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What ties the book together is the fate of the survivors, their treatment by the authorities in Rome, and ultimately their vindication nearly two decades later, when they defeated Hannibal at the decisive battle of Zama in North Africa. With an unforgettable cast of heroes and villains, The Ghosts of Cannae is history at its finest.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49506956017937,"sku":"CIN0812978676G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49849616924945,"sku":"GOR005983495","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50418322800913,"sku":"CIN0812978676VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51612477423889,"sku":"CIN0812978676A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52395727978769,"sku":"GOR004375477","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0812978676.jpg?v=1751076086"},{"product_id":"team-america-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780062883292","title":"Team America","description":"Now in paperback, from national bestselling author and acclaimed military historian Robert L. O’Connell, a dynamic history of four military leaders whose extraordinary leadership and strategy led the United States to success during World War I and beyond.  By the first half of the twentieth century, technology had transformed warfare into a series of intense bloodbaths in which the line between soldiers and civilians was obliterated, resulting in the deaths of one hundred million people. During this period, four men exhibited unparalleled military leadership that led the United States victoriously through two World Wars: Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, George Marshall, and Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower; or, as bestselling author Robert O’Connell calls them, Team America.  O’Connell captures these men’s unique charisma as he chronicles the path each forged—from their upbringings to their educational experiences to their storied military careers—experiences that shaped them into majestic leaders who would play major roles in saving the free world and preserving the security of the United States in times of unparalleled danger. O’Connell shows how the lives of these men—all born within the span of a decade—twisted around each other like a giant braid in time. Throughout their careers, they would use each other brilliantly in a series of symbiotic relationships that would hold increasingly greater consequences.  At the end of their star-studded careers (twenty-four out of a possible twenty-five), O’Connell concludes that what set Team America apart was not their ability to wield the proverbial sword, but rather their ability to plot strategy, give orders, and inspire others. The key ingredients to their success was mental agility, a gravitas that masked their intensity, and an almost intuitive understanding of how armies in the millions actually functioned and fought. Without the leadership of these men, O’Connell makes clear, the world we know would be vastly different.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49507023847697,"sku":"CIN0062883291G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343652426001,"sku":"CIN0062883291A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50554405781777,"sku":"CIN0062883291VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999158571281,"sku":"NIN9780062883292","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53395063308561,"sku":"GOR014900713","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062883291.jpg?v=1751036631"},{"product_id":"ride-of-the-second-horseman-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780195064605","title":"The Ride of the Second Horseman","description":"This text explores the history of war.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49508051419409,"sku":"GOR003592031","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49576504295697,"sku":"GOR010673960","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50113158119697,"sku":"CIN0195064607VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415538860305,"sku":"CIN0195064607G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53052474032401,"sku":"GOR009122914","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53102060863761,"sku":"GOR005225114","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195064607.jpg?v=1750843404"},{"product_id":"of-arms-and-men-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780195053593","title":"Of Arms and Men","description":"In this provocative book, Robert O'Connell examines the role and significance of weapons from the dawn of human history to the present, and the attempts of western civilization to come to terms with the grim results of its own inventiveness. This is not simply a history of the technology of weapons. It integrates the evolution of human society with the development of weapons and strategy into a single, coherent story. 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Some were exalted in the public eye, others known only to his intimates. In this bold, revisionist portrait, Robert L. O'Connell captures the man in full for the first time. From his early exploits in Florida, through his brilliant but tempestuous generalship during the Civil War, to his postwar career as a key player in the building of the transcontinental railroad, Sherman was, as O'Connell puts it, the \"human embodiment of Manifest Destiny.\" Here is Sherman the military strategist, a master of logistics with an uncanny grasp of terrain and brilliant sense of timing. Then there is \"Uncle Billy,\" Sherman's public persona, a charismatic hero to his troops and quotable catnip to the newspaper writers of his day. Here, too, is the private Sherman, whose appetite for women, parties, and the high life of the New York theater complicated his already turbulent marriage. Warrior, family man, American icon, William Tecumseh Sherman has finally found a biographer worthy of his protean gifts. A masterful character study whose myriad insights are leavened with its author's trademark wit, \u003ci\u003eFierce Patriot\u003c\/i\u003e will stand as the essential book on Sherman for decades to come.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eFierce Patriot\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A superb examination of the many facets of the iconic Union general.\"\u003cb\u003e-General David Petraeus\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Sherman's standing in American history is formidable. . . . 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Robert O'Connell, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eFierce Patriot- The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman\u003c\/i\u003e, introduces us to Washington before he was Washington- a young soldier, champing at the bit for a commission in the British army, frustrated by his position as a minor Virginia aristocrat. Fueled by ego, he led a disastrous expedition in the Seven Years War, but then the commander grew up. We witness George Washington take up politics and join Virginia's colonial governing body, the House of Burgesses, where he became ever more attuned to the injustices of life under the British Empire and the paranoid, revolutionary atmosphere of the colonies. When war seemed inevitable, he was the right man-the only man-to lead the nascent American army.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e We would not be here without George Washington, and O'Connell proves that General Washington was at least as significant to the founding of the United States as Washington the president. He emerges here as cunning and manipulative, a subtle puppeteer among intimates and a master cajoler-but all in the cause of rectitude and moderation. Washington became the embodiment of the Revolution itself. He draped himself over the Revolutionary process and tamped down its fires. As O'Connell writes, the war was decisive because Washington managed to stop a cycle of violence with the force of personality and personal restraint.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In his trademark conversational, witty style, Robert O'Connell has written a compelling reexamination of General Washington and his revolutionary world. He cuts through enigma surrounding Washington to show how the general made all the difference and became a new archetype of revolutionary leader in the process.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49581769163025,"sku":"GOR013139721","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49628757524753,"sku":"GOR009771708","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50433949073681,"sku":"CIN0812996992G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50507677139217,"sku":"CIN0812996992VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0812996992.jpg?v=1751233344"},{"product_id":"soul-of-the-sword-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780684844077","title":"Soul of the Sword","description":"In an elegantly illustrated volume, a noted historian reveals culture, society and history through the saga of war and its implements. Mankind's history has been determined by war. And throughout history, the way that wars are won and lost, and whether they are fought at all, has been determined more by weapons than any other single force. Before there was man, there were weapons. In his investigation of arms and culture, noted military historian Robert O'Connell goes all the way back to the first weapons: the claws, horns, and hooves of our evolutionary antecedents. Even then, a species' weaponry determined its future. So it has been for the human animal. From the ancient Assyrians' conquest of bronze, to the Toledo steel of the Spanish conquistadors, to the MIRV missiles of nuclear deterrence, the great weapons have set their own agendas. They continue to shape our culture and our lives today. THE SOUL OF THE SWORD gives world history from a club, gun, or aircraft carrier's perspective. Along the way, sidebars and drawings from premiere military illustrator John Batchelor illuminate the weapons themselves. In this fascinating book O'Connell unearths the extraordinary weapons of our past, and explains our most basic weapons as never before. Our killing tools are much more than fearsome curiosities; they are the engines of history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49611995578641,"sku":"GOR004224766","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50541304709393,"sku":"GOR003735367","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50893053493521,"sku":"CIN0684844079VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51327333728529,"sku":"CIN0684844079G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684844079.jpg?v=1750945303"},{"product_id":"team-america-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780062883285","title":"Team America","description":"“A delicious blend of insight, wit and history, Team America is a punch-packed introduction to four great military minds and the zeitgeist that produced them.” —Wall Street Journal  “Robert O’Connell has written a rollicking, insightful story of some particularly American heroes.” —Evan Thomas, author of Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World  From national bestselling author and acclaimed military historian Robert L. O’Connell, a dynamic history of four military leaders whose extraordinary leadership and strategy led the United States to success during World War I and beyond.  By the first half of the twentieth century, technology had transformed warfare into a series of intense bloodbaths in which the line between soldiers and civilians was obliterated, resulting in the deaths of one hundred million people. During this period, four men exhibited unparalleled military leadership that led the United States victoriously through two World Wars: Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, George Marshall, and Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower; or, as bestselling author Robert O’Connell calls them, Team America.  O’Connell captures these men’s unique charisma as he chronicles the path each forged—from their upbringings to their educational experiences to their storied military careers—experiences that shaped them into majestic leaders who would play major roles in saving the free world and preserving the security of the United States in times of unparalleled danger. O’Connell shows how the lives of these men—all born within the span of a decade—twisted around each other like a giant braid in time. Throughout their careers, they would use each other brilliantly in a series of symbiotic relationships that would hold increasingly greater consequences.  At the end of their star-studded careers (twenty-four out of a possible twenty-five), O’Connell concludes that what set Team America apart was not their ability to wield the proverbial sword, but rather their ability to plot strategy, give orders, and inspire others. The key ingredients to their success was mental agility, a gravitas that masked their intensity, and an almost intuitive understanding of how armies in the millions actually functioned and fought. Without the leadership of these men, O’Connell makes clear, the world we know would be vastly different.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49624895029521,"sku":"GOR013691316","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49746974507281,"sku":"NGR9780062883285","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49850204946705,"sku":"CIN0062883283VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50983142031633,"sku":"NIN9780062883285","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52152814731537,"sku":"GOR014495583","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52596028473617,"sku":"NLS9780062883285","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52816912777489,"sku":"CIN0062883283G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062883283.jpg?v=1750908171"},{"product_id":"sacred-vessels-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780813311166","title":"Sacred Vessels","description":"An irreverent account of the modern battleship and its place in American naval history. The author contends that the vaunted battleship actually has never played an important role in the outcome of any modern war, but nevertheless continues to be built and rebuilt - and revered by many.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49627517419793,"sku":"GOR013425544","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49635438821649,"sku":"GOR013719831","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53115576647953,"sku":"CIN0813311160G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813311160.jpg?v=1750947052"},{"product_id":"ride-of-the-second-horseman-book-robert-l-o-connell-9780195119206","title":"Ride of the Second Horseman","description":"`Accurst be he that first invented war', wrote Christopher Marlowe - a declaration that most of us would take as a literary, not literal, construction. But in this sweeping overview of the rise of civilization, Robert O'Connell finds that war is indeed an invention - an institution that arose due to very specific historical circumstances, an institution that now verges on extinction.  In Ride of the Second Horseman, O'Connell probes the distant human past to show how and why war arose. He begins with a definition that distinguishes between war and mere feuding: war involves group rather than individual issues, political or economic goals, and direction by some governmental structure, carried out with the intention of lasting results. With this definition, he finds that ants are the only other creatures that conduct it - battling other colonies for territory and slaves. But ants, unlike humans, are driven by their genes; in humans, changes in our culture and subsistence patterns, not our genetic hardware, brought the rise of organized warfare. O'Connell draws on anthropology and archeology to locate the rise of war sometime after the human transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to agriculture, when society split between farmers and pastoralists. Around 5500 BC, these pastoralists initiated the birth of war with raids on Middle Eastern agricultural settlements. The farmers responded by ringing their villages with walls, setting off a process of further social development, intensified combat, and ultimately the rise of complex urban societies dependent upon warfare to help stabilize what amounted to highly volatile population structures, beset by frequent bouts of famine and epidemic disease. In times of overpopulation, the armies either conquered new lands or self-destructed, leaving fewer mouths to feed. In times of underpopulation, slaves were taken to provide labor. O'Connell explores the histories of the civilizations of ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Assyria, China, and the New World, showing how war came to each and how it adapted to varying circumstances. On the other hand, societies based on trade employed war much more selectively and pragmatically. Thus, Minoan Crete, long protected from marauding pastoralists, developed a wealthy mercantile society marked by unmilitaristic attitudes, equality between men and women, and a relative absence of class distinctions. In Assyria, by contrast, war came to be an end in itself, in a culture dominated by male warriors.  Despite the violence in the world today, O'Connell finds reason for hope. The industrial revolution broke the old patterns of subsistence: war no longer serves the demographic purpose it once did. Fascinating and provocative, Ride of the Second Horseman offers a far-reaching tour of human history that suggests the age-old cycle of war may now be near its end.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346202792209,"sku":"CIN0195119207G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52335779283217,"sku":"NLS9780195119206","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195119207.jpg?v=1776938611"},{"product_id":"the-ghosts-of-cannae-hannibal-and-the-darkest-hour-of-the-roman-republic-cd-9781400167227","title":"The Ghosts of Cannae","description":"Hannibal's battle plan at Cannae became the mother of all great battle strategies-the first battle of encirclement that has been imitated (often to disastrous effect) endlessly over the past two thousand years. In this brilliant, long-overdue, and beautifully written account, Robert L. O'Connell gives listeners an epic account of one of the most dramatic battles of antiquity. The Ghosts of Cannae is at once a book about a specific battle (the massive defeat of a huge but inexperienced Roman army in southern Italy by Hannibal in 216 BC) but also an interpretation of the larger course of the Second Punic War, as well as an assessment of the historical impact of Rome's storied rivalry with Carthage. What ties the book together is the fate of the survivors, their treatment by the authorities in Rome, and ultimately their vindication nearly two decades later, when they defeated Hannibal at the decisive battle of Zama in North Africa. With an unforgettable cast of heroes and villains, The Ghosts of Cannae is history at its finest.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53416083259665,"sku":"CIN1400167221VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-robert-l-o-connell.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}