The United States Military Academy at West Point is one of America’s oldest and most revered institutions. Founded in 1802, its first and only mission is to prepare young men—and, since 1976, young women—to be leaders of character for service as commissioned officers in the United States Army. West Point’s success in accomplishing that mission has secured its reputation as the foremost leadership-development institution in the world. An Academy promotional poster says it this way: “At West Point, much of the history we teach was made by people we taught.” Carved from Granite is the story of how West Point goes about producing military leaders of character. An opening chapter on the Academy’s nineteenth-century history provides context for the topic of each subsequent chapter. As scholar and Academy graduate Lance Betros shows, West Point’s early history is interesting and colorful, but its history since then is far more relevant to the issues—and problems—that face the Academy today. Drawing from oral histories, archival sources, and his own experiences as a cadet and, later, a faculty member, Betros describes and assesses how well West Point has accomplished its mission. And, while West Point is an impressive institution in many ways, Betros does not hesitate to expose problems and challenge long-held assumptions. In a concluding chapter that is both subjective and interpretive, the author offers his prescriptions for improving the institution, focusing particularly on the areas of governance, admissions, and intercollegiate athletics. Photographs, tables, charts, and other graphics aid the clarity of the discussion and lend visual and historical interest. Carved from Granite: West Point since 1902 is the most authoritative history of the modern United States Military Academy written to date. There will be lively debate over some of the observations made in this book, but if they are followed, the author asserts that the Academy will emerge stronger and better able to accomplish its vital mission in the new century and beyond.

Referred to by some as The Eighth Wonder of the World, Stone Mountain, located 16 miles from Atlanta, Georgia, is the largest exposed mass of granite in the world. Freeman, a freelance historian, narrates the development of the mountain from the days that it served as a Native American domain, through the carving of an historic Confederate monument, to its present status as a tourist attraction and recreational area. Enhanced with bandw photographs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Overlooking the Hudson River on the campus of the United States Military Academy at West Point are 12 granite benches, each inscribed with a word representing a key leadership virtue: compassion, courage, dedication, determination, dignity, discipline, integrity, loyalty, perseverance, responsibility, service, and trust. These benches remind cadets of the qualities that lead to victory and success, not just on the battlefield, but in all of life. With his signature enthusiasm and insight, Pat Williams shares the incredible stories of West Point graduates who exemplified these traits, from the Civil War to the War on Terror. He shows readers of all backgrounds how to develop these 12 essential virtues in their lives, whether they are in the corporate world, the academic world, the military, the church, or in some other sphere.

A Dark and Brutal Frontier.An Unlikely Friendship.And Sacrifice - the only currency to barter with time or death.At the Battle of Sheriffmuir, as his brother dies in his arms, Cornelius Campbell pledges a new life on the contested New England frontier. In the spring of 1722, he settles with his wife and daughter in the remote New Hampshire province, unprepared for circumstances he faces. Despite the conflicts between the English and the Abenakis, he builds trust with Chocorua, a Pequawket, whose family isolates from hostilities yet remain tormented by the suffering their loved ones have endured.Determined to live peacefully, their friendship offers a beacon of light on a dark and brutal frontier - a light that shines all the brighter for the growing affections between their strong-willed children. The Province of Massachusetts Bay prepares to quell the strife between the Abenakis and the French agitators by sending allies to intervene while simultaneously enacting the Scalp Act. Amid the violence that inevitably follows, grievous losses and treacherous acts further spawn chaos, setting Cornelius against Chocorua as he fights to unravel the clues to save his family. Based on a legend in New Hampshire folklore, Carved in Granite weaves a tale of hope forged from friendship, the binding promise of young love and of sacrifice - the only currency with which death and time will barter.

'Get away from here before you're completely bewitched and enslaved...' Dorothy Carrington was told, while sitting in a fisherman's cafe at the magically quiet midday hour. But enslaved she was. GRANITE ISLAND, much more than a travel book, grew out of years spent in Corsica and is an incomparably vivid and delightful portrait. For the first time Corsica is brought to light as a vital element in Europe: a highly individualistic island culture whose people have nurtured their love of freedom and political justice, as well as their pride, hospitality and poetry.

A fascinating historical tour of 475 Thoroughbred memorials commemorating legendary Thoroughbred racehorses buried in Central Kentucky. The memorials, dating from the 1870s to present day, range from simple markers to elaborate and ornate cemeteries. Zeh brings to life the names carved in granite, from Domino, the great 19th Century champion, to Secretariat and Mr. Prospector. Richly illustrated with over 100 photographs.

The American Military: A Concise History narrates the American military experience. It focuses on four recurring themes-citizen soldiers vs. the standing armed forces; military professionalism; mechanization and technology; and the limits of power-and illuminates the role of the American military in its past and how it is shaping current and future national security issues.

Most people do not think to observe geology from the sidewalks of a major city, but all David B. Williams has to do is look at building stone in any urban center to find a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics. In Stories in Stone, he takes you on explorations to find 3.5-billion-year-old rock that looks like swirled pink-and-black taffy, a gas station made of petrified wood, and a Florida fort that has withstood three hundred years of attacks and hurricanes, despite being made of a stone that has the consistency of a granola bar. Williams also weaves in the cultural history of stone, explaining why a white fossil-rich limestone from Indiana became the only building stone used in all fifty states; how in 1825, the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument led to America’s first commercial railroad; and why when the same kind of marble used by Michelangelo clad a Chicago skyscraper it warped so much after nineteen years that all 44,000 panels of it had to be replaced. This love letter to building stone brings to life the geology you can see in the structures of every city.

It is not as widely known as it should be that Britain has the most varied geology of any country in the world. This book is a celebration in words and pictures of what its mountains are made of, and how they got there. This in turn determines what they're like to climb, scramble on, or walk over. Why is Skiddaw slate so slippery? How do tors form? Why is gritstone so difficult? Why is Lakeland so picturesque, and the granite lands so grim and forbidding? Geology is destiny, whether it's the rubbishy nature of gullies and screes, the sculpting of valleys by ice or the landslip weirdness of Quiraing on the Isle of Skye. British mountains contain many interesting and different ingredients: gneiss and granite and gabbro; limestone and sandstone; schist and slate; the product and the debris of tectonic shifts, volcanoes, earthquakes and glaciers over many millennia. This book explains all this to the layman, from an expert but personal perspective, and will add immeasurably to the fun and satisfaction to be gained from any day in the hills.

A country boy born in a small town named Porterdale just southeast of Atlanta became a man with a purpose. How does someone rise up from barely completing high school take on such a monumental task such as etching out three historical figures from the Civil War. I tell you how...a man that went above and beyond the vision that God gave him to work day and night and sometimes seven days a week until the job was finished.. My dad is a man who has been dedicated to everything he has come in contact with ...from helping his mother around the house as well enlisting into the Marine Corp to help provide financial support and then soon marrying my mom to start his own family. He knew that day on Jefferson Street when he was playing football and the ball struck my mom's ankle that she would one day be his wife and the mother of his children. Daddy loved the ocean so much that once a year in August he would take us on a family vacation to Daytona Beach and other trips he would go to Panama City to enjoy one of his favorite past times which was deep-sea fishing. He was so determined that he would never leave his boat until he was satified with his catch. A young man with many jobs starting out as a newspaper boy and moving onto a position as a welder never dreamed that one day he would be hired as the man to erect an outside 400-foot elevator that would ascend up the side of Stone Mountain. This man who fell in love with the mountain and became the Chief Carver of the Confederate Memorial is the same simple man that never took an art lesson in his life and believed that he had a purpose which soon became a historical monument that we all have come to love and enjoy."