Salute

Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler's unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final SaluteIs a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. "The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know," said Major Steve Beck. Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine's name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Saluteis the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

The vampiric sorcerer Uctebri has at last got his hands on the Shadow Box and can finally begin his dark ritual—a ritual that the Wasp-kinden Emperor believes will grant him immortality—but Uctebri has his own plans for both the Emperor and the Empire. The massed Wasp armies are on the march, and the spymaster Stenwold must see which of his allies will stand now that the war has finally arrived. This time the Empire will not stop until a black and gold flag waves over Stenwold’s own home city of Collegium. Tisamon the Weaponsmaster is faced with a terrible choice: a path that could lead him to abandon his friends and his daughter, to face degradation and loss, that might possibly bring him before the Wasp Emperor with a blade in his hand—but is he being driven by Mantis-kinden honor, or manipulated by something more sinister? From the Trade Paperback edition.

Saluting gestures in Roman art and literature -- Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii -- Raised-arm salutes in the United States before fascism : from the pledge of allegiance to Ben-Hur on stage -- Early cinema : American and European epics -- Cabiria : the intersection of cinema and politics -- Gabriele d'Annunzio and Cabiria -- Fiume : the Roman salute becomes a political symbol -- From D'Annunzio to Mussolini -- Nazi cinema and its impact on Hollywood's Roman epics : from Leni Riefenstahl to Quo vadis -- Visual legacies : antiquity on the screen from Quo vadis to Rome -- Cinema : from Salome to Alexander -- Television : from Star trek to Rome -- Conclusion.

In May 1999, four friends - two restaurateurs, a chef and a photographer - set out on a three-week holiday in southern Italy. Gail and Kevin Donovan, owners of Melbourne's popular Donovans, wanted to find visual and culinary inspiration for their constantly evolving bayside restaurant. Renowned photographer Simon Griffiths had been to Italy before and desperately wanted to go back. Donovans chef Robert Castellani looked forward to extending his knowledge of Italian food and of his Italian heritage. This beautiful book is their account of the journey. Travelling from Rome south to Sicily, Gail kept a diary of their adventures while Simon took photographs wherever they went, Kevin recorded the wines they sampled and Robert made notes on the meals they ate. The result is a lavishly illustrated, inspirational journal full of travel information, personal stories, ideas for design and decor and, of course, food - simple, delicious recipes which capture the flavours and colours of southern Italy.

Tuchman turns to America with a fresh new view of the events that led from the first foreign salute to the American Nationhood in 1776 to the last campaign of the Revolution five years later--the moment that inaugurated the existence of a new nation, and announced the coming of a democratic age to the Old World. 8 pages of color, 8 pages of photos, 7 maps.

A strikingly original investigation of the origins and dissemination of the world's most infamous greeting Sometimes the smallest detail reveals the most about a culture. In Heil Hitler: The History of a Gesture, sociologist Tilman Allert uses the Nazi transformation of the most mundane human interaction—the greeting—to show how National Socialism brought about the submission and conformity of a whole society. Made compulsory in 1933, the Hitler salute developed into a daily reflex in a matter of mere months, and quickly became the norm in schools, at work, among friends, and even at home. Adults denounced neighbors who refused to raise their arms, and children were given tiny Hitler dolls with movable right arms so they could practice the pernicious salute. The constantly reiterated declaration of loyalty at once controlled public transactions and fractured personal relationships. And always, the greeting sacralized Hitler, investing him and his regime with a divine aura. The first examination of a phenomenon whose significance has long been underestimated, Heil Hitler offers new insight into how the Third Reich's rituals of consent paved the way for the wholesale erosion of social morality.

The true story of basketball lives as much off the court as on the hardwood; it is about politics and race and cultural clashes as heated as a final-four buzzer-beater. This story unfolds in all its gritty and colorful detail in Under the Boards .

Entrusted with a secret mission, the perils of the South China Sea await.

Examines the Hitler Salute to demonstrate how it made Hitler divine and placed a sacred ambience around his regime. Discusses on this "ritual of consent" caused the erosion of social morality during World War II.