Century Girl

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Tom Clancy

Marine general Tony Zinni was known as the "Warrior Diplomat" during his nearly forty years of service. His credentials as a soldier were impeccable, whether he was leading troops in Vietnam, commanding hair-raising rescue operations in Somalia, or - as Commander in Chief of CENTCOM - directing strikes against Iraq and Al Qaeda. But it was as a peacemaker that he made just as great a mark - conducting dangerous troubleshooting missions all over Africa, Asia, and Europe, and then serving as Secretary of State Colin Powell's special envoy to the Middle East, before disagreements over the 2003 Iraq war and its probable aftermath caused him to resign." Battle Ready follows the evolution of both General Zinni and the Marine Corps, from the cauldron of Vietnam through the operational revolution of the '70s and '80s, to the new realities of the post-Cold War, post-9/11 military - a military with a radically different tools for accomplishing it. Opinions differ sharply about just what that job and those tools should be - and General Zinni makes it clear where he stands.

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[by] Frank E. Vandiver

"Frank E. Vandiver's detailed research ... provide a vivid description of Stonewall's boyhood, West Point training, early career, years of teaching at the Virginia Military Institute, and Civil War campaigns. Here, too, are insights into Jackson's personal life and his deep religious feelings, which were so influential on his military thought and actions"--Jacket.

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[Hartmut Hegeler

www.anton-praetorius.de Anton Praetorius was born in 1560 in Lippstadt / Westphalia in Germany. He studied theology and became principal of the humanistic Latin school in Kamen/ Westphalia. Here Praetorius got married, but he lost his wife by the pestilence. In 1597 he was appointed as protestant pastor of the earl of Buedingen/ Ysenburg (near Frankfurt/Main). Here he witnessed the torture of 4 women accused of being a witch. He got so upset by the torture that he protested violently it says in the court documents. He succeeded in stopping the trial against the last still living woman. As a consequence he got fired by the earl. Then Praetorius wrote the "Gruendlicher Bericht ueber Zauberey und Zauberer" to protest against the trials against witches and against torture. At first he published the book in 1598 by an assumed name ("Johannes Scultetus"). In 1602 he dared to publish it by his own name. The book was widely spread and published again in 1613 and posthum in 1629. Praetorius died in 1613 in Laudenbach/ Bergstrasse (near Heidelberg). The biography is called "Anton Praetorius, Kaempfer gegen Hexenprozesse und Folter" (fighting against trials of witches and fighting against torture). The book is written in German, it has 270 pages, about 100 pictures (30 colour photos of the places where Praetorius has lived), an index of the names and places, bibliography and about 1000 footnotes.

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John Bowman

A biography of the Scottish immigrant who became the richest man in the world for his time, due to his involvements in the railroad, telegraph, iron, and steel; and who before he died disposed of the bulk of his fortune in philanthropic ways, feeling that a man who died with his fortune intact died disgraced.