As one of the world’s most populous countries, China has always flexed its muscles beyond its borders, the result being a thread of conflict woven into the fabric of the nation’s history. In the mid-13th-century Mongol hordes obliterated an army of Europe’s finest knights, and 700 years later China went to war with Japan, took on UN forces in Korea, and squared up to the Soviet Union and America. Over the centuries in between, the Chinese sought bloody conflict with Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Buddhists and survived political conflicts that claimed tens of millions of lives. Today China stands on the threshold of global economic domination with an economy estimated to become twice as wealthy as those of the US, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy combined within a generation. This unique history traces China’s passage through 1,000 years of war, colonial adventurism, and internecine politics in an effort to understand what this huge and unstoppable country has become, as well as what the future holds for a fragile world in which China is quickly becoming a dominant superpower.

Beware the Dragon: China: 1,000 Years of Bloodshed

History

DURSCHMIED, Erik

Asia

Andre Deutsch

A dramatic survey of a millennium of monumental collisions between China and the West. Long the world’s most populous country, China has always flexed its muscles beyond its borders. Today, China stands on the threshold of global economic domination, a true rival to the United States: in a generation or so it will be twice as wealthy as the US, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy combined. Bestselling author Erik Durschmied traces China’s passage through a thousand years of war, colonial adventurism, and internecine politics, and seeks to understand what this huge and unstoppable country is today—as well as what the future holds for a fragile world in which China reigns as the latest economic and military superpower.

The Military History of China: From 1218 to the Present Day

From the wooden horse at Troy to the Gulf War, military history has been as much marked by chance and error as by gallantry and heroism. Despite impossible odds, invincible armies have gone down to bitter defeat as their weak opponents triumphed. In battle, much depends on which side commits the biggest blunder. Many conflicts have been decided by the caprice of weather, bad intelligence, heroism where it wasn't expected, or individual incompetence- in other words the unpredictable.

The Hinge Factor: How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History

Military

MJF_Books

From the wooden horse of Troy to the Gulf War, military history has been as much marked by chance and error, as by gallantry and heroism. Many conflicts have been decided by the caprice of weather, bad intelligence, heroism where it wasn't expected, or individual incompetence. In military terms, the incident which can swing a battle from victory to defeat in a moment is known as the Hinge Factor.
 The Hinge Factor vividly describes battles which demonstrate this phenomenon - including the circumstances behind the loss of the Holy Cross, through to the attack of African war bees in 1914, to Star-War weaponry described in the Gulf War.
 This enthralling book demystifies the general belief that battles are always won due to the brilliance of a general and will both inform and entertain a wide audience.

The hinge factor: how chance and stupidity have changed history

Coronet

Despite major improvements in collecting information and forecasting the weather, the 'factor of the unpredictable' is as real today, as it was in days when Noah was forced to set sail on the ark. Floods have drowned millions, droughts and famines have wiped out entire populations, frost has brought a sudden halt to invincible armies, and storms have sunk unsinkable armadas. When man comes to face nature's elements, it is not so much human incompetence as the uncertainty of the weather that leads on to disaster.

THE WEATHER FACTOR - How Nature Has Changed History

Hodder and Stoughton

The Weather Factor : How Nature Has Changed History

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Progressing from the 18th to the 20th century, this work uses historical texts, eye witness accounts and interviews to provide a snapshot of history as shaped by revolution. Events covered include the French Revolution, the Red October rising and the activities of Che Guevara.

Whisper of the Blade: Revolutions, Mayhem, Betrayal, Glory and Death

Hodder&Stoughton Canada

There is no shortage of stories when it comes to battles. Some were decided by genius, but many more by a quirk of fate, when that thin balance which separates success from disaster lay in a minor decision or a trivial incident that tipped the scales. The thrust of a spear, the blink of an eye, a single phrase or a misinterpreted command is all it takes. A moment of courage or cowardice, energy or weariness, resolution or indecision. Battles have shaped the course of history and decided the fate of mankind. From a brutal Attila the Hun who went down to defeat on the Catalaunian Fienls, to an overbearing French artillery colonel at Dien Bien Phu; from the stout walls of Constantinople to a skimpy mealie-bag wall at Rorke's Drift; from the sun of Austerlitz to the snows of Stalingrad, it was always an incident that decided the outcome of battle.

The Hinges of Battle

Hodder Paperback

In the Mediterranean, the most fought-over region in the world, the figures of potentates and conquerors appear god-like: Thutmosis, Leonidas, Xerxes, Pyrrhus, Hannibal, Caesar and Vercingetorix. Ancient history, from Pharaonic Egypt and the Shahs of Persia, to the Golden Age of Greece and the conquests of Alexander the Great and his dream of universal brotherhood, is dominated by these incredible characters. And then comes Rome, the supreme political event of ancient history and the world's first superpower. This volume is the history of incredible men, brave and reckless, intelligent and foolish, lucky and ill-fated, engaging their forces in battles that are prime examples of ruse, trickery, chance, stupidity and military brilliance. Warlords invent tactics never used before, and use them to change history decisively. Erik Durschmied looks at 17 of ancient history's most fascinating battles, many of which have been almost forgotten, but which in reality changed both the world and time itself.

From Armageddon to the Fall of Rome: How the Myth Makers Changed the World

Ancient Civilizations

Hodder&Stoughton

There are instances of heroic deeds that had no immediate witness, such as the Scholls's attempt in 1943 to raise their nation's conscience, suppressed by Hitler's propaganda machine. The Canadian physicist Dr. Slotin acted in 1946; but since 'the bomb' was supposed to be fail-safe, his feat was not released to the public. A KGB commissar gagged Captain Marinesco in 1945, just as Moscow's rulers silently did away with Colonel Maleter in 1956 as a hindrance for their political ambition. In the case of Parteigenosse Duckwitz in 1943, nobody discovered that he was behind the betrayal of the Nazi plan, and he wouldn't publicise his disloyalty to his Fuhrer. It took faith and courage for a Palermo priest to go up against the Sicilian Mafia in 1993. And there is the sergeant who in 1916 blundered into an 'impregnable fortress' and then took it single-handedly. These are a few brave man and women who dared to stand up and be counted. Some had to pay a bitter price for remaining loyal to their principles, but all of them changed the course of history.

Unsung Heroes : The Twentieth Century's Forgotten History-Makers

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