JAMES WEBB

In this brilliantly received memoir, former senator James Webb has outdone himself. It is rare in America that one individual is recognized for the highest levels of combat valor, as a respected member of the literary and journalistic world, and as a blunt-spoken leader in national politics. In this extraordinary memoir, Webb writes vividly about the early years that shaped such a remarkable personal journey.Webbs mother grew up in the poverty-stricken cotton fields of East Arkansas. His father and lifetime hero was the first in many generations of Webbs, whose roots are in Appalachia, to finish high school. He flew bombers in World War II and cargo planes in the Berlin Airlift, graduated from college in middle age, and became an expert in the nations most advanced weaponry.Webbs account of his childhood is a tremendous American saga as the family endures the constant moves and challenges of the rarely examined postWorld War II military, with a stern but emotionally invested father, a loving mother who had borne four children by the age of twenty-four, a granite-like grandmother who held the family together during his fathers frequent deployments, and a rich assortment of aunts, siblings, and cousins. Webb tells of his four years at Annapolis in a voice that is painfully honest but in the end triumphant.His description of Vietnams most brutal battlefields breaks new literary ground. One of the most highly decorated combat Marines of that war, he is a respected expert on the history and conduct of the war. Webbs novelists eyes and ears invest this work with remarkable power, whether he is describing the resiliency that grew from constant relocations during his childhood, the longing for his absent father, his poignant good-bye to his parents as he leaves for Vietnam, his role as a twenty-three-year-old lieutenant through months of constant combat, or his election to the Senate, where he was a leader on national defense, foreign policy, and economic fairness. This is a life that could happen only in America.

More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of Englands Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland. When hundreds of thousands of Scots-Irish migrated to America in the eighteenth century, they brought with them not only long experience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerrilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, dislike of aristocracy and a military tradition; and, over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of working-class America and even of the peculiarly populist form of American democracy itself. Born Fighting is the first book to chronicle the epic journey of this remarkable ethnic group and the profound but unrecognised role it has played in shaping the social, political and cultural landscape of America from its beginnings through to the present day.

Few writers since Stephen Crane have portrayed men at war with such a ring of steely truth.The Houston PostWith a new introduction by the author for the books 40th anniversary. They each had their reasons for joining the Marines. They each had their illusions. Goodrich came from Harvard. Snake got the tattooDeath Before Dishonorbefore he got the uniform. And Hodges was haunted by the ghosts of family heroes. They were three young men from different worlds, plunged into a white-hot, murderous realm of jungle warfare as it was fought by one Marine platoon in the An Hoa Basin, 1969. They had no way of knowing what awaited them. Nothing could have prepared them for the madness to come. And in the heat and horror of battle they took on new identities, took on each other, and were each reborn in fields of fire.Fields of Fire is James Webbs classic novel of the Vietnam War, a novel of poetic power, razor-sharp observation, and agonizing human truths seen through the prism of nonstop combat. Weaving together a cast of vivid characters, Fields of Fire captures the journey of unformed men through a man-made helluntil each man finds his fate.Praise for Fields of FireA stunner . . . Webb gives us an extraordinary range of acutely observed people, not one a stereotype, and as many different ways of looking at that miserable war.NewsweekA novel of such fullness and impact, one is tempted to compare it to Norman Mailers The Naked and the Dead.The Oregonian Webbs book has the unmistakable sound of truth acquired the hard way. His men hate the war; it is a lethal fact cut adrift from personal sense. Yet they understand that its profound insanity, its blood and oblivion, have in some way made them fall in love with battle and with each other.Time

Once in a great while there comes a novel of such emotional impact and acute insight that it forever changes the way a reader sees a nation or an era. Writing with an unerring sense of suspense and of history experienced firsthand, James Webb takes us on a myth-shattering cultural odyssey deep into the heart of contemporary Vietnam, with a riveting thriller that tells a love story love for those who perished, for family and friends, and between a soldier and the land where he had always been ready to die.Brandon Condley survived five years of combat as a U.S. Marine only to lose the woman he loved to an enemy assassin. Now he is back in Vietnam, working to recover the remains of unknown American soldiers. On a routine mission, Condley finds a body that doesnt match its dog tags a body that propels him into a vortex of violence and intrigue where past and present become one.As the mystery of the dead man unravels, a link is revealed to two well-known killers: Salt and Pepper, a pair of treasonous Americans who led a deadly Viet Cong ambush against Condleys own men. Galvanized by a fresh trail to these long-lost deserters, Condley has finally found a purpose: Under the auspices of his government job, he is going to hunt down the traitors. On his own, he is going to kill them.Condleys hunt cannot be kept secret from his former enemies, or his friends. And in the shadows that linger from Vietnams long season of darkness and terror, he has no way of knowing which side is more dangerous. Surrounding him is an unforgettable cast of characters: Dzung, Condleys closest friend, a South Vietnamese war hero who might have led his country if his side had won the war, now reduced to driving a cyclo as his family starves in Saigons District Four. Colonel Pham, a battle-hardened Viet Cong soldier who lost three children to American bombs. Manh, a cutthroat Interior Ministry official who blackmails Dzung into a mission of murder. The Russian soldier Anatolie Petrushinsky, who left his soul in Vietnam as his empire collapsed around him. And the beautiful Van, Colonel Phams daughter, who spurns the scars of war as she pursues her dreams of freedom. As Condley stalks his elusive prey across old battlefields and throughout Eurasia, returning always to the brooding streets of Saigon, his mission and the odds of his surviving it grow more precarious with each step he takes toward the truth.Lost Soldiers captures the Vietnam of past and present its beauty and squalor, its politics and people. Propelled by a page-turning mystery, shot through with adventure and intrigue, it irrevocably transforms our view of that haunted land and brings us as complete an understanding as we will ever have of what happened after the war and why. No writer today is more qualified to take us into that world than James Webb.

Set against an extraordinary historical backdrop, The Emperors General is the all too human story of a young mans turbulent coming of age and of the conflicting demands of duty, honour and love.Spellbinding . . . this is the sort of book that makes history . . . UnmissableTimes***As the Second World War enters its final days, Jay Marsh is an eager young aide-de-camp to the great General MacArthur, helping him to engineer the Allies triumph in the Pacific and the surrender of Japan. But the arrogant, majestic MacArthur has a more ambitions aim in mind: supreme control over Japan and its eighty-three million inhabitants. Trusted with his secrets, Jay becomes ensnared in a labyrinthine world of diplomacy, double-dealing and corruption, as he negotiates with the Japanese of behalf of his mentor and hero. All the while he is unravelling the web of deceit that MacArthur and the royal courts and geisha houses of Japan would trap him in, Jay is desperate to get back to Manila and find his beautiful fiancee Divina Clara. But, as each side gets more desperate for power, Jay becomes a helpless pawn in a tragic game that is out of his control. Praise for The Emperors General:A Madame Butterfly of our timeFinancial TimesGripping, martial and, almost subliminally, achingly romanticDaily Mail

"Every successful achievement in life begins with a positive thought and a conscious decision"Entrepreneur and businesswoman Bev James uses coaching and profiling principles to inspire people to be single-minded, learn how to plan, prioritise, delegate and take action to get things done and get them done well in work and in life.To be successful you must have a passion for action and belief in your idea. You must recognise the right opportunity and take appropriate action to ensure follow through and drive the project to completion. But how do you decide which idea to run with and which action should become your top priority?In eight simple steps, Bevs down-to-earth Do It or Ditch It approach teaches you how to make clear decisions from the outset so that at every step along the way, you will be more likely to succeed.