Love War As Never Before

Love & War As Never Before is a look at what life was like for a boy living in Pittsburgh from age five to nine during World War II: from that dreary, cold Sunday in December 1941 when the radio reported the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to that sunny day in August 1945 when the city, and the nation, celebrated in the streets long into the night. With that story as a baseline, Love & War As Never Before also reveals the ordeals of the boys aunts, uncles, cousin, and father serving in the war as it progressed from North Africa through Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany. They were aunts Margy and Nell with the American Red Cross; Uncle Martin, a battalion commander with the Hell on Wheels 2nd Armored Division; cousin Pat, a company commander with the 7th Armored; uncle Tom, a Navy lieutenant commander in the Philippines; and the boys elusive father, John, an intelligence officer with the 8th Army Air Corps. Their experiences are told through a trove of some four hundred pages of letters found yellowing in a crushed cardboard box in the corner of the fathers garage some fifty years after the conflict ended.

A comparison of nine leaders who led their nations through the greatest wars the world has ever seen and whose unique strengths—and weaknesses—shaped the course of human history, from the bestselling, award-winning author of Churchill, Napoleon, and The Last King of America “Has the enjoyable feel of a lively dinner table conversation with an opinionated guest.” —The New York Times Book Review Taking us from the French Revolution to the Cold War, Andrew Roberts presents a bracingly honest and deeply insightful look at nine major figures in modern history: Napoleon Bonaparte, Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, George C. Marshall, Charles de Gaulle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Margaret Thatcher. Each of these leaders fundamentally shaped the outcome of the war in which their nation was embroiled. Is war leadership unique, or did these leaders have something in common, traits and techniques that transcend time and place and can be applied to the essential nature of conflict? Meticulously researched and compellingly written, Leadership in War presents readers with fresh, complex portraits of leaders who approached war with different tactics and weapons, but with the common goal of success in the face of battle. Both inspiring and cautionary, these portraits offer important lessons on leadership in times of struggle, unease, and discord. With his trademark verve and incisive observation, Roberts reveals the qualities that doom even the most promising leaders to failure, as well as the traits that lead to victory.

Do you struggle with praying the rosary? Do you have trouble finding time, fighting distractions, or feeling like you’re just going through the motions to get it done? For some, the rosary can seem overwhelming or almost a chore, when in fact it is meant to be a simple prayer—a prayer that has been available for Christians for hundreds of years. This compelling book by Edward Sri offers practical suggestions that come from the rosary’s tradition to experience Jesus and Mary more in your prayer and easily incorporate it into your life. It will allow the rosary to become a perpetual companion through the seasons, important moments, and challenges we will inevitably face. These prompts will not only help those who need help with incorporating the rosary into their everyday life but also to those who are deeply attached to get their relationship deeper with the Lord. “Offering God, a decade or two in the midst of my daily life gives him something beautiful, even if I give it without my full, relaxed, undivided attention,” says Sri. “I’m giving God some space in my day and filling it with words of praise for him.” In this book, Sri takes what he did in The New Rosary in Scripture to a new level. As Catholics, we often have questions about prayer and don’t know how to go about getting answers. Praying the Rosary Like Never Before: Encounter the Wonder of Heaven and Earth helps to answer those questions. Some of the common questions are: What is the significance of the Hail Mary? Does the attention given to Mary distract us from focusing on God? What is the meaning of all the repetition in prayer? Where exactly did the rosary came from? What should we think about for each of the mysteries, and whether one should focus on the prayers or the mysteries? You will also find biblical reflections on the twenty mysteries of the rosary that provide practical insights to help you not only understand the twenty mysteries but also live them in your daily life. You will learn how the rosary is Christ-centered and receive group study questions for each chapter. It only takes a couple minutes each day to strengthen your relationship with God—that is the beauty of the rosary.

"A Tongva creation story of Catalina Island and how the black-crowned night heron came to be"--

Established in 1911, The Rotarian is the official magazine of Rotary International and is circulated worldwide. Each issue contains feature articles, columns, and departments about, or of interest to, Rotarians. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners – from Mahatma Ghandi to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – have written for the magazine.

General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, "You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that." Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--"the best Government ever made"--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. "I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard," one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, "My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace." Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. "While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice," one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, "I still love my country." McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.