Thomas B. Allen

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From the sprawling cities of California to Maine's island-flecked coast, from the glaciers of Alaska to the beaches of Florida, here is the United States as you have never seen it before. America from Space takes you into orbit over the United States. You see what Space Shuttle astronauts see when they aim their camera at their homeland. Here is America by night, a breathtaking view of the entire nation pulsating with lights marking cities and suburbs. Here are the Great Lakes, the mountains and cities, rivers and seashores -- each image a piece of the nation. Together they create a unique and fascinating portrait of the United States of America. Sections of this book include: Fire and Ice: Hawaii and Alaska The West Coast: from Washington to the Mexican border The West: the wild lands of deserts and canyon The Rockies: the backbone of the continent The Heartland: the grandeur of the Great Plains The Great Lakes: deep waters and fertile lands The Southland: Blue Ridge Mountains, New Orleans, Florida The Northeast Corridor: an urban swath along the coast. In Wyoming's Bighorn Basin, stunning views are transformed into geological data: bright yellow marks an oil field, orange shows a mesa; red, purple and blue color irrigated field. In a flood region of Texas, varying blue and purple shades show what lands were under water. What the images show most of all is the beauty of the land and the seas that touch it. "Life is like landscape," Charles Lindbergh wrote after his historic solo flight across the Atlantic. "You live in the midst of it, but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance." Here is a new vantage point, a new way of seeing and understanding our country.

A biography of Revolutionary War general and first President of the United States, George Washington, focusing on his use of spies to gather intelligence that helped the colonies win the war.

On Veterans Day 1982, a unique monument was dedicated on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Today, with more than 2.5 million visitors a year, it is the most frequented memorial in the country. In sharp contrast to the typical white marble monuments of our nation's capital, this simple, shallow-angled granite wall slopes down from ground level to a central point ten feet below the grassy surface. Even while this monument was in the first stages of construction, people began to leave remembrances, among them a Purple Heart medal thrown into the wet cement of the foundation. Since that time more than 25,000 offerings have been left at the Wall, and all of these objects have been collected, preserved, and cataloged by the National Park Service. The curator of the collection, Duery Felton, Jr., himself a badly wounded Vietnam veteran, has contributed special insight into the meaning of many of these mementos, and his quiet reflections are an important element of the text of this book. This beautiful volume presents but a small selection of the thousands of mementos left at the Vietnam Wall. They range from combat boots and weapons to baseballs and bubble gum wrappers to a family photograph taken from the body of a dead Vietnamese soldier. On some objects, messages of the most touching sort can be read, but for others there is no explanation why they were left.

Discusses how and why the United States is losing the war of counterespionage.

What would have happened if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Japan in August 1945? Distinguished military writer historians Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar answer that provocative question in Code-Name Downfall, a vivid and dramatic narrative of America's war in the Pacific, which would lead inevitably to massive amphibious assaults against the Japanese home islands. Based on newly declassified documents, personal interviews, and a decade of meticulous research, their book traces the progress of the Pacific War and reveals the top-secret details of the plans and preparations, on both the American and Japanese sides, for an invasion that would be far more complex - and costly in human lives - than the D-Day landings in France. Some historians have argued that the use of the atomic bomb was both unnecessary and immoral. Allen and Polmar totally refute that argument and back up their position with hard evidence. More than that, the authors describe the deep personal beliefs of the men who determined the course of the war, not only from the vantage point of history, but also in the context of that terrible time. In the end, with new knowledge and understanding of the events during these climactic days of the war, readers will be able to decide for themselves whether Truman's decision was justified.

Crawford was one of the most incandescent film stars of all time, yet she was also one of the most misunderstood. Spoto goes beyond the popular caricature to give us a three-dimensional portrait of a very human woman, her dazzling career, and her extraordinarily dramatic life and times.

A history of the Americans who chose to side with the British in the American Revolution that sheds important new light on the little-known figures whose lives were forever changed because they remained faithful to their mother country.

Lincoln knew that winning the war would take more than the same old strategies and maneuvers. It would require using technology to create new ways of waging war. Lincoln worked to make sure his soldiers and sailors had the best and latest hardware. By combining new tools with time-tested tactics, he helped revolutionize warfare.