A New York Times bestselling author writes about West Point. This new paperback edition of Stephen E. Ambrose's highly regarded history of the United States Military Academy features the original foreword by Dwight D. Eisenhower and a new afterword by former West Point superintendent Andrew J. Goodpaster.

A group of friends from the Irish section of the Bronx are graduating from college during a period of great political unrest. Communism was gaining support throughout the world, threatening the sovereignty of the United States. The lines of battle were being drawn, the Cold War was heating up, as the Soviet Union was stepping up its pressure on the United States in Wars of National Liberation; especially in Cuba and Vietnam. These native New Yorkers must make life-altering decisions; should they concentrate on starting their careers and finding love, or must they postpone personal aspirations in order to serve a greater purpose. These young men were part of an all but forgotten American culture that were willing to put themselves in harms way by answering the call to Duty, Honor, Country.

A profile of the Bush political clan patriarch—who he was and what he stood for, the examples he set, the events he shared, and the lives he touched. Prescott Bush is the only person in US history to be father of a US President, grandfather of a US President, and grandfather of a state governor. Duty, Honor, Country is more than a biography of the U.S. Senator from Connecticut, although it is that. It looks at the principles that Prescott Bush passed on like family heirlooms to his five children, including George H.W. Bush, the forty-first President of the United States: discipline, duty, ethics, commitment, courage, honor, honesty, loyalty, and responsibility. And it looks at the ways the Bush family legacy has made Prescott Bush, former President George Bush, George W. Bush, and Jeb Bush give themselves to public service. “My father believed in the concept of noblesse oblige,” said former President George Bush. “You made your money and you had a duty to serve the community or your country.” Written with the encouragement and enthusiasm of former President Bush, the book is a readable story of noblesse oblige in action, from the time Prescott Bush served in town government in Greenwich, Connecticut, to his career as a US Senator from Connecticut, to his role in passing far-reaching legislation in the Eisenhower years. It also deals honestly with Prescott Bush’s alleged business relationships with Nazi industrialists and other accusations. Half of the book also shows how the commitment to public service was lived out in the lives of Prescott’s children and grandchildren, focusing on his son George H.W. Bush and his grandsons George W. Bush and Jeb Bush.

"This book was written to provide and preserve an oral history of the eighty-four men and women who were interviewed...sharing their memories of World War II. The stories include seventy-six veterans and eight women who served as USO volunteers, Red Cross service workers, a Holocaust survivor, and women who worked on the home front...All of the veterans and the women who served in various support roles have a connection to Indiana"--from the Preface.

After graduating from West Point in 1892, Charles Pelot Summerall (1867--1955) launched a distinguished military career, fighting Filipino insurgents in 1899 and Boxers in China in 1900. His remarkable service included brigade, division, and corps commands in World War I; duty as chief of staff of the U.S. Army from 1926 to 1930; and presidency of the Citadel for twenty years, where he was instrumental in establishing the school's national reputation. Previously available only in the Citadel's archives, Summerall's memoir offers an eyewitness account of a formative period in U.S. Army history. Edited and annotated by Timothy K. Nenninger, the memoir documents critical moments in American military history and details Summerall's personal life, from his impoverished childhood in Florida to his retirement from the Citadel in 1953. From the perspective of both a soldier and a general, Summerall describes how the very nature of war changed irrevocably during his lifetime.

Towel Snapping the Press follows the president's lifelong association with the media, showing how he has developed and, over the years, modified his tactics. During Bush's early years in the public eye, the press did not scrutinize him; but as president he became a subject of intense analysis. Still, many reporters find the president's disposition charming, even while they are frustrated by his message discipline and rigid control of press access to administration sources. This book not only presents interesting stories about the president from reporters' points of view, but also raises important issues that any civically engaged citizen will want to explore.

From West Point to Fort Donelson, General Charles Ferguson Smith was a soldier's soldier. He served at the U.S. Military Academy from 1829 to 1842 as Instructor of Tactics, Adjutant to the Superintendent and Commandant of Cadets. During his 42-year career he was a teacher, mentor and role model for many cadets who became prominent Civil War generals, and he was admired by such former students as Grant, Halleck, Longstreet and Sherman. Smith set an example for junior officers in the Mexican War, leading his light battalion to victories and earning three field promotions. He served with Albert Sidney Johnston and other future Confederate officers in the Mormon War. He mentored Grant while serving with him during the Civil War, and helped turn the tide at Fort Donelson, which led to Grant's rise to fame. He attained the rank of major general, while refusing political favors and ignoring the press. Drawing on never before published letters and journals, this long overdue biography reveals Smith as a faithful officer, excellent disciplinarian, able commander and modest gentleman.

John Adams is best remembered as one of the four Confederate generals who lay on the porch of the Carnton House, dead, when the Battle of Franklin ended on December 1, 1864. Unfortunately he did not leave much in the way of personal papers, and this biography has been pieced together from Army records and other sources, including accounts of his contemporaries. Adams's career in the U.S. Army gives us a good look at the military, the concept of Manifest Destiny, and the relations with those conquered by the Army, the Indians. This book also considers one of the more debated topics in Civil War history: why did a man who served the United States for most of his life resign his commission and side with the Confederacy?