Produced with the Smithsonian Institution and released in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the start of the war, The Civil War is the definitive visual history to one of the most defining moments in our country's history. Comprehensive timelines, revealing first-person accounts by soldiers and civilians, key political and military leaders, as well as examinations of broader topics, such as transportation, the economy, and the treatment of wounded soldiers, make The Civil War a must-have for anyone interested in the history of the Civil War.

"The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things.... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads: the suffering, the enormous tragedy of the whole thing."- Shelby Foote, from The Civil War  When the illustrated edition of The Civil War was first published, The New York Time hailed it as "a treasure for the eye and mind." Now Geoffrey Ward's magisterial work of history is available in a text-only edition that interweaves the author's narrative with the voices of the men and women who lived through the cataclysmic trial of our nationhood: not just Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Robert E. Lee, but genteel Southern ladies and escaped slaves, cavalry officers and common foot soldiers who fought in Yankee blue and Rebel gray.     The Civil War also includes essays by our most distinguished historians of the era: Don E. Fehrenbacher, on the war's origins; Barbara J. Fields, on the freeing of the slaves; Shelby Foote, on the war's soldiers and commanders; James M. McPherson, on the political dimensions of the struggle; and C. Vann Woodward, assessing the America that emerged from the war's ashes.From the Trade Paperback edition.

World War II is divided into nine chronological chapters, each introduced by a general overview of the military and political situation. This is followed by a comprehensive timeline, covering events in all theaters of the war. The opening chapter analyzes the build-up of hostility in the years leading up the war, both in Europe and in the Pacific. Similarly the final chapter analyzes the immediate and long-term consequences of the war and the way it has shaped recent history. In the chapters that cover the events of the war itself, the main spreads move from one theater of war to another but are linked by an easy-to-use system of cross referencing to earlier events and the consequences of the actions described on the spread. The main spreads are interspersed with features, eyewitness accounts, and galleries of weaponry and equipment.This title differs from DK's previous World War II title, in that it is a spread-by-spread account á la History (with "previous" and "following" tabs placing each spread in chronological context) of the war, rather than a narrative that needs to be read from start to finish.

Showcasing more than 300 guns, from rifles and pistols to machine guns and grenade launcher, this 800-year visual history is the perfect gift book for anyone interested in firearms.

They’re on the shoulder of all military personnel: patches that symbolize what their unit does. But what if that’s top secret?“A fresh approach to secret government. It shows that these secret programs have their own culture, vocabulary and even sense of humor.”—Steven Aftergood, The Federation of American ScientistsIn a work that combines ingenious journalism and bizarrely encoded art, author/photographer/investigator Trevor Paglen uncovers sixty never-before-seen-in-public military patches that reveal a bizarre secret world of the American military. Paglen investigates classified weapons projects and intelligence operations by examining their own imagery and jargon, disclosing new facts about important classified military units—here known by peculiar names (“Goat Suckers,” “None of Your Fucking Business,” “Tastes Like Chicken”) and illustrated with occult symbols and ridiculous cartoons. The precisely photographed patches—worn by military personnel working on classified missions, such as those at the legendary Area 51—reveal much about a strange and eerie world about which little was previously known.The author has also assembled an extensive and readable guide, based on extensive interviews with military sources and government records, to the patches included here, making this volume perhaps the best available survey of the military's black world—a $27 billion industry that has quietly grown by almost 50 percent since 9/11.

In 2006, the U.S. Marines officially became part of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with the creation of the Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Drawn from the ranks of the Force Recon companies, these highly skilled and combat-proven Leathernecks would take the war to al Qaeda and the Taliban in America’s global war on terrorism. MARSOC is steeped in the heritage of the Marine Raiders of World War II, Force Reconnaissance companies of Vietnam, and Detachment-One, which stood up after the attacks on 9/11. Their mission is to win wars before they begin, taking the warfare beyond the front line. When America wants to display its might, the Commander in Chief will send in the Marines. With the creation of MARSOC, chances are they are already there.

April 29, 1995, marks the 50th anniversary of V-E Day, the date of Germany's surrender to the Allies and the end of the war in Europe. Up Front is a vivid and exceedingly timely piece of living history and a potent reminder of the sacrifices of the men who fought and won our greatest war.

Focusing on the frontline soldiers who fought for their tribes, their cities, their overlords and their countries-from the Ancient Greeks who repelled the invading Persians in the 5th century to the US Marines in action in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, this visual history paints a compelling portrait of the frontline soldier through 2,500 years of history. The third in a series of illustrated military history books, following the highly successful Battle and Weapon, Warrior features vivid accounts of daily life, training, and tactics of the ordinary fighting man. AUTHOR BIO: R.G. Grant is a history writer who has published more than 20 books, including titles on the Revolutionary War, World War I and II, and the Vietnam War. He's also the author of DK's Battle, Weapon, and Flight: 100 Years of Aviation.

An integrated history of the war in which text, illustrations, graphics, maps, and timelines combine to give a unique portrait of the conflict. World War I provides an enthralling narrative that explains the causes of the war, the course the war followed, and what made it the most costly and destructive war in the world's history. From the animosity-filled years prior to 1914 through the Treaty of Versailles and from the European campaigns to naval battles, this is a dramatic overview of the world's greatest human conflict.