Emma Hagström Molin uncovers the history of a most peculiar heritage: seventeenth-century plunder in the form of archival documents, manuscripts and books preserved in Swedish archives and libraries.

It is April 2003. American forces have taken Baghdad and are now charged with winning hearts and minds. But this vital tipping point is barely recognized for what it is, as a series of miscalculations and blunders fuels an already-simmering insurgency intent on making Iraq the next graveyard of empires. In dazzling and propulsive prose, Brian Van Reet explores the lives on both sides of the battle lines: Cassandra, a nineteen-year-old gunner on an American Humvee who is captured during a deadly firefight and awakens in a prison cell; Abu Al-Hool, a lifelong mujahedeen beset by a simmering crisis of conscience as he struggles against enemies from without and within, including the new wave of far more radicalized jihadists; and Specialist Sleed, a tank crewman who goes along with a "victimless" crime, the consequences of which are more awful than any he could have imagined. Depicting a war spinning rapidly out of control, destined to become a modern classic, Spoils is an unsparing and morally complex novel that chronicles the achingly human cost of combat. "The finest Iraq War novel yet written by an American"-Wall Street Journal, 10 Best Novels of the Year "An electrifying debut" (The Economist) that maps the blurred lines between good and evil, soldier and civilian, victor and vanquished.

A gripping account of one of the great forgotten wars of history, revealing how Alexander the Great's vast empire was torn asunder in the years after his death

A very special book, not only for inspiration but for history lovers. Through its pages you can discover the atmosphere and feeling of the gulf war from the point of view of the daguet Division The Division Daguet (in french the Daguet is a young brocket deer) was a French Army division formed in September 1990 in Saudi Arabia after the invasion of Kuwait. It was initially formed by elements of the 6th Light Armored Division. On 24 February 1991, when the ground phase begins, the main objective of the division was the As-Salman airfield in Iraq. The Daguet Division and the US 82nd Airborne Division crossed the border and attacked north. The French soldiers encounter some elements of the Iraqi 45th Infantry Division. At the end of the battle, the French Army controlled the objective. The French soldiers captured about 2500 prisoners, and seized a large quantity of weapons. Within a month, the specialized teams of the division which were assigned to the recovery of the Iraqi hardware, managed to capture more than 35 heavy vehicles, a dozen of pieces of AA guns of diff erent calibres and artillery pieces.

In Spoils of Truce, Reinoud Leenders documents the extensive corruption that accompanied the reconstruction of Lebanon after the end of a decade and a half of civil war. With the signing of the Ta’if peace accord in 1989, the rebuilding of the country’s shattered physical infrastructure and the establishment of a functioning state apparatus became critical demands. Despite the urgent needs of its citizens, however, graft was rampant. Leenders describes the extent and nature of this corruption in key sectors of the Lebanese economy and government, including transportation, health care, energy, natural resources, construction, and social assistance programs. Exploring in detail how corruption implicated senior policymakers and high-ranking public servants, Leenders offers a clear-eyed perspective on state institutions in the developing world. He also addresses the overriding role of the Syrian leadership’s interests in Lebanon and in particular its manipulation of the country’s internal differences. His qualitative and disaggregated approach to dissecting the politics of creating and reshaping state institutions complements the more typical quantitative methods used in the study of corruption. More broadly, Spoils of Truce will be uncomfortable reading for those who insist that power-sharing strategies in conflict management and resolution provide some sort of panacea for divided societies hoping to recover from armed conflict.

The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) lies at the intersection of early modern and modern times. Frequently portrayed as the concluding chapter of the Reformation, it also points to the future by precipitating fundamental changes in the military, legal, political, religious, economic, and cultural arenas that came to mark a new, the modern era. Prompted by the 400th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, the contributors reconsider the event itself and contextualize it within the broader history of the Reformation, military conflicts, peace initiatives, and negotiations of war.

Methods for restoring native plant communities on acidic mine spoils at high elevations were evaluated in a gbsdemonstration area gcs in the New World Mining District of southern Montana. Research plots installed in 1976 were assessed for 22 years and compared with adjacent native reference plant communities. A 1.5-acre (0.61-ha) area of mine spoils was shaped and treated with hydrated lime, organic matter, and fertilizer. The area was then seeded heavily with five native grasses collected from adjacent native plant communities. Natural seed rain, transplanting, refertilization, and use of introduced species were also studied. During periods of fertilization, biomass and cover were twofold greater than in adjacent native reference communities in some years, but then rapidly declined to levels observed in native reference communities. Natural succession was accelerating within the demonstration area toward formation of a native community with characteristics similar to adjacent reference areas. Soil genesis was progressing and a soil gbsA gcs horizon was developing. Use of native seral species appears necessary for long-term formation of a self-sustaining natural community. Both transplanting and natural seed rain on treated spoils resulted in significantly lower biomass and cover levels than on the seeded area. Our data demonstrate that acidic mine spoils, such as in the New World area, can be treated successfully in-place with lime, organic matter, and fertilizer, and then seeded with a mixture of native seral grasses, followed by surface mulching with erosion blanket. Capping with native soils is unnecessary. Reclamation principles and procedures are summarized.