First in a quintessential hard-science fiction adventure, Hugo Award-winning author Vernor Vinge's The Peace War follows a scientist determined to put an end to the militarization of his greatest invention--and of the government behind it. The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent. But they've never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to defeat the Authority. With the help of an underground network of determined, independent scientists and a teenager who may be the apprentice genius he's needed for so long, he will shake the world. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Some of the material in this book was published in Great Britain in 1950 under the title 'Winston Churchill in war and peace.'

Were World Wars I and II inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen– Winston Churchill first among them–the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations. Among the British and Churchillian errors were: • The secret decision of a tiny cabal in the inner Cabinet in 1906 to take Britain straight to war against Germany, should she invade France • The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that mutilated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler • Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo-Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan, pushing her onto the path of militarism and conquest • The greatest mistake in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939, ensuring the Second World War Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “the Unnecessary War” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.

Winston Churchill, the great wartime leader and peacetime Prime Minister, is one of the dominating figures of the 20th century. In this stimulating and original book, David Dilks - the eminent historian of modern Britain and a leading Churchill scholar - provides a fascinating source of new discoveries and insights. He shows Churchill, not only as a war leader and international statesman, but also as a private person - with a rich variety of interests, enthusiasms, friendships and rivalries. Churchill's relations with other leading politicians and statesmen of the age - both within Britain and internationally - illuminate his handling of friends and enemies. Sometimes these categories were not easily separated; for a long while, Churchill thought of Stalin as a friend or at least a comrade in arms, and only with extreme reluctance did he come to look upon him ultimately as an enemy. He regarded Roosevelt with admiration and gratitude, yet the balance of evidence suggests that the President felt less warmly towards him, especially after 1943. Dilks casts new and penetrating light on Churchill during World War II, including his dramatic and troubled relationship with Charles de Gaulle - where political problems were softened by Churchill's love of France. The aftermath of World War II, relations with Stalin, the Soviet Union and the Cold War all dominated Churchill's subsequent career. The last chapter draws attention to the influence of 'history' on statesmen and others, not least because no public man of the last century - with the possible exception of de Gaulle - has influenced on Churchill's scale, or with his effectiveness, the writing and the making of history. Whether in or out of office, Churchill's influence has been felt in all areas of British politics and national life. David Dilks brings Churchill to life for all those interested modern British and international history whether student, specialist or general reader.

These powerful essays offer a fresh appreciation of the speech's political, historical, diplomatic, and rhetorical significance."--Jacket.