James R. Arnold

Traces the rise and fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and describes life under his poorly planned economic programs, greed, and ruthless brutality.

Examines the causes, events, and consequences of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century.

Presents the history of the Second Cavalry, a division of the U.S. Army formed to quell the Native American warriors attacking frontier settlements in Texas and Mexico.

Historian James R. Arnold powerfully and persuasively argues that the Union victory at Vicksburg in 1863 was in fact the actual turning point of the war. Grant was unlike Lincoln's other generals. He had won a great victory at Fort Donelson, but that was more than a year earlier. His subsequent command at the battle of Shiloh became a bloodbath, and most people attributed the eventual Union victory not to Grant, but to the leadership of the reinforcing army's commander, Major General Don Carlos Buell. As he began his drive into Mississippi, Grant was on trial, both as a man and as a leader. After repeated failures, Grant outflanked Vicksburg and won a dramatic victory at the battle of Port Gibson, securing a bridgehead over the Mississippi River below Vicksburg. He now occupied a position situated between the two fortified Confederate citadels of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, with his back to the continent's greatest river and his army dependent upon a precarious line of supply. The conventional military solution, and the one favored by President Lincoln and his top military adviser, was to cooperate with General Banks against Port Hudson. But Grant's experience had taught him that the risks of converging two columns almost one hundred miles apart against a common target were considerable. Instead, in the riskiest and greatest decision of his military career, Grant resolved to act alone against Vicksburg. James R. Arnold proposes that Grant's victory at Vicksburg is worthy of comparison to those of Napoleon in its planning and execution. Always prepared for multiple contingencies, the general kept his field army well concentrated within a few hours' march of each other, while keeping Confederate General Pemberton - trying to counter Grant's shrewd troop movements - continually off balance. The decisive meeting came on May 16, at Champion Hill. Bringing history to exciting life, James R. Arnold offers a penetrating analysis of Grant's strategies and actions. His carefully researched chronicle approaches these epic events from a unique and well-rounded perspective: What did Grant know ... and think? What did his opponents know ... and think? What was the true state of affairs? Grant Wins the War is fascinating reading for all Civil War and military history buffs.

In 1809 the world's undisputed military genius - Napoleon Bonaparte - confronted his implacable continental foe, the Hapsburg Empire. During the Vienna campaign of that year, Napoleon suffered his first defeat since becoming Emperor, but rebounded to win Wagram, a battle of unprecedented lethality. The sun rose on April 24, 1809, to illuminate a continent at war. From Poland to Spain, some 600,000 soldiers awakened to duty. Nowhere was the concentration of forces greater than in the Danube Valley where Napoleon had determined to launch his blow against the Austrian Generalissimus Erzherzog (Archduke) Karl. If Karl triumphed, most of Europe stood poised to pounce, Napoleon and the French Empire would be attacked from all quarters. If Karl failed, all Europe - except England and perhaps Portugal and Spain - would make whatever accommodations were necessary to survive under Napoleonic hegemony. The ensuing campaign led to Napoleon's first defeat at Aspern-Essling. So, at the end of May, Napoleon sat with his battered army at the end of a long and imperiled line of communications while Europe erupted around him. Yet, at the moment of supreme crisis, Napoleon displayed his formidable talents and prepared a masterful counterstroke. French and Austrian alike suffered horrific losses at Wagram, but at battle's end, Napoleon's commanding presence produced a French triumph. It was a victory so complete that the Emperor forced Austria into an unwilling alliance and even took the daughter of the Austrian Kaiser to be his new wife. For one last time, the French conqueror redrew Europe's map.

Of all the responsibilities of a president, none is greater than his role as commander in chief of the armed forces. Whether the setting is Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, or Bosnia, the president must make agonizing decisions about whether and when to put Americans in harm's way. Some presidents have risen to greatness as commanders in chief. Others have gone down in history as failures because of their military defeats. What makes a successful commander in chief? Drawing on original research in presidential archives, James Arnold offers four provocative case studies of American presidents tested in the crucible of war. Since the days of the Revolution, Americans have been ambivalent about the power of the military, presenting a perennial challenge to presidents. George Washington had to face critics and doubters in the Continental Congress as well as the mighty British Army. As president, he saw his forces suffer embarrassing defeats in conflicts with frontier Indians before a final and decisive victory. James Polk, a president with no military experience, oversaw a stunning triumph in the Mexican War, helped by his ruthless manipulation of public opinion. But Lyndon Johnson, for all his political skills, saw his presidency broken by the war in Vietnam and his inability to marshal support at home. . Most fascinating, perhaps, is the case of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. Unlike his opponent Abraham Lincoln, Davis had been a war hero and a renowned Secretary of War. Yet Davis failed as commander in chief and doomed the Confederacy to defeat. Focusing on key battles from Trenton to Ia Drang, Arnold combines political analysis with gripping narratives of combat. The result is a compelling history of how presidents weigh political pressures against military realities - and how their decisions play out for the men and women in the line of fire.

Examination of how the United States became involved in Vietnam and that the first intervention came during the Eisenhower administration.