How did warrior nobles’ practices of violence shape provincial society and the royal state in early seventeenth-century France? Warrior nobles frequently armed themselves for civil war in southern France during the troubled early seventeenth century. These bellicose nobles’ practices of violence shaped provincial society and the royal state in early modern France. The southern French provinces of Guyenne and Languedoc suffered almost continual religious strife and civil conflict between 1598 and 1635, providing an excellent case for investigating the dynamics of early modern civil violence. Warrior Pursuits constructs a cultural history of civil conflict, analyzing in detail how provincial nobles engaged in revolt and civil warfare during this period. Brian Sandberg’s extensive archival research on noble families in these provinces reveals that violence continued to be a way of life for many French nobles, challenging previous scholarship that depicts a progressive “civilizing” of noble culture. Sandberg argues that southern French nobles engaged in warrior pursuits—social and cultural practices of violence designed to raise personal military forces and to wage civil warfare in order to advance various political and religious goals. Close relationships between the profession of arms, the bonds of nobility, and the culture of revolt allowed nobles to regard their violent performances as “heroic gestures” and “beautiful warrior acts.” Warrior nobles represented the key organizers of civil warfare in the early seventeenth century, orchestrating all aspects of the conduct of civil warfare—from recruitment to combat—according to their own understandings of their warrior pursuits. Building on the work of Arlette Jouanna and other historians of the nobility, Sandberg provides new perspectives on noble culture, state development, and civil warfare in early modern France. French historians and scholars of the Reformation and the European Wars of Religion will find Warrior Pursuits engaging and insightful.

WARS CHANGE, WARRIORS DON'T We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we (and how can we) use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives? The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life. The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and "mental toughness." It goes back to the ancient Spartans and Athenians, to Caesar's Romans, Alexander's Macedonians and the Persians of Cyrus the Great (not excluding the Garden of Eden and the primitive hunting band). Sources include Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, Vegetius, Arrian and Curtius--and on down to Gen. George Patton, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan.

From USA TODAY bestselling author Janie Crouch comes the story of opposites attracting as they join forces to stop a serial killer! Originally published as Man of Action. Andrea Gordon has become one of Omega Sector's top agents. Her skill at reading people is unrivaled—until she meets fellow profiler Brandon Han. Paired together to track a serial killer who has been targeting at-risk women, the two become entangled beyond the case. Then Andrea's own sordid past surfaces and they’re forced to question everything about the assignment…and each other.

Sharpen your knowledge of swords with Kristen B. Neuschel as she takes you through a captivating 1,000 years of French and English history. Living by the Sword reveals that warrior culture, with the sword as its ultimate symbol, was deeply rooted in ritual long before the introduction of gunpowder weapons transformed the battlefield. Neuschel argues that objects have agency and that decoding their meaning involves seeing them in motion: bought, sold, exchanged, refurbished, written about, displayed, and used in ceremony. Drawing on evidence about swords (from wills, inventories, records of armories, and treasuries) in the possession of nobles and royalty, she explores the meanings people attached to them from the contexts in which they appeared. These environments included other prestige goods such as tapestries, jewels, and tableware—all used to construct and display status. Living by the Sword draws on an exciting diversity of sources from archaeology, military and social history, literature, and material culture studies to inspire students and educated lay readers (including collectors and reenactors) to stretch the boundaries of what they know as the "war and culture" genre.

A young woman is being stalked in Florida because a man believes she writes the steamy romance novels that have captivated him. The detective assigned to her case is captivated by the woman and soon he and the victim fall in love. When the police have no luck finding the stalker, she hires a private investigator. The stalker continues to watch and is upset that other people are becoming involved in her life. Soon, the private investigator goes missing. The stalker decides that the only way he will have the woman all to himself is to take her to his home. He is meticulous and plans every detail. When he is ready, he kidnaps her and takes her to his soundproof apartment on a private estate in the north. The clues the detective uncovers about the kidnapping take him from Florida to New York to Colorado. He is racing against time and believes that if he doesnt find them soon, both the woman and the private investigator will be dead.

For millennia the great fishÑmarlin, bluefin tuna, and swordfishÑhave reigned over the worldÕs oceans and awed human beings. Naturalists, photographers, sportfishermen, and writers from Zane Grey to Ernest Hemingway have been inspired by their beauty, power, and sheer size. But like much other marine life today, these fish face perilous reductions in their populations due to destructive and illegal fishing, inept fisheries management practices, and dramatic changes in ocean ecology, including those wrought by climate change. In Pursuit of Giants is a moving elegy and a call to arms for the protection of these creatures, as well as a five-year, 75,000-mile global adventure story that takes author Matt Rigney on a quest to discover how once-thriving species are now threatened. RigneyÕs pilgrimage to encounter these giants takes him from the sportfishing mecca of Cabo San Lucas, to the Great Barrier Reef, from New Zealand to Nova Scotia, Japan and the Mediterranean, as he joins commercial and sport fishermen, marine biologists, fish-farming pioneers, and ocean activists to investigate the dangers these species face, and the various efforts being madeÑor notÑto protect them.

This book offers a scientific interpretation of the field of military knowledge situated between strategy and tactics, better known as operational art', and traces the evolution of operational awareness and its culmination in a full-fledged theory. The author, a Brigadier General (ret.) in the Israeli Defence Forces and Doctor of History, King's College, London, clarifies the substance of operational art' and constructs a cognitive framework for its critical analysis. He chronicles the stages in the evolution of operational theory from the emergence of 19th-century military thought to Blitzkrieg. For the first time the Soviet theories of Deep Operations' and Strike Manoeuvre' that emerged in the 1920s and 1930 are discussed. The author argues that it is these doctrines that eventually led to the crystallization of the American Airland Battle theory, successfully implemented in the Gulf War.

The Dragon Lords of Valdier universe is vast but each book can stand alone! Jump in at any point in the series. Sacrifice, impossible dreams, and the ultimate predator…. Paul Grove loves two things in the world more than anything else: his daughter, Trisha, and roaming the mountains and forests of Wyoming, but after Trisha and her friends disappear, the tracks he finds made no sense, the clues left behind unlike any he has ever seen before. When his daughter returns - with a warrior from another world - Paul realizes he has to return with her to her new home or lose her forever. Morian Reykill is a High Priestess for the golden symbiots of their world. She is their protector and a member of the Royal House of Valdier. When her first mate was killed, she was devastated. While he was not her true mate, they loved each other very much. She considered joining him in the next life, but something told her it was not yet her time. She believes it is because of her five sons, all Princes of Valdier, devoted to protecting their people and the Hive, the birthplace of the symbiots. Paul Grove finds a second chance at love in the beautiful alien woman who takes his breath away, but when a madman threatens his new family, he will need all of the skills he learned in his life on Earth, plus a few more. Will Morian be able to save him before a powerful Valdier Royal kills him as he did her first mate or will she lose her entire family to a man obsessed with gaining control of the Hive and the people of Valdier? A NY Times and USA Today bestselling author, the internationally acclaimed S.E. Smith presents a new story with her signature humor and unpredictable twists! Exciting adventure, hot romance, and iconic characters have won her a legion of fans. Over TWO MILLION books sold!