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  Edith Stilson My Grandmother's...

  Harold Charles Clark

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  Harold Charles Clark delivers a remarkable family saga that begins in the steamy construction camps of the Panama Canal Zone and spans four generations of extraordinary lives. At its heart is his grandmother Edith Stilson, born in 1894 when the great canal was still a dangerous dream carved from jungle and ambition. The Stilson family was not casual observers of history. They lived it. Charles Stilson arrived in 1863 to work on the Panama Railroad. His son Joseph became a successful businessman whose name graced a pond near the Gatun Locks. Edith grew up watching the canal take shape, was crowned Carnival Queen at sixteen, and witnessed the first ships pass through the locks that forever changed global commerce. Clark brings these stories to life with rich detail and thorough research, drawing from family letters, photographs, and memories passed down through generations. Readers experience the Panama Canal Zone as few ever have: the daily reality of yellow fever outbreaks, revolutionary upheaval, and the massive construction project that transformed an entire region. From the tropical heat of Colon to the neighborhoods of Baltimore where the family eventually settled, this book preserves voices from a vanishing world. It's both an intimate family memoir and an important historical record, capturing what it meant to build a life alongside one of humanity's greatest engineering feats.

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  Why Taiwan Matters - A Short...

  Kerry Brown

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  This program is read by the author.Taiwan expert Kerry Brown sums up the history of Taiwan and the danger of a Chinese takeover in this succinct and authoritative book.When the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao’s Communists won and took China’s mainland; Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to Taiwan island. Since then, China and Taiwan have drifted into being separate political and cultural entities.Taiwan is now a flourishing democracy and an economic success story: just one of its companies produces over 90 per cent of the semiconductors that power the world’s economy. It is a free and vibrant society. For the United States and the West, the island is a bastion of freedom against China’s assertive presence in the region. And yet China, increasingly bellicose under Xi Jinping, insists Taiwan is part of its territory and must be returned to it. Should China blockade the island and mount an invasion, it would set off a chain reaction that would pitch it against the US – escalating a regional war into a global one. Taiwan is thus a geopolitical powder keg.Why Taiwan Matters helps us understand how and why we’ve arrived at this dangerous moment in history. With unparalleled access to Taiwan’s political leaders and a deep understanding of the island’s history and culture, Professor Kerry Brown provides a new reading of Taiwan, its twenty-three million people, and how they navigate being caught in this frightening geopolitical standoff. Why Taiwan Matters is the essential audiobook for understanding Taiwan’s unique story told in an accessible, expert and urgent way.A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

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  The Price of Life: - A Holocaust...

  Abram Molodetsky

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  In "The Price of Life," Abram Molodetsky tells a harrowing tale of a young Jewish boy's struggle to survive amidst the brutalities of war and genocide. The story follows Abram's journey from his innocent childhood in Odessa, Ukraine, to his experiences during the Holocaust. 
  As a child, Abram is full of wonder and curiosity, exploring the vibrant streets of his hometown. However, the cruel realities of anti-Semitic violence and discrimination slowly chip away at his innocence, leaving him with a deep sense of insecurity and fear. 
  When the Nazi invasion of Ukraine begins, Abram and his family are forced to flee their home and embark on a treacherous journey of survival. Despite the unimaginable horrors he faces, Abram remains steadfast in his determination to protect his loved ones and overcome the atrocities of war. 
  Through his resourcefulness and courage, Abram is able to outsmart the Nazis and ensure the survival of his family. Molodetsky's writing is both raw and compassionate, evoking a sense of empathy and understanding for the unimaginable suffering endured by those who lived through the Holocaust. 
  "The Price of Life" serves as a powerful reminder of the devastating impact of war and genocide on individuals and communities alike. Abram's story is a testament to the resilience and indomitable spirit of the human will, even in the face of the darkest and most unimaginable of circumstances.

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  Symbolism

  Johann Adam Möhler

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  Johann Adam Möhler was professor theology at the Tübingen University where both Catholics and Protestants taught and studied. In 1832 he published Symbolism; a work that examined the doctrines of original sin, grace and free will as held by the different Christian confessions. It caused a storm of controversy in the Protestant nations of Europe. In it he turned the weapons furnished by Hegel, the “Protestant Aquinas”, against Protestantism. His method and style were supported by the use of facts, texts, and documents. By 1838 Symbolism had been translated to 8 languages and its author had died before he completed its 5th edition. In an age when the Catholic Church found itself divided into two camps, the “German” and the “Roman”, Döllinger, a former pupil of Möhler’s, when addressing a group of scholars at Munich in 1863 once famously quipped that the former were defending Catholicism with rifles while the latter were still using bows and arrows. The “Romans”, however, would succeed in silencing thier “German” brethren at the First Vatican Council and cut off a branch bearing good fruit. A rediscovery of the “German” school is long overdue and there is no better place to start than Möhler’s Symbolism. (Summary by Jeff Allen)

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  Naval Warfare of World War II...

  Editors Charles River

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  Naval combat underwent a significant metamorphosis during World War II. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan launched some of the most powerful battleships ever to sail the world's oceans, yet the conflict witnessed the emergence and triumph of the aircraft carrier as the 20th century's true monarch of the seas. Submarine warfare expanded and developed, while aircraft technology and doctrine experienced several revolutionary changes due to the unforgiving demands of the new combat environment. 
  In time, the American and British navies progressively destroyed their Axis counterparts, ensuring clear sea lanes, high strategic mobility for seaborne invasions, and large-scale air support that eventually battered the Axis armies into submission. Just as the Luftwaffe paralyzed Poland's defenders in 1939 with air superiority, so the Allies' mastery of naval and aerial warfare turned the tables to paralyze the Nazis and Japanese: “The fate of Germany and Japan was sealed by the many-layered application of Anglo-American air and sea power. The totality of this pressure [...] eventually choked off Axis mobility. Air and sea power could operate throughout the productive process, not only to affect the battlefield, but to determine how much and what kinds of military equipment were produced and deployed.” (O'Brien, 2015, 480). 
  Indeed, the “ultimate weapon” of World War II proved to be not a powerful tank or a specific type of aircraft, but a gigantic piece of military hardware combining the newly augmented power of both air and naval operations, the aircraft carrier. Every diverse element of the military machine had a crucial role to play, but the aircraft carrier stood head and shoulders above any other single system as the key to victory in the mid 1940s.

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  The Baltic Sea - A Geopolitical...

  Tobias Boestad, Axel Boltenberg,...

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  The Baltic Sea is more than an inland sea – it is a historic geopolitical stage. From maritime travel in the Viking era toa NATO-dominated region, this brackish inland sea has been a lifeline for people and countries in northern Europe. The Baltic Sea has served as a hub for economic and political relations – with the dominance of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages, the Great Power Battles between Sweden, Poland-Lithuania and Russia, and the dramatic shifts in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars as well as two World Wars and the Cold War. But the Baltic Sea is also a place of cooperation. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the region has been characterized by integration and growth – a development that once again is being challenged by new geopolitical tensions. How will the future be affected by energy flows, climate change and military strategies? In this comprehensive anthology, leading scholars in history, political science, international relations and other subjects are brought together to examine the driving forces that have formed the Baltic Sea region from the 13th century until today.

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