Our Missing Shield

"[This book] is not a study in depth of the growth of Israel's armed forces, nor is it a historical analysis of the military doctrines which those forces developed. It is rather a sketch, a profile of the people and events which moulded first the resistance movement and then the army of the Jewish State"--Author's note.

Vintage James Lee Burke: The first novel introducing the memorable Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland, coming of age against the backdrop of the civil rights era in a sultry border town. In hot and sultry Texas, Hack, an attorney and Korean War POW, is being pushed by his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends in the oil business to run for political office. But Hack would prefer to drink, look after his beloved horses, and represent the occasional long-shot pro bono case at his law firm. When Hack attempts to overturn a conviction for an old army buddy, he finds himself embroiled in the seamy underbelly of the Texas patronage system—and in the earliest beginnings of the United Farm Workers movement, led by a beautiful woman who speaks to his heart in a way no one else has. As Hack begins to bring justice to the underserved, he finds both a new love and a new purpose. With his skillful blend of engaging plotlines, compelling characters, and graceful prose, James Lee Burke demonstrates the shimmering clarity of vision that has made him beloved by suspense fans all over the globe.

Adult Epic Fantasy The debilitating uncertainties continue... Solancei, Duchess of Ivanor and secret life shield of Iambre Actarione, is certain of one thing only: that her present situation cannot possibly get any stranger. However, when her jackal fight tormentor introduces her to an unhinged substance addict and long-term prisoner who not only seems to know her, but insists on calling her Mistress, and moves to protect her, she is forced to bend her neck to the Gods' overwhelmingly bad sense of humour. She may not live to see sunlight again, but no matter the costs, she cannot let this seemingly innocent man suffer either. Yet, will she manage to save the mad prisoner from his intended fate or is her unpredictable captor simply toying with them both? Playing a dangerous game to keep her true name hidden, is her own life already forfeit? Will she too become a mad, abused addict, or will the Gods for once favour her? Solancei knows her own fleeting odds, but for Iambre she must prevail. Mired, likewise a victim of her own unsettling circumstances, Princess Iambre of Ostravah is heart sore from the binding promise finally made to her true love, Captain Metavo, but Solancei's continued absence wreak havoc with her mind. Feeling the need to do the 'right thing', this time her virtuous view has little to do with what's proper and everything to do with following a gut instinct that tells her she must act to help her missing Shield. But how can she make a move when she is surrounded by Zanzier's sycophantic nobles and a host whose conduct threatens her patience and inspires aversion and suspicions of the worst kind? Smiles fading, old fears re-surface, to rekindle near-forgotten, debilitating insecurities that could damage her health, Iambre now makes an uncomfortable personal discovery that may affect the future if only she dares embrace it. Meanwhile, Zanzierian Lord Simarovien Zulavi has plans of his own for the future. An uneasy alliance with a noble loon from Tuxama Lake promises to produce the results he has long been striving for but when a trial to test an old bizarre set of supposed-magical stones proves successful, Zulavi should perhaps be wondering if there is more to the ramblings of his bookish scholar ally than meets the eyes. Tan'Xaviar of Tuxama Lake is peculiar and turns Zulavi's guts, but an ally is an ally. At least, for now...

A richly detailed, profoundly engrossing story of how religion has influenced American foreign relations, told through the stories of the men and women—from presidents to preachers—who have plotted the country’s course in the world. Ever since John Winthrop argued that the Puritans’ new home would be “a city upon a hill,” Americans’ role in the world has been shaped by their belief that God has something special in mind for them. But this is a story that historians have mostly ignored. Now, in the first authoritative work on the subject, Andrew Preston explores the major strains of religious fervor—liberal and conservative, pacifist and militant, internationalist and isolationist—that framed American thinking on international issues from the earliest colonial wars to the twenty-first century. He arrives at some startling conclusions, among them: Abraham Lincoln’s use of religion in the Civil War became the model for subsequent wars of humanitarian intervention; nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries made up the first NGO to advance a global human rights agenda; religious liberty was the centerpiece of Franklin Roosevelt’s strategy to bring the United States into World War II. From George Washington to George W. Bush, from the Puritans to the present, from the colonial wars to the Cold War, religion has been one of America’s most powerful sources of ideas about the wider world. When, just days after 9/11, George W. Bush described America as “a prayerful nation, a nation that prays to an almighty God for protection and for peace,” or when Barack Obama spoke of balancing the “just war and the imperatives of a just peace” in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, they were echoing four hundred years of religious rhetoric. Preston traces this echo back to its source. Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith is an unprecedented achievement: no one has yet attempted such a bold synthesis of American history. It is also a remarkable work of balance and fair-mindedness about one of the most fraught subjects in America.

Includes material on the history of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb; the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; secrecy in physics; Ernest Orlando Lawrence; radiation hazards; Chernobyl; China syndrome; and "the role of the scientist."