When Frank Thompson sees a recruitment poster for the new Union army, he's ready and willing to enlist. Except Frank isn't his real name. In fact, Frank is really Sarah Emma Edmonds, in disguise. Only nineteen years old, Sarah has already been dressing as a man for three years and living on the run in order to escape an arranged marriage. She's tasted freedom, and as far as she's concerned, there's no going back. Eager to fight for the North during...

This is not your father's war

This is Iraq, where a soldier's first duty is reinforcing his Humvee with sheet metal and sand bags. Or, in the absence of plumbing, burning barrels of human waste. Where any dead dog on the side of the road might be concealing an insurgent's bomb and anyone could be the enemy.

At age 17, Jason Christopher Hartley joined the Army National Guard. Thirteen years later, he is called to active duty, to serve in Iraq.

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The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey.

Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the...

Shoshana Johnson, the first black female soldier in America's history to be taken as a prisoner of war, presents the much-anticipated story of her capture and imprisonment in Iraq and what happened after her rescue. In March 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom was barely in its infancy when a U.S. Army supply convoy was attacked in Iraq. Several soldiers were killed and six were taken prisoner. Their captors released a grainy video revealing the faces of...

Gardner Botsford tells the fascinating and humorous story of his W.W. II experiences, from his assignment to the infantry due to a paperwork error to a fearful trans-Atlantic crossing on the Queen Mary, to landing under heavy fire on Omaha Beach and the Liberation of Paris. After the war, he began a distinguished literary career as a long-time editor at the New Yorker, and chronicles the magazine's rise and influence on postwar American culture with...

Step back in time and experience World War I through the stories of the people who lived through it. Witness the sinking of a British ocean liner. Experience the horror of gas warfare. Soar with a notorious flying ace. True Stories of World War I doesn't just tell you the tales of war. It drops you into the thick of combat.

The year is 1939. Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, has invaded Poland. The world is about to enter into the biggest and most terrible war in history. But from the depths of despair rose some very courageous, selfless individuals, such as Douglas Bader, Leonard "Bud" Lomell and Joan Daphne Pearson, who risked their lives for the sakes of others in need, often for no gain and with no recognition. Here are some of their incredible stories…

Valor features the thrilling stories that are the fruit of Mark Lee Greenblatt's interviews with brave American servicemen from twenty-first-century wars. These soldiers, sailors, and Marines have risked their lives several times over for their country as well as for their fellow troops and civilians. Still, until now, their stories have largely gone unnoticed by the public, perhaps lost in the frenzied and often nasty debate surrounding those conflicts....

In the U.S. Marine Corps, the most dangerous job in combat is that of the sniper. With no backup and little communication with the outside world, these men disappear for weeks on end in the wilderness with nothing but intellect and iron will to protect them-as they watch, wait, and finally strike. But of all of the snipers who ever hunted human prey, one man stands above the rest as the most legendary fighting man to ever pull a trigger.That man is...

From ABC White House correspondent Martha Raddatz comes the story of a brutal forty-eight-hour firefight that conveys in harrowing detail the effects of war not just on the soldiers but also on the families waiting back at home.In April 2004, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division were on a routine patrol in Sadr City, Iraq, when they came under surprise attack. Over the course of the next forty-eight hours, eight Americans would be killed and more...