Bridge Street Books
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Bridge Street Books |
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Wicklow |
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Non-Fiction Titles |
| We pride ourselves on a range of non-fiction to suit many tastes - biography, autobiography, First & Second World Wars, American, Irish, African history, current affairs, sport & much more | ||
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Moral Combat - A history of WW2 Michael Burleigh |
From pre-eminent historian Michael Burleigh comes a
brilliant new examination of the Second World War and a magisterial
counterpart to his award-winning and bestselling THE THIRD REICH.
Literature on the Second World War is voluminous. In Moral Combat,
however, Michael Burleigh achieves what few historians can claim to have
done; by exploring the moral sentiment of entire societies and their
leaders, and how this changed under the impact of total war, he presents
readers with an entirely fresh perspective of this conflict. Opening with the 'predators' - Mussolini, Hitler, Prince Hirohito of Japan - and moving onto appeasement (a popular policy or a 'wrong' policy?), the rape of Poland, Barbarossa, the role of Churchill, and the Holocaust, Burleigh analyses the moral dimension of the Second World War's most important moments. More than merely a history of 'great men', however, Burleigh also examines the moral reasoning of individuals who had to make choices under circumstances difficult to imagine. Stressing the maxim that the past is used to make sense of the present world we live in, he takes us right up to today's war on terror - a war of competing ideas. What, in the end, will constitute its victory? Burleigh's fascinating and deeply engaging exploration refuses to draw lessons from the past for the future, remaining instead firmly focused on the on-the-spot decisions that came to define the conflict. Original, perceptive and remarkable in scope, this is an unforgettable and hugely important Second World War history. |
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Road of Bones - The Siege of Kohima 1944 Fergal Keane |
The epic story of one of the most savage battles of
the Second World War. Kohima. In this remote Indian village near the
border with Burma, a tiny force of British and Indian troops faced the
might of the Imperial Japanese Army. Outnumbered ten to one, the defenders fought the Japanese hand to hand in a battle that was amongst the most savage in modern warfare. A garrison of no more than 1,500 fighting men, desperately short of water and with the wounded compelled to lie in the open, faced a force of 15,000 Japanese. They held the pass and prevented a Japanese victory that would have proved disastrous for the British. Another six weeks of bitter fighting followed as British and Indian reinforcements strove to drive the enemy out of India. When the battle was over, a Japanese army that had invaded India on a mission of imperial conquest had suffered the worst defeat in its history. Thousands of men lay dead on a devastated landscape, while tens of thousands more Japanese starved in a catastrophic retreat eastwards. They called the journey back to Burma the 'Road of Bones', as friends and comrades committed suicide or dropped dead from hunger along the jungle paths. Fergal Keane has reported for the BBC from conflicts on every continent over the past 25 years, and he brings to this work of history not only rigorous scholarship but a raw understanding of the pitiless nature of war. It is a story filled with vivid characters: the millionaire's son who refused a commission and was awarded a VC for his sacrifice in battle, the Roedean debutante who led a guerrilla band in the jungle, and the General who defied the orders of a hated superior in order to save the lives of his men. Based on original research in Japan, Britain and India, 'Road of Bones' is a story about extraordinary courage and the folly of imperial dreams. |
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Extreme Risk Chris Hunter |
In this edgy, fast-paced and incredibly moving
account, Chris Hunter chronicles the remarkable journey of a teenager
with few hopes and limited prospects who went on to become one of the
most successful counter-terrorism operators in Britain. Hunter depicts
his grueling officer training at Sandhurst, and afterwards as a young
troop commander in Bosnia. He describes how, as a bomb disposal operator
in Northern Ireland and Iraq, he witnessed horrendous acts of terrorism
and recounts the methods he employed to outsmart the terrorists who
repeatedly tried to target him. Hunter takes us to some of the most perilous places on earth as he and his team relentlessly attempt to track down the world's leading terrorists and disrupt their networks. A journey that takes us from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to the murky back-streets of Colombia and Israel. Whether he's protecting members of the Royal Family, responding to the 2005 London suicide bombings or trying to foil Al Qaeda bomb plots, he provides a fascinating, no-holds-barred insight into a fascinating world that has rarely been documented by somebody on the inside. By turns gritty, absorbing, and heart-breaking, this is the portrait of a man prepared to sacrifice everything for his country, but to concede nothing to the terrorists. |
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Hellfire Ed Macy |
The true story of one man's determination to master
the world's deadliest helicopter and of a split-second decision that
changed the face of modern warfare. Ed Macy bent every rule in the book
to get to where he wanted to be: on Ops in the stinking heat of the
Afghan summer, with the world's greatest weapons system at his
fingertips. It's 2006 and he is part of an elite group of pilots
assigned to the controversial Apache AH Mk1 gunship programme. So far, though, the monstrously expensive Apache has done little to disprove its detractors. For the first month 'in action' Ed sees little more from his cockpit than the back end of a Chinook. But everything changes in the skies over Now Zad. Under fire and out of options, Ed has one chance to save his own skin and those of the men on the ground. Though the Apache bristles with awesome weaponry, its fearsome Hellfire missile has never been fired in combat. Then, in the blistering heat of the firefight, the trigger is pulled. It's a split-second decision that forever changes the course of the Afghan war, as overnight the gunship is transformed from being an expensive liability to the British Army's greatest asset. From that moment on, Ed and his squadron mates will face the steepest learning curve of their lives - fighting an endless series of high-octane missions against a cunning and constantly evolving enemy. Ed himself will have to risk everything to fly, fight and survive in the most hostile place on earth. |
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Task Force Helmand Doug Beattie |
Doug Beattie was due to retire from the British Army
in 2007, until his CO made a desperate plea: stay on for just one more
tour. In March 2008 he returned to Afghanistan. But if 2006 had been
hellish, then 2008 was off the scale. For six months Beattie led Afghan and British troops into repeated, exhausting battles with the Taliban. He took part in 50 major contacts and describes in detail the action-packed reality of life and death on the frontline, bringing the chaos and ferocity of the war to lfe with the utmost honesty and humanity. Gripping and moving in equal measure, this searing and personal account from the author of An Ordinary Soldier is a war memoir of the highest possible calibre. |
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Hitler Ian Kershaw |
Now at last in a single, abridged paperback - the definitive life. Ian Kershaw's two-volume biography of Hitler was greeted with universal acclaim as the essential work on one of the most malign figures in history. Now this landmark biography is available in one single, abridged edition, tracing the story of how a bitter, failed art student from an obscure corner of Austria rose to unparalleled power, destroying the lives of millions and unleashing Armageddon. |
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Mandela's Way: Lessons on Life Richard Stengel |
We long for heroes but have too few. Nelson Mandela
is perhaps the last pure hero on the planet. For nearly three years
"Time" magazine editor Richard Stengel collaborated with Mandela on his
autobiography and travelled with him everywhere. Eating with him, watching him campaign, hearing him think out loud, Stengel came to know all the different sides of this complex man. He became a cherished friend and colleague. Now he has distilled countless hours of intimate conversation with Mandela into fifteen essential life lessons. In "Mandela's Way", he recounts the moments in which 'the grandfather of South Africa' was tested and shares the wisdom he learned: why we should keep our rivals close, why courage is more than the absence of fear, and why the answer is not always either/or but often 'both'. Woven into these life lessons are remarkable stories - of Mandela's childhood as the protege of a tribal king, of his early days as a freedom fighter, of the twenty-seven-year imprisonment that could not break him, and of his new and fulfilling marriage at the age of eighty. This profoundly inspiring book captures the spirit of this extraordinary man - warrior, martyr, husband, statesman, and moral leader - and spurs us to look within ourselves, reconsider the things we take for granted, and contemplate the legacy we'll leave behind. |
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Race of a Lifetime - How Obama won
the White House Mark Halperin |
Forget everything you think you know
about the making of the most powerful man on the planet. President
Barack Obama's triumph was not inevitable: it was the end product of a
brilliant, calculated, convention-defying political campaign. In a race
that will be talked about for years to come, he faced down his rivals
with ruthless focus and efficiency. "Race of a Lifetime" is the gripping inside story of those thrilling months: from the meteoric rise of Obama and the collapsing House of Clinton to the erratic John McCain and the bewildering Sarah Palin. Brimming with exclusive revelations, this compulsively readable book lays bare the characters of the candidates, warts and all; exposes the inner workings of their operations; and, charts the true path to the White House. It's a tour de force: the sometimes shocking, often funny, and ultimately definitive account of the campaign of a lifetime. |
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Voices from the Grave Ed Moloney |
Ed Moloney's "A Secret History of the IRA" is the
best-informed account yet written of the IRA's evolution from ruthless
guerrilla army into governmental party, ruling Northern Ireland
alongside its most intransigent former enemies. But reconciliation
between political figures who until very recently wished each other dead
or in jail has not been accompanied by very much truth-telling about the
past. Men who have been to the White House and hob-nobbed with Tony
Blair deny that they ever fired a shot in anger, or caused a bomb to be
planted. Now, in a truly ground-breaking piece of historical evidence-gathering initiated by Boston College, two former paramilitary leaders - one republican, one loyalist - speak with unprecedented frankness about their role in some of the most appalling violence of the Troubles. Their openness results in a book of shocking and irresistible testimony, their voices set in the context of a narrative by Ed Moloney of their lives and of the society they grew up in. |
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Don't Sleep There Are Snakes Daniel Everett |
A Christian missionary, Daniel Everett arrived in
remotest Brazil with his wife & young family in 1977, intending to
convert a small tribe of Amazonians called the Piraha. Instead he
found a language that defies Chomsky's linguistic theory & reflects a
way of life that evades contemporary understanding: the Piraha have no
counting system and no fixed terms for colour. They have no
concept of war or of personal property. They live entirely in the
present. Everett is the first outsider to learn their language. Over time, he came to understand the remarkable contentment with which they live: so much so that he eventually lost his faith. Perilous adventure, personal enlightenment & the makings of a scientific revolution come together in this vivid, compelling narrative. Anyone interested in languages, will love this.
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The Bridge - The life & rise of Barack Obama David Remnick |
The rise of Barack Obama is one of the great stories
of this century: a defining moment in American history, and one with
truly global resonance. Until now, no journalist or historian has
written a book that fully investigates the circumstances and experiences
of Obama's life or explores the ambition and conviction behind his
journey to election. "The Bridge" - from a writer whose gift for
illuminating the historical significance of unfolding events is
unsurpassed - offers a portrait, at once masterly and fresh, nuanced and
unexpected, of the man who was determined to become the first
African-American president. Through extensive on-the-record interviews with friends and teachers, mentors and disparagers, family members and Obama himself, David Remnick allow us to see an early life coloured by absence and uncertainty: one that asked demanding questions of a rootless and literate man in search of himself, sending him firstly towards social work and then into law. Deftly setting Obama's burgeoning political career against the volatile scene in Chicago, Remnick shows us how it was that city's complex racial legacy that shaped the young politician and made his first forays into politics a source of controversy and bare-knuckle tactics: his clashes with older black politicians in the Illinois State Senate, his disastrous decision to challenge the former Black Panther Bobby Rush for Congress in 2000, the sex scandals that would decimate his more experienced opponents in the 2004 Senate race, and the story - from both sides - of his confrontation with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. In exploring the way in which Barack Obama imagined and fashioned an identity for himself against the backdrop of race in America, Remnick illuminates an American life without precedent, and reminds us that, electrifying though Obama's victory may have been, there was nothing fated about it. Interrogating both the personal and political elements of the story - and, most crucially, the points at which they intersect - he gives shape to a decisive period of American history, and in turn, to the way it crucially influenced, animated and motivated a gifted and complex man |
