Arrogant Armies

Download or read book Arrogant Armies written by James Moorhead Perry and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book ADA. written by and published by . This book was released on 1997-04 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Arrogant Armies written by James M. Perry and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2008-05-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nothing goes wrong quite so dramatically as a disastrous military expedition."--from the Introduction ARROGANT ARMIES Spanning more than two hundred years of martial adventurism, aggression, and outright blundering, Arrogant Armies chronicles the profoundly misguided and utterly calamitous military expeditions of the great empire builders and overconfident expeditionary forces. From colonial America to South Africa, from Mesopotamia to Khartoum, an extraordinary number of presumably superior armies grievously underestimated native forces. Using contemporary newspaper accounts, military memoirs, diaries of soldiers who fought in the battles, and other firsthand letters and papers, noted journalist James Perry brings a sense of urgency and immediacy to these historic defeats. At times devastating, at times hilarious, his vast panorama of human folly is peopled by frightened soldiers, zealous native resistance, and, of course, a colorful gallery of arrogant, often inept officers. Many of them received their ultimate comeuppance in these battles: Generals Edward Braddock, Charles MacCarthy, William R. Shafter, Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, Charles "Chinese" Gordon, William George Keith Elphinstone, Manuel Fernandez Silvestre, and others. What is most remarkable about Arrogant Armies is the cumulative power of these ironic encounters. Black humor, brutality, staggering incompetence, and genuine drama come together with devastating force. In Arrogant Armies Perry casts a sharply critical eye on what he describes as the "small wars, what Kipling called the 'savage wars of peace.'" It is fascinating history and a compelling commentary on politics and "the dark side of the human race . . . its deadly preoccupation with war." "As one of our nation's top political reporters, Jim Perry has covered his share of political disasters. Now he has turned his skills to this sad but brilliant chronicle of military disasters. In the process, he has produced a classic."--Sander Vanocur The History Channel "Jim Perry has long been one of America's great political reporters. This has been perfect training to write this marvelous book, Arrogant Armies. Having covered more than a few contemporary political disasters, Perry is able to brilliantly, often hilariously, capture the worst military blunders of the past several hundred years. These fiascoes span the globe from the Middle East to Southeast Asia to Haiti, and chronologically from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. There are common characteristics: commanders afflicted with drunkenness, debauchery, arrogance, and often just plain stupidity. With vitality, a sense of irony and history, Jim Perry gives you a battle-side seat at these debacles."--Albert R. Hunt Executive Washington Editor Wall Street Journal "Jim Perry has done, in Arrogant Armies, what he has always done. He has told us stories we haven't heard before. He has explored an unmined vein of history with enthusiasm, skill, and style. History buffs will delight in Arrogant Armies. I'm not so sure, however, about the generals."=Roger Mudd The History Channel

Download or read book A Selection of His Best Works written by Thomas De Quincey and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Joan of Arc written by Thomas De Quincey and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The English mail coach written by Thomas De Quincey and published by . This book was released on 1873 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book ‘A Mere Matter of Marching’ written by James M. Perry and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For 124 years, from 1690 to 1814, Americans were besotted with the notion that it would take "a mere matter of marching" (in Th omas Jeff erson´s words) to seize Canada and add it to their union. Th e marching began in colonial times, in 1690, when Americans, angered by French-led Indian attacks on their frontier outposts, retaliated by sending an expedition to lay siege to Quebec, the capital of New France. Th ey sailed home when they ran out of ammunition and rum. In 1745, another, and much larger, colonial expedition set sail with the help of the British Royal Navy, to attack the great French fortress at Louisbourg, and managed to capture it, leading Americans to believe for years to come they were better soldiers than they really were. Serious marching, this time against the new British rulers of Canada, took place during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Ethan Allen started it all in 1775 by attacking Quebec with a scratch force of untrained soldiers. He was captured and thrown in prison. Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold led armies that seized Montreal, but were turned back at Quebec. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded. Inept and poorly led American armies invaded Canada again and again during the War of 1812. It wasn´t until Tecumseh was dead and Winfi eld Scott was in command of a well-disciplined army -- the fi rst in American history -- that Yankee soldiers were able to stand up to British regulars. Th e army, in the end, was saved by the navy, which won signifi cant victories om Lakes Erie and Champlain. Canada emerged from the war a distinctive nation that to this day harbors a certain ambivalence in its thinking about its powerful neighbor to the south.