5 History / Military eBooks

The Guild and Guild Buildings of Shakespeare's Stratford: Society, Religion, School and Stage By J. R. Mulryne
George J Veith, "Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75"
Kevin Maurer, Rusty Bradley, "Lions of Kandahar: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds"
Killing Sheep: The Righteous Insurgent By Mark Blackard
Trevor Bryce, "The World of Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History"

The Guild and Guild Buildings of Shakespeare's Stratford: Society, Religion, School and Stage By J. R. Mulryne
English | 2012 | ISBN: 1409417662 , ISBN-13: 9781409417668 , 9781409417675 | 290 pages | PDF | 7,6 MB
The guild buildings of Shakespeare's Stratford represent a rare instance of a largely unchanged set of buildings which draw together the threads of the town's civic life.
With its multi-disciplinary perspectives on this remarkable group of buildings, this volume provides a comprehensive account of the religious, educational, legal, social and theatrical history of Stratford, focusing on the sixteenth century and Tudor Reformation.The essays interweave with one another to provide a map of the complex relationships between the buildings and their history. Opening with an investigation of the Guildhall, which served as the headquarters of the Guild of the Holy Cross until the Tudor Reformation, the book explores the building's function as a centre of local government and community law and as a place of entertainment and education.
It is beyond serious doubt that Shakespeare was a school boy here, and the many visits to the Guildhall by professional touring players during the latter half of the sixteenth-century may have prompted his acting and playwriting career. The Guildhall continues to this day to house a school for the education of secondary-level boys. The book considers educational provision during the mid sixteenth century as well as examining the interaction between touring players and the everyday politics and social life of Stratford. At the heart of the volume is archaeological and documentary research which uses up-to-date analysis and new dendrochronological investigations to interpret the buildings and their medieval wall paintings as well as proposing a possible location of the school before it transferred to the Guildhall. Together with extensive archival research into the town's Court of Record which throws light on the commercial and social activities of the period, this rich body of research brings us closer to life as it was lived in Shakespeare's Stratford.

George J Veith, "Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75"
ISBN: 1594035725 | 2012 | EPUB/MOBI | 624 pages | 4 MB/5 MB
The defeat of South Vietnam was arguably America’s worst foreign policy disaster of the 20th Century. Yet a complete understanding of the endgame—from the 27 January 1973 signing of the Paris Peace Accords to South Vietnam’s surrender on 30 April 1975—has eluded us.
Black April addresses that deficit. A culmination of exhaustive research in three distinct areas: primary source documents from American archives, North Vietnamese publications containing primary and secondary source material, and dozens of articles and numerous interviews with key South Vietnamese participants, this book represents one of the largest Vietnamese translation projects ever accomplished, including almost one hundred rarely or never seen before North Vietnamese unit histories, battle studies, and memoirs. Most important, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of South Vietnam’s conquest, the leaders in Hanoi released several compendiums of formerly highly classified cables and memorandum between the Politburo and its military commanders in the south. This treasure trove of primary source materials provides the most complete insight into North Vietnamese decision-making ever complied. While South Vietnamese deliberations remain less clear, enough material exists to provide a decent overview.
Ultimately, whatever errors occurred on the American and South Vietnamese side, the simple fact remains that the country was conquered by a North Vietnamese military invasion despite written pledges by Hanoi’s leadership against such action. Hanoi’s momentous choice to destroy the Paris Peace Accords and militarily end the war sent a generation of South Vietnamese into exile, and exacerbated a societal trauma in America over our long Vietnam involvement that reverberates to this day. How that transpired deserves deeper scrutiny.

Kevin Maurer, Rusty Bradley, "Lions of Kandahar: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds"
ISBN: 0553807579 | 2011 | EPUB/MOBI | 304 pages | 1 MB/1 MB
One of the most critical battles of the Afghan War is now revealed as never before. Lions of Kandahar is an inside account from the unique perspective of an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forces commander, an unparalled warrior with multiple deployments to the theater who has only recently returned from combat there.
Southern Afghanistan was slipping away. That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his third tour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies were infiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packed warren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers, lush orchards, and towering marijuana stands, all laced with treacherous irrigation ditches. A mass exodus of civilians heralded the carnage to come.
Dispatched as a diversionary force in support of the main coalition attack, Bradley’s Special Forces A-team and two others, along with their longtime Afghan Army allies, watched from across the valley as the NATO force was quickly engulfed in a vicious counterattack. Key to relieving it and calling in effective air strikes was possession of a modest patch of high ground called Sperwan Ghar. Bradley’s small detachment assaulted the hill and, in the midst of a savage and unforgettable firefight, soon learned they were facing nearly a thousand seasoned fighters—from whom they seized an impossible victory.
Now Bradley recounts the whole remarkable story as it actually happened. The blistering trek across Afghanistan’s infamous Red Desert. The eerie traces of the elusive Taliban. The close relations with the Afghan people and army, a primary mission focus. Sperwan Ghar itself: unremitting waves of fire from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades; a targeted truck turned into an inferno; the death trap of a cut-off compound. Most important: the men, Americans and Afghans alike—the “shaky” medic with nerves of steel and a surgeon’s hands in battle; the tireless sergeant who seems to be everywhere at once; the soft-spoken intelligence officer with laser-sharp insight; the diminutive Afghan commander with a Goliath-sized heart; the cool maverick who risks all to rescue a grievously wounded comrade—each unique, all indelible in their everyday exercise of extraordinary heroism.

Killing Sheep: The Righteous Insurgent By Mark Blackard
2012 | 314 Pages | ISBN: 1936956004 | EPUB | 1 MB
The true story of a former narcotics agent sent to Afghanistan to catch Taliban bomb makers, terrorists, and drug smugglers. Experience a dangerous and thrilling adventure in counter-insurgency, uncensored. The author and his rag-tag team of Afghan police officers waged a private war against the Taliban in order to enforce the law and protect the citizens of Nangarhar Province. Their efforts were often suppressed by U.S. military commanders, even though the U.S. military was the entity that funded the program. Their methods and appearance would earn them the name of "The Dirty Dozen." While operating solely under the constraints of Afghan law, they were able to accomplish what coalition military forces could not: catch bad guys without killing innocent civilians and without infuriating the locals. The author questions why conventional military mentality is still being applied to counter-insurgency operations. Between Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the lesson should by now be learned that one cannot make friends in a predominately poor, uneducated culture, while being governed by U.S. military formality, rules, and regulations. "After billions of U.S. tax dollars have been spent researching the counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, let me tell you what actually works: Eat lunch with the Taliban and drink beer with the locals. I give you that for free." - author Killing Sheep was written in 2010, after the author's tour in Afghanistan. The book was first published in 2012, and released on September 11th. While not politically correct or favorable to the U.S. military, it contains many lessons in counter-insurgency. The author was fired from the defense company he worked for, due to the contents of the book. The company also threatened a lawsuit, in an attempt to suppress its publication. The author is a staunch supporter of the First Amendment and freedom of speech. He firmly believes that dissent is the ultimate form of patriotism.

Trevor Bryce, "The World of Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History"
2012 | ISBN-10: 0199218722 | PDF | 320 pages | 4 MB
In the early 12th century, the Late Bronze Age Hittite empire collapsed during a series of upheavals which swept the Greek and Near Eastern worlds. In the subsequent Iron Age, numerous cities and states emerged in south-eastern Anatolia and northern Syria, which are generally known today as the "Neo-Hittite kingdoms." Bryce's volume gives an account of the military and political history of these kingdoms, moving beyond the Neo-Hittites themselves to the broader Near Eastern world and the states which dominated it during the Iron Age.
Divided into three sections, The World of Neo-Hittite Kingdoms looks at the last decades of the empire and the features of these kingdoms and their subsequent treatment under their Anatolian successors. Through a closer look at the individual Neo-Hittite kingdoms and their rulers and a comparison with the contemporary Aramaean states and the other kingdoms of the age–notably the Neo-Assyrian empire –it concludes with a historical synthesis of the Neo-Hittites when the last kingdom was absorbed into the Assyrian provincial administration.