at the Bathroom Readers Institute have stormed the proverbial beaches of Normandy and beyond to bring you this salute to the greatest force for good on planet Earth! Make your way through the ranks and read about the history, triumphs, trials, trivia, and humor of those who serve. At nearly 500 pages, this is the book you want by you...

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for HistoryFrom the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, a brilliant biography of Gen. George Armstrong Custer that radically changes our view of the man and his turbulent times.In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a v...

Profiles of unsung American battlefield commanders—from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War. "A pleasure to read" (Raymond E. Franck, Brig. Gen., USAF, retired).History plays tricks sometimes. During the course of America's experience, it has enshrined an exceptional few military leaders in our collective consciousness as "great," while ignoring others often equally as deserving. For example, few of the thousands who pass by the traffic square between Fifth...

When World War II broke out in Europe, the American army had no specialized division of mountain soldiers. But in the winter of 1939–40, after a tiny band of Finnish mountain troops brought the invading Soviet army to its knees, an amateur skier named Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole convinced the United States Army to let him recruit an extraordinary assortment of European expatriates, wealthy ski bums, mountaineers, and thrill-seekers and form them into a unique band of Alpine soldiers. These...

On September 2, 1945, surrender ceremonies officially ending World War II were broadcast worldwide from the deck of the USS Missouri. The ceremony also marked the end of one of the most eventful years for any vessel in the history of warfare. USS Missouri at War chronicles the career of this mighty warship, the last battleship built by the United States.Veteran naval historian Kit Bonner describes "Mighty Mos" powerful strikes against Japan, its support of the Iwo Jima lan...

In 1926, Walter Lord, nine years old, persuaded his mother to cross the Atlantic aboard the Olympic. The choice was no accident; the Olympic was sister ship to the Titanic and already the doomed White Star liner sailed in and out of young Lord's imagination. The following year, he wrote and illustrated an account of how the Titanic sank in the early morning hours of April 14, 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. Classmates at the Gilman School in Baltimore and later at Princeton an...

"Four score and seven years ago..." begins Abraham Lincoln's beautiful speech commemorating the three-day battle that turned the tide of the Civil War. The South had been winning up to this point. So how did Union troops stop General Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North? With black-and-illustrations throughout and sixteen pages of photos, this turning point in history is brought vividly to life.

Originally published in 1967, William H. Leckie’s The Buffalo Soldiers was the first book of its kind to recognize the importance of African American units in the conquest of the West. Decades later, with sales of more than 75,000 copies, The Buffalo Soldiers has become a classic. Now, in a newly revised edition, the authors have expanded the original research to explore more deeply the lives of buffalo soldiers in the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments.Written in ...

When J.J. Clark graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at the end of World War I he was ready to be a pioneer in one of the great transformations of the U.S. Navy in the twentieth century —the change from a surface-only force to one in which aviation played a key if not determinant role. Under the leadership of the key aviation admirals, William Moffett and John Towers, "Jocko" Clark with other aviation-minded officers battled low budgets and unsympathetic policy makers to champion the deve...

D U A N E is an amateur photographer who still prefers a fi lm camera over a digital one when he takes pictures of American Civil War reenactments. He lives in El Paso with his wife Vinita, and they have six children. He enjoys reading, history and organizing material for a book. He likes to travel, take photos and read about El Paso politics Civil War West is Shaws second book. His fi rst book Duanes World is selling very well.