Kirjahaku

The bestselling author of The Endurance reveals the startling truth behind the legend of the Mutiny on the Bounty â?? the most famous sea story of all time.

Has history been wrong for 200 years? Read the startling truth about the mutiny on the Bounty, its characters, causes, and aftermath. Television rights are now in development with Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions. More than two centuries after Master's Mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh on a small, armed transport vessel called Bounty, the true story of this enthralling adventure has become obscured by the legend. Combining vivid characterization and deft storytelling, Caroline Alexander shatters the centuries-old myths surrounding this story. She brilliantly shows how, in a desperate attempt to save one man from the gallows and another from ignominy, two powerful families came together and began to create the version of history we know today. The true story of the mutiny on the Bounty is an epic of duty and heroism, pride and power, and the assassination of a brave man's honor at the dawn of the Romantic age.

"Spectacular and constantly surprising." -Ken Burns Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, The War That Killed Achilles is a superb and utterly timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of Western civilization. As she did in The Endurance and The Bounty, New York Times bestselling author Caroline Alexander has taken apart a narrative we think we know and put it back together in a way that lets us see its true power. In the process, she reveals the intended theme of Homer's masterwork-the tragic lessons of war and its enduring devastation.

In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Weaving a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, they had come within eighty-five miles of their destination when their ship, Endurance, was trapped fast in the ice pack. Soon the ship was crushed like matchwood, leaving the crew stranded on the floes. Their ordeal would last for twenty months, and they would make two near-fatal attempts to escape by open boat before their final rescue.Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton's expedition--one of history's greatest epics of survival. And she presents the astonishing work of Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer whose visual record of the adventure has never before been published comprehensively. Together, text and image re-create the terrible beauty of Antarctica, the awful destruction of the ship, and the crew's heroic daily struggle to stay alive, a miracle achieved largely through Shackleton's inspiring leadership. The survival of Hurley's remarkable images is scarcely less miraculous: The original glass plate negatives, from which most of the book's illustrations are superbly reproduced, were stored in hermetically sealed cannisters that survived months on the ice floes, a week in an open boat on the polar seas, and several more months buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. Finally Hurley was forced to abandon his professional equipment; he captured some of the most unforgettable images of the struggle with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film.Published in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History's landmark exhibition on Shackleton's journey, The Endurance thrillingly recounts one of the last great adventures in the Heroic Age of exploration--perhaps the greatest of them all.

With an introduction by Lord Mouser-Hunt, this is the journal of Mrs Chippy, the cat who accompanied the carpenter Harry "Chippy" McNeish on the Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition in 1914.

'Riveting' - The New York TimesTHE LITTLE-KNOWN STORY OF THE ALLIES' FIGHT IN WWII'S CHAOTIC AND LETHAL CHINA BURMA-INDIA THEATER.In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army captured Burma, closing the only ground route from India to China. Supplies now had to be flown over the foothills of the treacherous Himalayas, on the most dangerous air route in the world.Delving into memoirs, diaries, and official records, Caroline Alexander tells the story of the airmen who braved this perilous journey, flying unreliable aircraft through monsoons and enemy fire, with primitive navigation tools. The result is a litany of both deadly crashes and astonishing feats of survival.Highlighting the efforts of units like the Chindits and Merrill's Marauders, and examining the political tensions between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek, this book also exposes the fractures between the Allies and the impact of their decisions on post-war relations.

From the NYT bestselling author, a breathtaking account of combat and survival in one of the most brutally challenging and rarely examined campaigns of World War II In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army steamrolled through Burma, capturing the only ground route from India to China. Supplies to this critical zone would now have to come from India by air--meaning across the Himalayas, on the most hazardous air route in the world. SKIES OF THUNDER is a story of an epic human endeavor, in which Allied troops faced the monumental challenge of operating from airfields hacked from the jungle, and took on "the Hump," the fearsome mountain barrier that defined the air route.They flew fickle, untested aircraft through monsoons and enemy fire, with inaccurate maps and only primitive navigation technology. The result was a litany of both deadly crashes and astonishing feats of survival. The most chaotic of all the war's arenas, the China-Burma-India theater was further confused by the conflicting political interests of Roosevelt, Churchill and their demanding, nominal ally, Chiang Kai-shek. Caroline Alexander, who wrote the defining books on Shackleton's Endurance and Bligh's Bounty, is brilliant at probing what it takes to survive extreme circumstances. She has unearthed obscure memoirs and long-ignored records to give us the pilots' and soldiers' eye views of flying and combat, as well as honest portraits of commanders like the celebrated "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell and Claire Lee Chennault. She assesses the real contributions of units like the Flying Tigers, Merrill's Marauders, and the British Chindits, who pioneered new and unconventional forms of warfare. Decisions in this theater exposed the fault-lines between the Allies--America and Britain, Britain and India, and ultimately and most fatefully between America and China, as FDR pressed to help the Chinese nationalists in order to forge a bond with China after the war. A masterpiece of modern war history.

'Riveting' - The New York Times THE LITTLE-KNOWN STORY OF THE ALLIES' FIGHT IN WWII'S CHAOTIC AND LETHAL CHINA BURMA-INDIA THEATER. In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army captured Burma, closing the only ground route from India to China. Supplies now had to be flown over the foothills of the treacherous Himalayas, on the most dangerous air route in the world. Delving into memoirs, diaries, and official records, Caroline Alexander tells the story of the airmen who braved this perilous journey, flying unreliable aircraft through monsoons and enemy fire, with primitive navigation tools. The result is a litany of both deadly crashes and astonishing feats of survival. Highlighting the efforts of units like the Chindits and Merrill's Marauders, and examining the political tensions between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek, this book also exposes the fractures between the Allies and the impact of their decisions on post-war relations.