Revealing the little-known facts of Harry Truman's remarkable military performance, as a soldier and as a politician, The Soldier from Independence adds a whole new dimension to the already fascinating character of the thirty-third president of the United States. D. M. Giangreco shows how, as a field artillery battery commander in World War I, Truman was already making the hard decisions that he knew to be right, regardless of personal consequences. Truman oversaw the conclusion of the Second World War, stood up to Stalin, and met the test of North Korea's invasion of the South. He also had the fortitude to defy Gen. Douglas MacArthur, one of America's most revered wartime leaders, and ultimately fired the Far East commander, often characterized as the American Caesar. Filling in the details behind these world-changing events, this military biography supplies a heretofore missing--and critical--chapter in the story of one of the nation's most important presidents. The Soldier from Independence recounts the World War I military adventure that would mark a turning point in the life of a humble man who would go on to become commander in chief.

Long considered a classic in Bolivia, Juan de la Rosa tells the story of a young boy's coming of age during the violent and tumultuous years of Bolivia's struggle for independence. Indeed, in this remarkable novel, Juan's search for his personal identity functions as an allegory of Bolivia's search for its identity as a nation. Set in the early 1800s, the novel is narrated by one of the last surviving Bolivian rebels, octogenarian Juan de la Rosa. Juan recreates his childhood in the rebellious town of Cochabamba, and with it a large cast of full bodied, Dickensian characters both heroic and malevolent. The larger cultural dislocations brought about by Bolivia's political upheaval are echoed in those experienced by Juan, whose mother's untimely death sets off a chain of unpredictable events that propel him into the fiery crucible of the South American Independence Movement. Outraged by Juan's outspokenness against Spanish rule and his awakening political consciousness, his loyalist guardians banish him to the countryside, where he witnesses firsthand the Spaniards' violent repression and rebels' valiant resistance that crystallize both his personal destiny and that of his country. In Sergio Gabriel Waisman's fluid translation, English readers have access to Juan de la Rosa for the very first time.

Steven I. Wilkinson explores how India has succeeded in keeping the military out of politics, when so many other countries have failed. He uncovers the command and control strategies, the careful ethnic balancing, and the political, foreign policy, and strategic decisions that have made the army safe for Indian democracy.

Young Continental soldiers carried a heavy burden in the American Revolution. Their experiences of coming of age during the upheavals of war provide a novel perspective on the Revolutionary era, eliciting questions of gender, family life, economic goals, and politics. "Going for a soldier" forced young men to confront profound uncertainty, and even coercion, but also offered them novel opportunities. Although the war imposed obligations on youths, military service promised young men in their teens and early twenties alternate paths forward in life. Continental soldiers’ own youthful expectations about respectable manhood and their goals of economic competence and marriage not only ordered their experience of military service; they also shaped the fighting capacities of George Washington’s army and the course of the war. Becoming Men of Some Consequence examines how young soldiers and officers joined the army, their experiences in the ranks, their relationships with civilians, their choices about quitting long-term military service, and their attempts to rejoin the flow of civilian life after the war. The book recovers young soldiers’ perspectives and stories from military records, wartime letters and journals, and postwar memoirs and pension applications, revealing how revolutionary political ideology intertwined with rational calculations and youthful ambitions. Its focus on soldiers as young men offers a new understanding of the Revolutionary War, showing how these soldiers’ generational struggle for their own independence was a profound force within America’s struggle for its independence.

A vivid exploration of the life and times of Jos de San Mart n, legendary liberator of Chile and Peru Jos de San Mart n (1778-1850) was an enigmatic figure--a revolutionary and a conservative, a professional soldier and an intellectual, a taciturn man who nevertheless was able to inspire the peoples of South America to follow his armies and accept his battle strategies. One of the great leaders in the wars for independence, he was a pivotal force in the liberation of Chile and Peru from Spanish rule. In the first full English-language biography of San Mart n in more than half a century, John Lynch shines new light on San Mart n and on the story of Spanish America's revolutionary wars. Lynch offers a series of dramatic set pieces: the Peninsular War, in which San Mart n fought the French and learned his military skills; the crossing of the Andes, when his army battled the forces of nature as well as enemy fire; the confrontation with imperial Spain in Peru; and the standoff with Bol var which led to San Mart n's resignation and exile in Europe. Based on the latest documentation, San Mart n enhances our understanding of the modern history of Latin America and one of its most brilliant leaders.

Scarred by memories of World War II, soldier Sam Richardson returns home in 1946 and strives to manage changes in his family, which includes a young son who barely remembers him and a wife with a new sense of independence from her wartime job.

The French forces that fought during the American War of Independence (1775-1783) were, to a large extent, a product of the disasters of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). During that war the fleet had been swept off the oceans, and nearly all colonies had been lost. Sweeping reforms were demanded. From the end of 1762 a series of royal orders dictated by common sense and good planning were signed by the king, and a vast reorganisation was started, ensuring that the army that fought in the American War presented a very different, altogether more formidable threat to her foes.

A famous female soldier of the Revolutionary War There have been few notable women who have joined their nations colours to fight in its causes on the battlefield. Fewer still have actually donned the uniform of a soldier and in the guise of men fought in in the ranks. Several nations have notable examples. The English have their 'Mother Ross' who fought as a dragoon during Marlborough's campaigns and there are several examples from both sides of the American Civil War. Deborah Sampson also felt her nation's call, in her case the emergent United States of America at the time when the young country rose to shake off the shackles of colonialism. In 1778, aged just 18 years old, young Deborah disguised herself in male attire and attempted to join the ranks of Washington's Continental Army. Fearful she had been discovered she failed to report for duty; but in 1782 under the name of her late brother, Robert Shurtliff Sampson, she finally achieved her objective. She found herself posted to the distinctively uniformed ranks of the light company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. Deborah fought in several skirmishes before her first battlefield engagement at Tarrytown during which she was wounded in the thigh and cut about the head. Afraid of discovery, she treated herself with penknife and twine. Her gender was discovered in 1783 by a doctor who was treating her for a fever though he did not reveal his discovery. Deborah Sampson's true identity was never formally acknowledged right up to the point she was honourably discharged in October 1783. This book was originally published under the title The Female Review. Life of Deborah Sampson, the Female Soldier in the War of the Revolution. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

From military training and selecting uniforms to finding a supplier for weapons, an illustrated guide examines how an everyday person transformed himself into a fighting soldier when the talk of a war against the British became a reality.