Robert Harvey

The author explores male friendships, including those between brothers, fathers and sons, soldiers and more.

"From the high seas at Trafalgar to the dusty battle fields of Sinai, the course of history has been changed by military mavericks who lead from the front. In the current age of backroom generals who command from far behind the front lines, it is often forgotten that wars have been won or lost by the personality and leadership of a maverick commander. Here for the first time together are the stories of the military careers of Ariel Sharon, Simon Bolivar, Robert E. Lee, Henri Gouraud, Douglas MacArthur, Horatio Nelson, Georgy Zhukov, William Slim, and many more. In sixteen riveting portraits, bestselling historian Robert Harvey (The War of Wars) explores how these lone leaders came to power, and how their unique leadership styles affected the extraordinary events of Stalingrad, Chancellorsville, Austerlitz, Messina, Junin, Yorktown, Inchon, Plassey, Imphal, Sinai, and Salamanca, among others. Explore Napoleon's reputation as an aggressive tactician, Bolivar's talent for flamboyant improvisation, and George Washington's careful and calculated patience. Discover the history behind the nicknames of "Old Blood and Guts" (Patton) and "the Desert Fox" (Rommel). Maverick Military Leaders is a definitive, one-volume account of some of history's most important and surprising battles and the commanders who won the field."--Jacket.

Five years after the invasion of Iraq the world is a more dangerous place than ever. Twenty prominent political thinkers from the US and UK give their take on the crisis.

"The Fall of Apartheid tells the extraordinary story how apartheid came into being, secured its ascendancy over the richest and most developed society in Sub-Saharan Africa, and then collapsed. For the first time it reveals the full story of the secret meetings broakered by Michael Young between Africans and Afrikaners in Britain, in which South Africa's current president, Thabo Mbeki, had a direct line to President Botha. Robert Harvey's narrative helps to illuminate not just the South African problems but also more general issues of conflict- and problem-solving."--Jacket.

"In the years and months leading up to Pearl Harbor, Japan was becoming the most industrialized state in Asia, as well as the repository of a martial heritage that fueled imperial ambitions of conquest and hegemony. Across the Pacific, the United States was emerging from the depression and again growing into its role as a global power. Today's partnership between modern Japan - now Asia's most well-developed democracy - and the United States - the world's sole superpower - was forged by the confrontation, and finally the reconciliation, of these two competing agendas and cultures in World War II, a drama that was defined by two men: General Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito. MacArthur, the brilliant and often arrogant American maverick who was elevated to the level of popular hero and policy maker, and Hirohito, the passive intellectual heir considered a divinity by his people, seem at the outset the most unlikely of enemies in war, let alone partners in peace. Under historian Robert Harvey's scrutiny, however, these superficial characterizations give way to a much more nuanced narrative as well as a revealing portrait of these extraordinary figures." "American Shogun delivers an account of the vast divide that led to war, and to the unforeseen commonality that helped develop a lasting peace."--Jacket.

"Clive of India was one of the most extraordinary and colorful figures Britain ever produced. The founder of Britain's Indian empire, he was also Britain's first great guerrilla fighter by the age of twenty-seven, conqueror of Bengal at thirty-one, and avenging angel of righteousness against the greed of his fellow countrymen at forty-one. In his later life, Parliament brought him under painful scrutiny, and he ended up one of the most hated men in Britain. He died violently under still-mysterious circumstances just before his fifieth birthday." "Clive today lies buried in an unknown grave in an obscure corner of rural Shropshire, a reflection of the controversy he aroused in his lifetime and that still surrounds his legacy and the manner of his death. In this study, Robert Harvey illuminates Clive's life's journey from the green fields surrounding Market Drayton through his adventures in India, his drive to success and self-destruction, to his vicious and premature death by suicide or murder."--BOOK JACKET.