In today's military of rapid technological and strategic change, obtaining a complete understanding of the present, let alone the past, is a formidable challenge. Yet the very high rate of change today makes study of the past more important than ever before. The Past as Prologue, first published in 2006, explores the usefulness of the study of history for contemporary military strategists. It illustrates the great importance of military history while simultaneously revealing the challenges of applying the past to the present. Essays from authors of diverse backgrounds - British and American, civilian and military - come together to present an overwhelming argument for the necessity of the study of the past by today's military leaders in spite of these challenges. The essays of Part I examine the relationship between history and the military profession. Those in Part II explore specific historical cases that show the repetitiveness of certain military problems.

How American colonists reinterpreted their British and colonial histories to help establish political and cultural independence from Britain In Past and Prologue, Michael Hattem shows how colonists’ changing understandings of their British and colonial histories shaped the politics of the American Revolution and the origins of American national identity. Between the 1760s and 1800s, Americans stopped thinking of the British past as their own history and created a new historical tradition that would form the foundation for what subsequent generations would think of as “American history.” This change was a crucial part of the cultural transformation at the heart of the Revolution by which colonists went from thinking of themselves as British subjects to thinking of themselves as American citizens. Rather than liberating Americans from the past—as many historians have argued—the Revolution actually made the past matter more than ever. Past and Prologue shows how the process of reinterpreting the past played a critical role in the founding of the nation.

Where should we go? All that we knew is gone, and all that we have is each other… In this short story from the thrilling anthology MatchUp, bestselling authors Diana Gabaldon and Steve Berry—along with their popular series characters Jamie Fraser and Cotton Malone—team up for the first time ever.

While there has been substantial scholarly work done on the development of Christian doctrine in the fourth and fifth centuries, very little corresponding attention has been paid to the writing of church history during this critical period. This work examines how authors began to construct the historical narrative of the “Arian” controversy and focuses on the interplay between theology and worshipping communities. Major figures such as Eusebius and Athanasius are examined, and important but overlooked figures such as an anonymous non-Nicene chronicler and Philostorgius are also included. In the introduction the book surveys recent developments in the study of “Arianism” and discusses the usefulness of the very category of an “Arian controversy.” Subsequent chapters set forth the thesis that church histories are important sources for understanding the development of doctrine. A chapter is devoted to Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, especially the oft-overlooked Book X. Further chapters explore the role of Rufinus as the first extant author to write a continuation of Eusebius. The work also consciously includes marginalized non-Nicene sources, and there are chapters which examine an anonymous non-Nicene chronicler and the Ecclesiastical History of the Eunomian Philostorgius of Borissus. The book is particularly useful for persons interested in examining the development of doctrine in the fourth century from fresh perspectives. The work approaches church histories as narrative myths of community origins produced by worshipping communities standing in continuity to local schools of thought.

One doctor's career began more than half a century ago, during World War II; another's began only recently, near the start of the new millennium. One scientist was a Kentucky farm girl who had never dreamed of going to college; another survived the cultural re-education prescribed for intellectuals under China's late Chairman Mao. Despite various backgrounds, these women in science at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have much in common with each other, and, they hope, with women who will come after. Twenty-seven female scientists share their personal stories of life in academic research. They reveal their family backgrounds and how they became interested in science, research, and medicine. Each relates her educational growth, professional successes and struggles, and life experiences. Time after time, these doctors stress the joy of discovery and the keys to success: caring mentors, strong time management skills, and supportive friends and family.

Throughout the world today there are obvious trouble spots that have the potential to explode into serious conflicts at any time in the immediate or distant future. This study examines what history suggests about the future possibilities and characteristics of war and the place that thinking about conflict deserves in the formation of American strategy in coming decades. The author offers a historical perspective to show that armed conflict between organized political groups has been mankind's constant companion and that America must remain prepared to use its military power to deal with an unstable, uncertain, and fractious world.Williamson Murray shows that while there are aspects of human conflict that will not change no matter what advances in technology or computing power may occur, the character of war appears to be changing at an increasingly rapid pace with scientific advances providing new and more complex weapons, means of production, communications, and sensors, and myriad other inventions, all capable of altering the character of the battle space in unexpected fashions. He explains why the past is crucial to understanding many of the possibilities that lie in wait, as well as for any examination of the course of American strategy and military performance in the future—and warns that the moral and human results of the failure of American politicians and military leaders to recognize the implications of the past are already apparent.

This is not another alternative energy study. Rather, The Prologue identifies and charts the security-related trajectory of a relatively new global phenomenon: the ascent of alternative energy as a 21st century megatrend. Why and how have contemporary alternative energy developments evolved into a 21st century global socio-political and techno-economic megatrend? What are the security implications of this megatrend? And what does the megatrend’s evolution reveal about upcoming geopolitical, energy, defense, environmental, and economic security challenges? This book endeavors to answer these questions by establishing the conceptual framework of a universally securitized world in which mutually interacting threats have expanded the needs and security considerations of today’s globalized and interdependent actors, including states, international organizations, multinational corporations, and political and social movements. “Alexander Mirtchev’s sweeping exploration of the changing energy landscape looks far into the future and outlines issues that will occupy scholars and policymakers for decades to come.”—The Hon. Henry Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor “With the advancements in alternative energy technology at the beginning of the 21st century, energy security thinking and planning will never be the same—Alexander Mirtchev’s profoundly original book reveals these new dilemmas that will challenge policymakers in all major economies and provides for dealing with the new realities in a smart way.”—The Hon. Judge William H. Webster, Chairman, Homeland Security Advisory Council, Former Director of the CIA and FBI

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Science Friday A quest to explore some of the most spectacular ancient cities in human history—and figure out why people abandoned them. In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Newitz travels to all four sites and investigates the cutting-edge research in archaeology, revealing the mix of environmental changes and political turmoil that doomed these ancient settlements. Tracing the early development of urban planning, Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers—slaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers—who built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia. Four Lost Cities is a journey into the forgotten past, but, foreseeing a future in which the majority of people on Earth will be living in cities, it may also reveal something of our own fate.

The crisis facing the United States in 1850 was a dramatic prologue to the conflict that came a decade later. The rapid opening of western lands demanded the speedy establishment of local civil administration for these vast regions. Outraged partisans, however, cried of coercion: Southerners saw a threat to the precarious sectional balance, and Northerners feared an extension of slavery. In this definitive study, Holman Hamilton analyzes the complex events of the anxious months from December, 1849, when the Senate debates began, until September, 1850, when Congress passed the measures.