Humans were born armed Before Homo sapiens first walked the Earth proto-humans had manufactured spears & other tools not only to hunt & defend themselves but also to attack other humans The war instinct is part of human nature but the means to fight war depend on technology Politics economics ideology culture strategy tactics & philosophy have all shaped war but none of these factors has driven the evolution of warfare as much as technology Expanding on this compelling thesis this book traces the co-evolution of technology & war from the Stone Age to the age of cyberwar & nanotechnology Alex Roland shines a light on the patterns of interaction between technology & warfare describing the sensational inventions that changed the direction of war throughout history fortified walls the chariot swift & nimble battleships the gunpowder revolution & finally aircraft bombers rockets submarines improvised explosive devices (IEDs) & nuclear weapons In the twenty-first century scientific & engineering research is constantly transforming war & simultaneously producing countless technological innovations Yet even now the newest & best technology cannot guarantee victory Rather technology & warfare remain in a timeless dialectic spurring change without ever stabilizing a military balance of power New technologies continue to push warfare in unexpected directions while warfare pulls technology into new stunning possibilities In an era of computers drones & robotic systems Roland reminds us that although military technologies keep changing at a precipitous speed the principles & patterns behind them abide Brimming with dramatic narratives of battles & deep insights into military psychology this Very Short Introduction is ultimately an original account of human history seen through the kaleidoscopic lens of war technology ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly Our expert authors combine facts analysis perspective new ideas & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable ...

WINNER OF THE VONDEL PRIZE 2017 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Times Sunday Times & The Economist & one of the 10 Best Books of 2016 in the New York Times Shortly before his death Stefan Hertmans' grandfather Urbain Martien gave his grandson a set of notebooks containing the detailed memories of his life He grew up in poverty around 1900 the son of a struggling church painter who died young & went to work in an iron foundry at only 13 Afternoons spent with his father at work on a church fresco were Urbain's heaven; the iron foundry an inferno During the First World War Urbain was on the front line confronting the invading Germans & ever after he is haunted by events he can never forget The war ends & he marries his great love Maria Emelia but she dies tragically in the 1919 flu epidemic Urbain mourns her bitterly for the rest of his life but like the obedient soldier he is he marries her sister at her parents' bidding The rest is not quite silence but a marriage with a sad secret at its heart & the consolations found in art & painting War & Turpentine is the imaginative reconstruction of a damaged life across the tumultuous decades of the twentieth century; a deeply moving portrayal of family grief love & war ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Titles Comprise The Cruel Sea The courageous story of the Battle of the Atlantic a story of an ocean a ship & a handful of men The brave crew are the heroes The heroine is the ship The only villain is the sea that man & war have made even more brutal For Those In Peril Flt Lt Murray (David Farrar) is a pilot who fails to join the RAF during WWII & decides to join the Air
- Sea Rescue instead His boat is out in all conditions picking up drowned pilots & taking them to safety PO Rawlings (Ralph Michael) is a new recruit who resents joining Farrar&s boat & would rather be where the action is
- in the air During a mission they run into an enemy minefield & an armed trawler San Demetrio London Set in 1940 during the battle of the Atlantic this is the true story of how the crew of the petrol tanker & San Demetrio& was left with a near impossible task when she was torpedoed by the Germans After the ship was torpedoed the crew abandoned ship in three lifeboats Two are picked up by other ships in the convoy but the third drifts for days until its crew spies the burning & San Demetrio& on the horizon Do they board the ship try to put out its fires & get it back to English shores or do they stay in the drifting lifeboat in the hope of being rescued? Actors Jack Hawkins Stanley Baker Denholm Elliott Donald Sinden Virginia Mc Kenna Alec Mc Cowen David Farrar Ralph Michael Robert Wyndham John Slater Robert Griffith John Batten Tony Bazell Arthur Young Walter Fitzgerald & Ralph Michael Director Charles Frend & Charles Crichton Certificate PGYear 1953 ; 1944 ; 1943 Languages Dolby Digital (10) Mono

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AN EMPIRE IN DECLINE Centurion Aurelius Castus
- once a soldier in the elite legions of the Danube
- believes his glory days

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What we know of war is always mediated knowledge & feeling We need lenses to filter out some of its blinding terrifying light These lenses are not fixed; they change over time & Jay Winter's panoramic history of war & memory offers an unprecedented study of transformations in our imaginings of war from 1914 to the present He reveals the ways in which different creative arts have framed our meditations on war from painting & sculpture to photography film & poetry & ultimately to silence as a language of memory in its own right He shows how these highly mediated images of war in turn circulate through language to constitute our 'cultural memory' of war This is a major contribution to our understanding of the diverse ways in which men & women have wrestled with the intractable task of conveying what twentieth-century wars meant to them & mean to us ...

A special new edition of Michael Foreman's award-winning memoirs about his wartime childhood 'I woke up when the bomb came through the roof It came through at an angle overflew my bed by inches bounced up over my mother's bed hit the mirror dropped into the grate & exploded up the chimney' The Second World War is an exciting time for a young boy growing up in a small town in Suffolk
- sometimes far too exciting! Life during wartime is vividly brought to life in this personal story filled with childhood memories
- from hiding in air-raid shelters to playing in the bombed-out ruins & the arrival of American soldiers War Boy is a modern classic that combines a touching personal story with factual information & wonderful illustrations Also available in paperback War Boy (9781843650874) War Game (9781843650898) After the War Was Over (9781843650881) Farm Boy (9781843650904) & Billy the Kid (9781844583669)

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Lily & Sophie are two young women working as seamstresses during the blitz in the East End of London They meet & fall for two Canadian servicemen Charlie & Louie The two couples are married within a couple of weeks & in due course the men are shipped of to the front Lily & Sophie receive instructions from the Canadian Embassy that they are to travel to Canada to live with their new in-laws ...

That time is upon us I can feel it coming That evil barbarian will not be satisfied until he has engulfed the whole world in war & death I fear for us all' In a triumphant return to his much-loved Courtney series Wilbur Smith introduces us to the bravest new member of the famed family Saffron Courtney Saffron grows up on a sprawling Kenyan estate under the watchful eye of her father prominent businessman & distinguished war veteran Leon Courtney Her childhood is idyllic until a family tragedy forces her to grow up much faster than necessary As she grows into a spirited teenager her thirst for knowledge & adventure leads her to England where she finds herself inevitably drawn into the heart of the gathering storm in the lead up to World War II Gerhard von Meerbach is the privileged & idealistic younger brother of Konrad von Meerbach heir to an industrial fortune & vocal supporter of the Nazi Party Gerhard struggles to stay true to his principles in an increasingly cruel world His friendship with a Jewish man places him in danger & forces him to take a stand against the forces of evil that have overtaken his country & his family But unknown to him he is caught in a trap that could cost him everything he holds dear As the Second World War looms over them all Saffron & Gerhard's worlds will collide
- but will there be more to unite them than tear them apart? A love story in the time of heroes War Cry is the latest breath-taking episode in Wilbur Smith's epic account of one beloved family
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That time is upon us I can feel it coming That evil barbarian will not be satisfied until he has engulfed the whole world in war & death I fear for us all' In a triumphant return to his much-loved Courtney series Wilbur Smith introduces us to the bravest new member of the famed family Saffron Courtney Saffron grows up on a sprawling Kenyan estate under the watchful eye of her father prominent businessman & distinguished war veteran Leon Courtney Her childhood is idyllic until a family tragedy forces her to grow up much faster than necessary As she grows into a spirited teenager her thirst for knowledge & adventure leads her to England where she finds herself inevitably drawn into the heart of the gathering storm in the lead up to World War IIGerhard von Meerbach is the privileged & idealistic younger brother of Konrad von Meerbach heir to an industrial fortune & vocal supporter of the Nazi Party Gerhard struggles to stay true to his principles in an increasingly cruel world His friendship with a Jewish man places him in danger & forces him to take a stand against the forces of evil that have overtaken his country & his family But unknown to him he is caught in a trap that could cost him everything he holds dear As the Second World War looms over them all Saffron & Gerhard's worlds will collide
- but will there be more to unite them than tear them apart?A love story in the time of heroes War Cry is the latest breath-taking episode in Wilbur Smith's epic account of one beloved family
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