The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the...  more

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves.    With the voice of creative fiction and the intimacy of an autobiography, The Things They Carried  is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war. 

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a...  more

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other -- if only he can come out of the war alive.

Published to coincide with the centenary of Tolstoy's death, here is an exciting new edition of one of the great literary works of world literature. Tolstoy's epic masterpiece captures with unprecedented immediacy the broad sweep of life during the Napoleonic wars and the brutal invasion of...  more

Published to coincide with the centenary of Tolstoy's death, here is an exciting new edition of one of the great literary works of world literature. Tolstoy's epic masterpiece captures with unprecedented immediacy the broad sweep of life during the Napoleonic wars and the brutal invasion of Russia. Balls and soirées, the burning of Moscow, the intrigues of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles, the quiet moments of everyday life--all in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The Maudes' translation of Tolstoy's epic masterpiece has long been considered the best English version, and now for the first time it has been revised to bring it fully into line with modern approaches to the text. French passages are restored, Anglicization of Russian names removed, and outmoded expressions updated. A new introduction by Amy Mandelker considers the novel's literary and historical context, the nature of the work, and Tolstoy's artistic and philosophical aims. New, expanded notes provide historical background and identifications, as well as insight into Russian life and society.

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes...  more

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to some one dangerously sane -- a masterpiece of our time.

The Longest Day now a Darryl F. Zanuck Production with the greatest international all-star cast ever assembled for a single motion picture.

Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer's monumental study of Hitler's German Empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of this century's blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler...  more

Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer's monumental study of Hitler's German Empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of this century's blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. This book tells what happened on that day, told through the memoirs of survivors.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee "is a painful, shocking book which conveys not how the West was won, but how it was lost." -The Washington Post Book World "A magnificent work. The real story of the settling of the West - the Indian side of the ledger... Every Indian will be happy to read this...  more

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee "is a painful, shocking book which conveys not how the West was won, but how it was lost." -The Washington Post Book World "A magnificent work. The real story of the settling of the West - the Indian side of the ledger... Every Indian will be happy to read this book - and will wish HE had written it. I wish I had." -Vine Deloria, Jr., author of Custor Died For Your Sins "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking." -The New York Times

The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II....  more

The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II. Here, Dawidoff provides "a careful and sympathetic biography" (Chicago Sun-Times) of this enigmatic man. Photos.

Johnny Got His Gun is the interior monologue of infantryman Joe Bonham as he lies in a hospital with wounds that leave him unable to communicate. He recalls his earlier life and strives to overcome the tremendous obstacles that now stand between him and the rest of humanity. This is no...  more

Johnny Got His Gun is the interior monologue of infantryman Joe Bonham as he lies in a hospital with wounds that leave him unable to communicate. He recalls his earlier life and strives to overcome the tremendous obstacles that now stand between him and the rest of humanity. This is no ordinary novel. It never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome . . . but so is war.

In this landmark account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each...  more

In this landmark account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.

It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy -- and a time of transcendent courage and determination.  Leon Uris's blazing novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare...  more

It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy -- and a time of transcendent courage and determination.  Leon Uris's blazing novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists.  Here, painted on a canvas as broad as its subject matter, is the compelling of one of the most heroic struggles of modern times.  

This is the prize winning work of the tragic collision between two cultures - the Vietnamese and the American.

In 1936 Eric Blair, a novelist, critic and political satirist known by the pseudonym George Orwell, went to Spain to write about the Spanish Civil War. This book is his eyewitness account of that conflict. Nothing written since is as moving and alive with the terrors and triumphs of that time...  more

In 1936 Eric Blair, a novelist, critic and political satirist known by the pseudonym George Orwell, went to Spain to write about the Spanish Civil War. This book is his eyewitness account of that conflict. Nothing written since is as moving and alive with the terrors and triumphs of that time past. Orwell battled totalitarianism through his novels ANIMAL FARM and 1984, but for immediacy and passion nothing surpasses this chronicle.

In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than...  more

In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Shattered futures, forgotten innocence, and crippled beauty were also the casualties of war. The Killer Angels is unique, sweeping, unforgettable - a dramatic re-creation of the battleground for America's destiny.  

In 1914, just as war was declared, 20 year-old Vera Brittain was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life?and that of her whole generation?had been irrevocably changed in a way that no one could have imagined in the tranquil pre-war era.  Testament of Youth is Brittain's account...  more

In 1914, just as war was declared, 20 year-old Vera Brittain was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life?and that of her whole generation?had been irrevocably changed in a way that no one could have imagined in the tranquil pre-war era.  Testament of Youth is Brittain's account of how she lost the man she loved, nursed the wounded, survived those agonizing years, and emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time. It still retains the power to shock, move, and enthrall readers today.

In the fall of 1941, the German army approached the outskirts of Leningrad, signaling the beginning of what would become a long and torturous siege. During the ensuing months, the city's inhabitants would brave starvation and the bitter cold, all while fending off the constant German...  more

In the fall of 1941, the German army approached the outskirts of Leningrad, signaling the beginning of what would become a long and torturous siege. During the ensuing months, the city's inhabitants would brave starvation and the bitter cold, all while fending off the constant German onslaught. Marina, then a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum, along with other staff members, was instructed to take down the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, yet leave the frames hanging empty on the walls -- a symbol of the artworks' eventual return. To hold on to sanity when the Luftwaffe's bombs began to fall, she burned to memory, brushstroke by brushstroke, these exquisite artworks: the nude figures of women, the angels, the serene Madonnas that had so shortly before gazed down upon her. She used them to furnish a "memory palace," a personal Hermitage in her mind to which she retreated to escape terror, hunger, and encroaching death. A refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more. . . . Seamlessly moving back and forth in time between the Soviet Union and contemporary America, The Madonnas of Leningrad is a searing portrait of war and remembrance, of the power of love, memory, and art to offer beauty, grace, and hope in the face of overwhelming despair. Gripping, touching, and heartbreaking, it marks the debut of Debra Dean, a bold new voice in American fiction.

In the final days of World War II, a courageous band of Jewish partisans makes its way from Russia to Italy, moving toward the ultimate goal of Palestine. Based on a true story, If Not Now, When? chronicles their adventures as they wage a personal war of revenge against the Nazis: blowing up...  more

In the final days of World War II, a courageous band of Jewish partisans makes its way from Russia to Italy, moving toward the ultimate goal of Palestine. Based on a true story, If Not Now, When? chronicles their adventures as they wage a personal war of revenge against the Nazis: blowing up trains, rescuing the last victims of concentration camps, scoring victories in the face of unspeakable devastation. Primo Levi captures the landscape and the people of Eastern Europe in vivid detail, depicting as well the terrible bleakness of war-ridden Europe. But finally, what he gives us is a tribute to the strength and ingenuity of the human spirit.

A comparison of the three versions of Anne Frank's diary; Anne's original entries, including never-before-published material; the diary as she herself edited it while in hiding; and the best-known version, edited by her father.B & W photographs throughout

Fortunes of War is the collective name given to six novels by Olivia Manning, consisting of The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy. The Balkan Trilogy comprises the books The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City and Friends And Heroes. The Levant Trilogy comprises the books The Danger Tree, The...  more

Fortunes of War is the collective name given to six novels by Olivia Manning, consisting of The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy. The Balkan Trilogy comprises the books The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City and Friends And Heroes. The Levant Trilogy comprises the books The Danger Tree, The Battle Lost And Won and The Sum Of Things. The novels describe the experiences of a young married couple, Harriet and Guy Pringle, early in World War II. A lecturer and passionate Communist, Guy is attached to a British Council educational establishment in Bucharest (Romania) when war breaks out, and the couple are forced to leave the country, passing through Athens and Palestine and ending up in Cairo, Egypt. Harriet is persuaded to return home by ship, but changes her mind at the last minute and goes to Damascus with friends. The cycle also chronicles the pre-war and wartime experiences of the surrounding group of English expatriates who also find themselves on the move, and the changes in Romanian society as the corrupt regime of King Carol II tries unsuccessfully to keep Romania out of the war.

Twenty-nine German women recall memories of the Third Reich. What they have to say will surprise Americans, just as they surprised the women themselves. Not since Marcel Ophuls' controversial film The Sorrow and the Pity have we been on such intimate terms with "the enemy."

This is volume 4 of a five volume set. Sholokhov's book introduces the reader to a New World that is not merely the Don Region, but the world of the author's inimitably poetic prose; giving fifteen years of his life to the creation of And Quiet Flows the Don. He began the first book at the...  more

This is volume 4 of a five volume set. Sholokhov's book introduces the reader to a New World that is not merely the Don Region, but the world of the author's inimitably poetic prose; giving fifteen years of his life to the creation of And Quiet Flows the Don. He began the first book at the age of twenty, in 1926. The last was finished in 1940. While Leo Tolstoy?s novel War and Peace (1863-69) immortalized the Napoleonic campaigns to the eve of the Decembrist revolt, And Quiet Flows the Don showed the destruction of the Cossacks and the birth of a new society.

This classic novel of the American Civil War evokes the horrors of battle and the psychology of fear as it recounts the experience of a young, untried Union Army volunteer. Henry Fleming longs to prove himself by winning the "red badge beyond all doubt. But when he finally does come under fire,...  more

This classic novel of the American Civil War evokes the horrors of battle and the psychology of fear as it recounts the experience of a young, untried Union Army volunteer. Henry Fleming longs to prove himself by winning the "red badge beyond all doubt. But when he finally does come under fire, he learns the grim truth about war's "glory" and the real meaning of bravery.Although he now makes his home in Memphis, Tennessee, Shelby Foote comes from a long line of Mississippians. He is the author of six novels -- Tournament; Follow Me Down; Love in a Dry Season; Shiloh; Jordan County; and September, September -- and a three-volume narrative of the Civil War. He has been awarded three Guggenheim fellowships.The Red Badge of Courage is also available from Random House as an unabridged Modern Library book.