The People in Arms, first published in 2002, is concerned with the mass mobilization of society for war. It takes as its starting point the French levée en masse of 1793, which replaced former theories and regulations concerning the obligation of military service with a universal concept more encompassing in its moral claims than any that had prevailed under the Ancien Régime. The levée en masse has accordingly gone down in history as a spontaneous, free expression of the French people's ideals and enthusiasm. It also became a crucial source for one of the most powerful organizing myths of modern politics: that compulsory, mass social mobilizations merely express, and give effective form to, the wishes or higher values of society and its members. The aim of the papers presented here is to analyse and compare episodes in which this distinctive ideological configuration has played a leading role.

The remarkable true story of the Queen Alexandra frontline nurses in the Second World War. The amazing experiences of the Queen Alexandra nurses in the Second World War form one of the greatest adventure stories of modern times, and - incredibly - remain largely untold. Thousands of middle-class girls, barely out of school, were plucked from sheltered backgrounds, subjected to training regimes unimaginably tough by today's standards, and sent forth to share the harsh conditions of the fighting services. They had to deal with the most appalling suffering, yet most found reserves of inner strength that carried them through episodes of unrelieved horror. Over 200 nurses died, torpedoed in hospital ships, bombed in field hospitals or murdered in Japanese prison camps. Dozens won medals for gallantry. From the beaches of Dunkirk, to Singapore and D-Day, they saw it all. Whether tending burned pilots from the Battle of Britain or improvising medical treatment in Japanese death camps, their dedication was second to none. This is their story.

In contemporary popular culture, armed women take center stage - but how can they be read from a feminist perspective? How do films, comics, and TV series depict the newly fashionable gunwomen between objectification and feminist empowerment? The contributions to this volume ask this question from different vantage points in cultural and literary studies, film and visual culture studies, history, and art history. They examine military and civic gun cultures, the rediscovery of historical armed women and revolutionaries, cultural phenomena such as gangsta rap, narcocultura and US politics, Bollywood and French cinema, and distinct genres such as the graphic novel, the romance novel, or the German police procedural Tatort.

Includes the First World War Illustrations Pack – 73 battle plans and diagrams and 198 photos A vivid anecdotal memoir of the Western front from a member of the hard fighting Canadian Corps around the time of their victory at Vimy Ridge in 1917. Filled with the sounds and sensations of the trenches it makes for a gripping read. Captain R. J. Manion M.C. spent much of 1915 as a volunteer doctor in a French Army Red Cross unit, before enlisting for service with his native Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1916. He served in military hospitals and base camps before being assigned as the Medical Officer of the 21st Battalion in early 1917. His service only lasted six months in the front lines before being invalided home, he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the battle of Vimy Ridge.

A senior in high school, Abe's got a Division I track scholarship awaiting him, a hot girlfriend, and a loving and wealthy adoptive family, including a brother his age. But suddenly, horrific flashbacks and seizures rip him back five years ago to war-torn Africa, where he lost his mother, his sister, his friends, and almost his own life to torturous violence. In therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Abe uncovers even darker moments that make him question why he's still alive. This contemporary young adult novel portrays the pressures of teens to live a normal life, let alone succeed at high levels; while facing mental illness and—in Abe's case—a past that no one could possibly understand… or survive. Pegi Deitz Shea has written a suspenseful, action-filled book that will open teens' eyes and hearts to the lives of young people exposed to violence around the world.

This book explores shifting representations and receptions of the arms-bearing woman on the British stage during a period in which she comes to stand in Britain as a striking symbol of revolutionary chaos. The book makes a case for viewing the British Romantic theatre as an arena in which the significance of the armed woman is constantly remodelled and reappropriated to fulfil diverse ideological functions. Used to challenge as well as to enforce established notions of sex and gender difference, she is fashioned also as an allegorical tool, serving both to condemn and to champion political and social rebellion at home and abroad. Magnifying heroines who appear on stage wielding pistols, brandishing daggers, thrusting swords, and even firing explosives, the study spotlights the intricate and often surprising ways in which the stage amazon interacts with Anglo-French, Anglo-Irish, Anglo-German, and Anglo-Spanish debates at varying moments across the French revolutionary and Napoleonic campaigns. At the same time, it foregrounds the extent to which new dramatic genres imported from Europe –notably, the German Sturm und Drang and the French-derived melodrama– facilitate possibilities at the turn of the nineteenth century for a refashioned female warrior, whose degree of agency, destructiveness, and heroism surpasses that of her tragic and sentimental predecessors.

Many times in my adult life, I have had what I would call an "awake out-of-body experience." During these times, I was peeking in at my life in a dream state; thinking this cannot be my life. I found myself asking the questions of what happened to the child who outsmarted the world and what happened to the teen who had all the answers and confidence to boot, and the young adult who never settled for can't. Well, somewhere along the way, the only thing left of who I was once was, were just shreds of an almost non-existent life. Now, don't get me wrong, there were some good times along the way, but it certainly was not always smooth sailing. But what came later in life was no comparison to the early years. Not that long ago, my life was filled with disappointment, brokenness, worry, anxiety, and fear. I survived breakups and breakdowns, sadness and pain, grief and loss beyond description, all of which led to a one-way ticket to Depression Central. Getting off the road to depression was very difficult for me, but there is no job too hard for God. If you can relate to the paralyzing despair that I went through, then please know that I fellowship with you and understand the grip depression and anxiety can have on your life. However, I want you to know that your destination does not have to be a one-way ticket to the land of despair, instead, your journey can bring you to a place of joy and peace if you simply trust and believe in God.

'Absolutely gripping from the word go' Alexis Conran, Times Radio 'A convincing insight into the terror and adrenaline rush of war' Mail on Sunday Damien Lewis's new bestseller tells the action-packed, riveting story of the band of mavericks and visionaries who made the SAS. Using hitherto untold stories and new archival sources, Damien Lewis follows one close-knit band of warriors from the SAS foundation through to the Italian landings - chronicling the extraordinary part they played as the tide of the Second World War truly turned in the Allies' favour. This is a narrative of wall-to-wall do-or-die action and daring, chronicling the exploits of some of the most highly-decorated soldiers of the twentieth-century. 'A new book by historian Damien Lewis ... who has read through the letters, diaries and reports kept by the Mayne family and conducted interviews with its surviving members over the past ten years' Danielle Sheridan, Daily Telegraph 'Read more about the characters as seen in SAS Rogue Heroes in Damien Lewis's book SAS Brothers In Arms' Ed Cullinane, SWNS 'Damien Lewis, bestselling author, describes the extraordinary bravery of Paddy Mayne and, it seems strange to say, the humanity of Mayne ... Brilliant' Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live 'The depth of research is astounding'Belfast Telegraph