A sweeping, comparative analysis of the slaving regimes of Hispanic, Comanche, and Anglo American communities in the Texas borderlands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

2022 WHA W. Turrentine Jackson Award for best first book on the history of the American West 2022 WHA David J. Weber Prize for the best book on Southwestern History In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Texas--a hotly contested land where states wielded little to no real power--local alliances and controversies, face-to-face relationships, and kin ties structured personal dynamics and cross-communal concerns alike. Country of the Cursed and the Driven brings readers into this world through a sweeping analysis of Hispanic, Comanche, and Anglo-American slaving regimes, illuminating how slaving violence, in its capacity to bolster and shatter families and entire communities, became both the foundation and the scourge, the panacea and the curse, of life in the borderlands. As scholars have begun to assert more forcefully over the past two decades, slavery was much more diverse and widespread in North America than previously recognized, engulfing the lives of Native, European, and African descended people across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Mexico. Paul Barba details the rise of Texas's slaving regimes, spotlighting the ubiquitous, if uneven and evolving, influences of colonialism and anti-Blackness. By weaving together and reframing traditionally disparate historical narratives, Country of the Cursed and the Driven challenges the common assumption that slavery was insignificant to the history of Texas prior to Anglo American colonization, arguing instead that the slavery imported by Stephen F. Austin and his colonial followers in the 1820s found a comfortable home in the slavery-stained borderlands, where for decades Spanish colonists and their Comanche neighbors had already unleashed waves of slaving devastation.

This acclaimed debut novel takes readers inside the mind of a young and deeply conflicted Israeli soldier: “Israel’s own The Catcher in the Rye”(The Los Angeles Review of Books). The Drive follows the emotional and psychological journey of a young Israeli soldier who is unable to carry out his military service yet terrified of the consequences of leaving the army. As the unnamed soldier and his father drive along the Coastal Highway to meet with a military psychiatrist, Yair Assulin offers a penetrating view of Israeli society, a young man in crisis, and the universal urge to resist regimentation and violence. Weary of being forced to join a larger collective, the soldier yearns for an existence free of politics, the news cycle, and perpetual battle-readiness. But to seek such a life would mean risking the respect of those he loves most. The Drive is a compelling story of an urgent personal quest to reconcile duty, expectations and individual instinct.

The author of the acclaimed bestseller Bobos in Paradise, which hilariously described the upscale American culture, takes a witty look at how being American shapes us, and how America's suburban civilization will shape the world's future. Take a look at Americans in their natural habitat. You see suburban guys at Home Depot doing that special manly, waddling walk that American men do in the presence of large amounts of lumber; super-efficient ubermoms who chair school auctions, organize the PTA, and weigh less than their children; workaholic corporate types boarding airplanes while talking on their cell phones in a sort of panic because they know that when the door closes they have to turn their precious phone off and it will be like somebody stepped on their trachea. Looking at all this, you might come to the conclusion that we Americans are not the most profound people on earth. Indeed, there are millions around the world who regard us as the great bimbos of the globe: hardworking and fun, but also materialistic and spiritually shallow. They've got a point. As you drive through the sprawling suburbs or eat in the suburban chain restaurants (which if they merged would be called Chili's Olive Garden Hard Rock Outback Cantina), questions do occur. Are we really as shallow as we look? Is there anything that unites us across the divides of politics, race, class, and geography? What does it mean to be American? Well, mentality matters, and sometimes mentality is all that matters. As diverse as we are, as complacent as we sometimes seem, Americans are united by a common mentality, which we have inherited from our ancestors and pass on, sometimes unreflectingly, to our kids. We are united by future-mindedness. We see the present from the vantage point of the future. We are tantalized, at every second of every day, by the awareness of grand possibilities ahead of us, by the bounty we can realize just over the next ridge. This mentality leads us to work feverishly hard, move more than any other people on earth, switch jobs, switch religions. It makes us anxious and optimistic, manic and discombobulating. Even in the superficiality of modern suburban life, there is some deeper impulse still throbbing in the heart of average Americans. That impulse is the subject of this book.

The Peloponnesian War took place in the 5th Century BC. This war was fought between Athens and Sparta – at the time the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world, made a significant power shift in ancient Greece, favoring Sparta. It caused the total regional decline and marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece. Ancient Greek warfare, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece. This book provides a thorough insight into this period of the history of ancient Greece and this devastating conflict through the work of the prominent modern historian J. B. Bury, as well as the most important contemporary sources - History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and Hellenica by Xenophon. Content: Introduction The History of the Peloponnesian War (by J.B. Bury) Primary Sources The Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides) Hellenica: The Final Years of the War Its Aftermath (by Xenophon) The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides is widely considered to be a classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. Hellenica by Xenophon is direct continuation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. There is virtually no transition between the two works, to the extent that the opening words of Hellenica are translated as "After this", or sometimes "Following these events". The Hellenica recounts the last seven years of the Peloponnesian war, as well as its aftermath.

The study of the works of the great commanders and philosophers of the past is a very important part of military education Military activity has been a constant process over thousands of years, and the essential tactics, strategy, and goals of military operations have been unchanging throughout history. Via the study of history, the military seeks to avoid past mistakes, and improve upon its current performance by instilling an ability in commanders to perceive historical parallels during battle, so as to capitalize on the lessons learned. The main areas military history includes are the history of wars, battles, and combats, history of the military art, and history of each specific military service. This book includes unique works of Sun Tsu, Thucydides, Sextus Julius Frontinus, Julius Caesar, Xenophon, Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Machiavelli, T.E. Lawrence, Napoleon Bonaparte, Carl von Clausewitz. Contents: Sun Tzu - The Art of War Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War Caius Julius Caesar - The War In Gaul; The Civil War Niccolo Machiavelli - The Art of War; The Prince Sextus Julius Frontinus - Stratagems Xenophon - Anabasis Flavius Vegetius Renatus - The Military Institutions of the Romans Carl von Clausewitz - On War T.E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom Napoleon Bonaparte - The Officer's Manual Napoleon's Maxims of War war strategy, Strategies of War

Set in an alternate Europe where bloody conflicts rage, the fourth book of the Crown of Stars epic fantasy series continues the world-shaking conflict for the survival of humanity Far beyond the borders of Wendar and Varre, Alain, Liath, Sanglant, and King Henry must make their separate journeys, following twisting roads which will nevertheless lead them all to one fated moment in time…. Lost and alone in an unknown country, Alain is caught in a desperate struggle for survival even as he finds himself unwittingly drawn into the heart of an ancient conflict between humankind and the Cursed Ones…. Torn away from Sanglant and their child by creatures not born of earth, Liath faces her most difficult trial in a land of exile. Only there can she hope to discover her true parentage and the nature and extent of her unique powers…. Still staggered by the loss of his wife, the bastard prince Sanglant is nevertheless determined to seek out his father, King Henry, and bring warning of the conspiracy of sorcerers who’ve sworn to put an end to the Aoi, the Lost Ones—no matter how much destruction may be unleashed by their workings of magic…. But King Henry’s attention is not on his own troubled realm but rather on the throne of Aosta and the imperial crown, unclaimed for two generations. Even as a Quman army ravages the Wendish countryside, Henry marches south, ignoring the pleas of his beleaguered subjects…. And as the tides of war and magic wreak havoc across the lands, the great Cataclysm, long foretold in the stars, draws inexorably closer….

The Peloponnesian War took place in the 5th Century BC. This war was fought between Athens and Sparta – at the time the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world, made a significant power shift in ancient Greece, favoring Sparta. It caused the total regional decline and marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece. Ancient Greek warfare, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece. This book provides a thorough insight into this period of the history of ancient Greece and this devastating conflict through the work of the prominent modern historian J. B. Bury, as well as the most important contemporary sources - History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and Hellenica by Xenophon. Content: Introduction The History of the Peloponnesian War (by J.B. Bury) Primary Sources The Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides) Hellenica: The Final Years of the War Its Aftermath (by Xenophon) The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides is widely considered to be a classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. Hellenica by Xenophon is direct continuation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. There is virtually no transition between the two works, to the extent that the opening words of Hellenica are translated as "After this", or sometimes "Following these events". The Hellenica recounts the last seven years of the Peloponnesian war, as well as its aftermath.