Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?Re=3295&N=3+4361 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1696200 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1715277 In 1856, Paul Du Chaillu marched into the equatorial wilderness of West Africa determined to bag an animal that, according to legend, was nothing short of a monster. When he emerged three years later, the summation of his efforts only hinted at what hed experienced in one of the most dangerous regions on earth. Armed with an astonishing collection of zoological speciments, Du Chaillu leapt from the physical challenges of the jungle straight into the center of the biggest issues of the time. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1728756 Documents the story of mid-19th-century explorer Paul Du Chaillu, who after three years in the equatorial wilderness of West Africa emerged with definitive proof of the existence of the mythical gorilla, only to be swept up by the heated debate about Darwins theory of evolution. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1668297 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1586647 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1664460 Achebes long-awaited account of coming of age during the defining experience of his life: the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War of 1967-1970. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1577696 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1577694 First discovered in 1930, the diamonds of Sierra Leone have funded one of the most savage rebel campaigns in modern history. These blood diamonds are smuggled out of West Africa and sold to legitimate diamond merchants in London, Antwerp, and New York. This book is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry--institutionalized in the 1880s by the De Beers cartel--have allowed it to happen. The author traces the deadly trail of these diamonds and shows how the repercussions of diamond smuggling are felt far beyond the borders of the poor and war-ridden country of Africa. Updated with new material from Campbells return visit to Sierra Leone in 2011, Blood diamonds remains just as timely and important as ever--cover p. [4]. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1511122 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1213735 The astonishing story of Barack Obamas Kenyan roots, The Obamas is the product of dozens of interviews with Obamas African relatives, presented by the first person to trace Obamas family history back 400 years and 23 generations. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1383207 In a time of death and terror, Leymah Gbowee brought Liberias women together--and together they led a nation to peace. As a young woman, Gbowee was broken by the Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it is women who suffer most during conflicts--and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, the passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberias ruthless president and rebel warlords, and even held a sex strike. With an army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1272596 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1277519 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1535822 King Peggy is the charming real-life fairy tale of an American secretary who discovers she has been chosen king of an impoverished fishing village on the west coast of Africa. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1378235 Alexandra Fuller braids a multilayered narrative around the perfectly-lit, Happy Valley-era Africa of her mothers childhood; the boiled cabbage grimness of her fathers English childhood; and the darker, civil war-torn Africa of her own. A story of survival and madness, love and war, loyalty and forgiveness, this intimate exploration of Fullers family - at its heart, the story of her mother, Nicola - is as funny, terrifying, exotic, and unselfconscious as Nicola herself. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1365785 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1279818 At the heart of Africa is Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and unstaunchable war in which millions have died. And yet, despite its epic proportions, it has received little sustained media attention. In this deeply reported book, Jason Stearns vividly tells the story of this misunderstood conflict through the experiences of those who engineered and perpetrated it. He depicts village pastors who survived massacres, the child soldier assassin of President Kabila, a female Hutu activist who relives the hunting and methodical extermination of fellow refugees, and key architects of the war that became as great a disaster as- and was a direct consequence of - the genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Through their stories, he tries to understand why such mass violence made sense, and why stability has been so elusive. Through their voices, and an astonishing wealth of knowledge and research, Stearns chronicles the political, social, and moral decay of the Congolese State. - Publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1379324 The struggle to the death between the Carthaginians and the Romans was one of the defining dramas of the ancient world. In an epic series of land and sea battles, both sides came close to victory before the Carthaginians finally succumbed and their capital city, history, and culture were almost utterly erased. Drawing on a wealth of new archaeological research, Richard Miles vividly brings to life this lost empire--from its origins among the Phoenician settlements of Lebanon to its apotheosis as the greatest sea power in the Mediterranean. And at the heart of the history of Carthage lies the extraordinary figure of Hannibal--the scourge of Rome and one of the greatest military leaders, but a man who also unwittingly led his people to catastrophe.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1519212 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1440911 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1293119 A founder of the Nyaka and Kutamba AIDS Orphans Schools describes how he returned to his native Uganda after college and was compelled by the dire circumstances of his villages AIDS orphans to make tuition-free education available. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1259808 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1572582 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1201632 Nelson Mandela is well known throughout the world as a heroic leader who symbolizes freedom and moral authority. He is fixed in the public mind as the worlds elder statesman, the gray haired man with a kindly smile who spent 27 years in prison before becoming the first black president in South Africa. But Nelson Mandela was not always elderly or benign. And, in this book, the author takes us deep into the heart of racist South Africa to paint a portrait of the Mandela that many have forgotten: the committed revolutionary who left his family behind to live on the run, adopting false names and disguises and organizing the first strikes to overthrow the apartheid state. This work lifts the curtain on an icons first steps to greatness. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1110568 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1274191 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1142920 A founder of the Nyaka and Kutamba AIDS Orphans Schools describes how he returned to his native Uganda after college and was compelled by the dire circumstances of his villages AIDS orphans to make tuition-free education available. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1001768 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=978607 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1049404 The story of the wild, beautiful, fearless IDINA SACKVILLE, descendant of one of Englands oldest families, who went off to KENYA in search of adventure and became known as the high priestess of the scandalous HAPPY VALLEY SET--jacket cover. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1215424 After being released from prison and winning South Africas first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: Use the national rugby team, the Springboks--long an embodiment of white supremacist rule--to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandelas miraculous effort to bring South Africans together in a hard-won, enduring bond. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=976624 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1130396 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1228985 A history of the tumultuous period leading up to the 1910 founding of the modern state of South Africa explores how the discovery of vast diamond and gold deposits led to a fierce struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the region. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=806327 As es como se libran ahora las guerras: con nios traumatizados, drogados y empuando AK-47. Los nios se han convertido en los mejores soldados. En los ms de cincuenta conflictos violentos que existen actualmente en el mundo, se cree que hay ms de 300,000 nios soldado. Ishmael Beah fue uno de ellos. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=822054 Carlin provides a revealing look at the persuasive genius of Nelson Mandela. In a bold attempt to transcend old hatreds and unite a hopelessly polarized nation, President Mandela lays the groundwork for a miraculous metamorphosis during the 1995 Rugby World Cup at Cape Town. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=738893 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1375994 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=692339 At the start of a new millennium, this book argues that the West has plundered Africa to its own advantage and that unrestrained global capitalism threatens to remake the entire world, bringing violence and destruction in the name of profit. In this radical history, the authors show not only how the Congo represents and symbolises the continents long history of subordination, but also how the determined struggle of its people has continued, against the odds, to provide the Congo and the rest of Africa with real hope for the future.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=878549 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=721567 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=750949 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=753157 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=692377 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=643940 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=643941 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=621673 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=611124 A visual journey documenting Nelson Mandelas twenty-seven years in prison on Robben Island, A Prisoner in the Garden presents for the first time previously unpublished images, documents, and diary and letter extracts, as well as some original notes from the writing of Mandelas autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, and other archival material that helps illustrate the life in jail of the worlds most famous political prisoner. A Prisoner in the Garden digs deeper into Mandelas prison years, providing even more insight into the prison life of one of the elder statesmen of our time. Rich in imagery, A Prisoner in the Garden tells the complete story of the incarceration of Nelson Mandela.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=621800 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=620990 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=643952 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=640825 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=593795 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=643915 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=630405 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=694933 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=659951 Old-fashioned colonial arrogance and newly minted corporate greed collide in The Wonga Coup, the story of the plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny African nation roughly the size of Maryland. Humid, jungle-covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, even some in the region call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, the year of the coup plot, was a man accused of cannibalism, witchcraft, mass murder, billion-dollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little on the surface to recommend it, why was it the target of a gaggle of battle-hardened mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered plane, flown originally by American pilots, adapted for military purposes and previously used by the National Guard? The motive lay beneath the sea bed: oil. Lots of it, perhaps as much as in Nigeria or Angola. The Wonga Coup plotters were inspired by Frederick Forsyths The Dogs of War, a novel written in 1973 that handily, and not at all coincidentally, describes how to overthrow the government of a country all but identical to Equatorial Guinea. Real life, though, trumps fiction, as the plot in 2004 ensnares a British prime ministers son, the Spanish government, a major Washington, D.C. bank, and an old Etonian mercenary determined to go out with one final, spectacularly greedy act of international piracy. The Wonga Coup is adventurism run riot, in which antique colonial attitudes are resurrected by wealthy prospectors keen to fight a small private war for profit. It proves, if proof were needed again, that while it is power that corrupts, it is oil that corrupts absolutely.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=643914 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=621818 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=647958 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=727841 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=639242 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=615889 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=676222 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=613163 In Rwandas Genocide, Kingsley Moghalu provides an engrossing account and analysis of the international political brinkmanship embedded in the quest for international justice for Rwandas genocide. He takes us behind the scenes to the political and strategic factors that shaped a path-breaking war crimes tribunal and demonstrates why the trials at Arusha, like Nuremberg, Tokyo, and the Hague, are more than just prosecutions of culprits, but also politics by other means. This is the first serious book on the politics of justice for Rwandas genocide. Moghalu tells this gripping story with the authority of an insider, elegant and engaging writing, and intellectual mastery of the subject matter.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=621726 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=640861 As gunshots, flames, and screams engulfed their village, three cousins fled into the cover of the forest. Every step led the boys away from their peaceful, agrarian world--a traditional world were spear-toting fathers protected their huts from the lions that roamed by night. With each footstep they were drawn deeper into the horrific violence of Sudans civil war: a world of bombed-out villages, mine-sown roads, and relentless desert, a world where starving adults would snatch the grain from a weak childs fingers. Across Sudan, between 1987 and 1989, tens of thousands of young boys took flight from these massacres. Their journey led them first to Ethiopia and then, driven back into Sudan, toward Kenya. They walked nearly one thousand miles, sustained only by the sheer will to live. This book is the three boys account of that unimaginable journey.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=626355 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=752430 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=569141 Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the worlds longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbor, is woven into the national psyche, the product of a series of cynical foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially pure Roman empire, Britain sold off its industry for scrap, the United States needed a base for its state-of-the-art spy station, and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war. Michael Wrong reveals the breathtaking abuses this tiny nation has suffered and tells the story of colonialism itself. Along the way, we meet a formidable African emperor, a pigheaded English suffragette, and a guerilla fighter who taught himself French cuisine in the bush.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=581447 The Last Expedition is the harrowing true story of Henry Morton Stanleys final trek across Africa to rescue Emin Pasha, the Lieutenant of the martyred General Gordon and governor of the southern Sudan. Emin Pasha had been cut off from the outside world for more than three years by an Islamic jihad to the north, warring African kingdoms to the south and east, and brutal slave traders to the west. Expected to take no more than ten months, the expedition took almost three years and cost hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives as Stanley and his men hacked their way across the last great, unexplored territory in the heart of Africa: the forbidding Ituri forest. Advertised as a mission of mercy, Stanleys secret agenda was territorial expansion on the model of Leopolds Congo or the British East India Company, and what is revealed so vividly in the diaries of those who accompanied him is the dark underside of both the man and the colonial impulse. The expedition took whatever it wanted from the Africans, and when the Africans were killed defending their possessions, they didnt even rate an entry in Stanleys journal. Although he expected it to be the crowning achievement in a career that had already made him the greatest explorer in African history, Stanleys last expedition disintegrated into a nightmare of disease and starvation, desertion and rebellion, and brutality and savagery that brought to an end an era of European exploration in Africa that had lasted almost one hundred years.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=592056 The fortunes of Africa have changed dramatically in the fifty years since the independence era began. As Europes colonial powers withdrew, dozens of new states were launched amid much jubilation and to the worlds applause. African leaders stepped forward with energy and enthusiasm to tackle the problems of development and nation-building, boldly proclaiming their hopes of establishing new societies that might offer inspiration to the world at large. The circumstances seemed auspicious. Independence came in the midst of an economic boom. On the world stage, African states excited the attention of the worlds rival power blocs; in the Cold War era, the position that each newly independent state adopted in its relations with the West or the East was viewed as a matter of crucial importance. Africa was considered too valuable a prize to lose. Today, Africa is spoken of only in pessimistic terms. The sum of its misfortunes - its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts - is truly daunting. No other area of the world arouses such a sense of foreboding. Few states have managed to escape the downward spiral: Botswana stands out as a unique example of an enduring multi-party democracy; South Africa, after narrowly avoiding revolution, has emerged in the post-apartheid era as a well-managed democratic state. But most African countries are effectively bankrupt, prone to civil strife, subject to dictatorial rule, weighted down by debt, and heavily dependent on Western assistance for survival. So what went wrong? What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the space of two generations? Focusing on the key personalities, events and themes of the independence era, Martin Merediths narrative history seeks to explore and explain the myriad problems that Africa has faced in the past half-century, and faces still. The Fate of Africa is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how it came to this - and what, if anything, is to be done.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=615021 In the summer of 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and fifty-one of his comrades were captured at sea by the Barbary corsairs. Their captors - Ali Hakem and his network of Islamic slave traders - had declared war on the whole of Christendom. France, Spain, England and Italy had suffered a series of devastating attacks. Thousands of Europeans had been snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Sale in Morocco. Pellow and his shipmates were bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail, who was constructing an imperial palace of such scale and grandeur that it would surpass every other building in the world, a palace built entirely by Christian slave labor. Resourceful, resilient, and quick-thinking, Pellow was selected by Moulay Ismail for special treatment, and was one of the fortunate few who survived to tell his tale. An extraordinary and shocking story, drawn from unpublished letters and manuscripts written by slaves and by the padres and ambassadors sent to free them, White Gold reveals a disturbing and long forgotten chapter of history.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=603853 In mid-2004 the Darfur crisis in Western Sudan forced itself on to the centre stage of world affairs. Because of the urgent need for knowledge about this humanitarian catastrophe, journalistic explanations of the unfolding crisis have often been rushed and given to hurried generalisations and inaccuracies. Darfur : The Ambiguous Genocide explains what lies behind the conflict, how it came about, why it should not be over-simplified and why it is so relevant to the future of the continent. Prunier sets out the ethnopolitical make up of the Sudan and explains why the Darfur rebellion is regarded as a key threat to Arab power in the country, much more so than the secessionism of the Christian south. This, he argues, accounts for the governments deployment of exemplary violence by the Janjaweed militias in order to cow other Black Muslims into subservience.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=563953 In 2000 the United States began accepting 3,800 refugees from one of Africas longest civil wars. They were just some of the thousands of young men, known as Lost Boys, who had been orphaned or otherwise separated from their families in the chaos of a brutal conflict that has ravaged their home country of Sudan since 1983. The Lost Boys of Sudan focuses on four of these refugees. Theirs, however, is a typical story, one that repeated itself wherever the Lost Boys were found across America. It is a story of the countless challenges of making it in a strange new place after years on the run in Sudan or in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. As we immerse ourselves in the Lost Boys daily lives we also get to know the social service professionals and volunteers, celebrities, community leaders, and others who guided them - with occasional detours - toward self-sufficiency. Along the way, author Mark Bixler looks closely at the ins and outs of U.S. refugee policy, the politics of international aid, the history of Sudan, and the radical Islamist underpinnings of its government.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=481370 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=483712 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=620027 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=461164 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=465192 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=462153 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=460860 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431854 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=457110 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=460863 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=456930 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=467241 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=460862 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=442463 In the mid-1860s, exploration had reached a plateau. The seas and continents had been mapped, the globe circumnavigated. Yet one vexing puzzle remained unsolved: What was the source of the mighty Nile River? Aiming to settle the mystery once and for all, Great Britain called upon its legendary explorer, Dr. David Livingstone, who had spent years in Africa as a missionary. In March 1866, Livingstone steered a massive expedition into the heart of Africa. In his path lay nearly impenetrable, unchartered terrain, hostile cannibals, and deadly predators. Within weeks, the explorer had vanished without a trace. Years passed with no word. While debate raged in England over whether Livingstone could be found - or rescued - from a place as daunting as Africa, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the brash American newspaper tycoon, hatched a plan to capitalize on the worlds fascination with the missing legend. He would send a young journalist, Henry Morton Stanley, into Africa to search for Livingstone. A drifter with great ambition, but little success to show for it, Stanley undertook his assignment with gusto, filing reports that would one day captivate readers and dominate the front page of the New York Herald. Tracing the amazing journeys of Livingstone and Stanley in alternating chapters, author Martin Dugard captures the perils and challenges these men faced. Dugard weaves into the narrative the remarkable transformation that occurred over the course of nine years, as Stanley rose in power and prominence and Livingstone found himself alone and in mortal danger.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=446249 Ranger, Ranger, you die Somalia! shouted the enraged Somali voices surrounding Blackhawk helicopter pilot Michael J. Durant, his bird shot down by a well-placed rocket-propelled grenade. With his devastating injuries, Durant would be lucky to survive the night. Mike Durant ... Mike Durant ... came the disembodied voice floating above the war-torn streets of Mogadishu, mixed in with the steady drone of a large U.S. Army helicopter. Mike Durant ... We will not leave without you! Piloting a U.S. Army Special Operations Blackhawk, Durant was shot down and captured on October 3, 1993, in the battle depicted in Mark Bowdens bestselling book Black Hawk Down. Although saved by two valiant but doomed Delta Force operators from being torn apart, Durant became a prisoner of Somali warlord Mohammed Aidid - the man responsible for prolonging starvation in his country by hijacking United Nations food shipments. U.S. policy makers had determined that capturing Aidid was the only way to restore order. The simple snatch-and-grab plan, named Operation Gothic Serpent, turned into the biggest U.S. firefight since the Vietnam War. Durant became one of the most famous POWs of all time while held captive by a seemingly backward yet media-savvy people. That he survived speaks to his tough training, his outstanding experience as an Army aviator, and his never-quit attitude. Durant had set his sights on flying helos while still in high school, and he excelled at a job he loved. His first posting was to the 377th Medevac Unit near Seoul, a job that entailed dangerous night flying close to the volatile 38th Parallel. He joined the secretive and elite 160th SOAR (A) Night Stalkers and saw combat in the Persian Gulf, Panama, Iraq, and Somalia. Throughout his career, Durant was surrounded by men who fought courageously for causes they whole-heartedly believed in, and died as heroes so that their comrades might live. Durants experience as a prisoner in Somalia grew increasingly bizarre over time, crystallizing a clash of cultures by turns frightening, melancholy, hilarious, and strangely familiar. Revealing never-before-told stories with the incisive thought and the emotion of one who was there, In the Company of Heroes is one mans unforgettable true story of going to hell and making it back alive.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431867 Carmel Schrires Tigers in Africa: Stalking the Past at the Cape of Good Hope interweaves such diverse themes as colonial slavery and apartheid, human and carnivore evolution, and science and romance to show how we create the past and understand the present. Schrire recounts the significance of the palaeontological findings of Raymond Dart, Robert Ardrey, and Glynn Isaac addressing a famous dispute about carnivore evolution that flourished in the heyday of apartheid. She sets pioneering exploration of the globe against archaeological surveys and romantic guests in the African desert and contrasts the dark days of colonial slavery at the Cape with the bright prospects of Nelson Mandelas legacy there.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=426031 Emma McCunes passion for Africa, her unstinting commitment to the children of Sudan, and her youthful beauty and glamour set her apart from other relief workers from the moment she arrived in southern Sudan. But no one was prepared for her decision to marry a local warlord - a man who seemed to embody everything she was working against - and to throw herself into his violent quest to take over southern Sudans rebel movement. With precision and insight, Deborah Scroggins - who met McCune in Sudan - charts the process by which McCunes romantic delusions led to her descent into the hell of Africas longest-running civil war. Emmas War is at once a disturbing love story and an up-close look at Sudan: a world where international aid fuels armies as well as the starving population, and where the northern-based Islamic government - backed by Osama bin Laden - is locked in a war with the Christian and pagan south over religion, oil, and slaves.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431862 It is generally recognised among those who are concerned with Africa that the current plight of the continent is approaching the catastrophic. Partly the roots of the problem are historical, stemming from the exploitation and colonisation of the continent by European powers, and from the legacy of perceived superiority that has resulted from efforts towards self-justification on the part of colonising nations. An appreciation of the history of the relationship between Europe and Africa is indispensable to an understanding of the continents present predicament. Readers of this book will no longer be in any doubt about the nature of European colonialism in Africa and the lasting consequences of what is known as the Scramble for Africa, one of the darkest episodes in colonial history.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431852 The Troubled Heart of Africa is the first book to give a complete history of the Congo, filling in the blanks before the advent of Henry Stanley, David Livingstone, King Leopold, and other figures, and carrying us straight into todays headlines. The Congo continues to be the subject of intense speculation and concern, and with good reason: upon it hangs the fate of sub-Sahara Africa as a whole. Here is a book that helps us face the stark truths of the Congos past and appreciate both the enormous potential and uncertainty of its future.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431864 Examining the role of the Nigeria-dominated Economic Community of West African States Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in intervening in Liberias civil war, Adebajo (international and public affairs) argues that Nigeria played the part of an aspiring regional hegemon and that the intervention was consistent with earlier Nigerian foreign policy actions such as the interventions in Chad in 1979 and 1982. However, ECOMOG represented hegemonic ambition rather than hegemonic achievement. Nigeria was constrained by its own domestic difficulties and by opposition from key francophone states and the strongest Liberian faction, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia. The actions of the key regional players inside and outside of Liberia are explored in order to explain the intractability of the conflict. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431866 Dead Leaves: Two Years in The Rhodesian War is a memoir in which an ordinary troopie grapples with the unique dilemmas presented by an extraordinary period in history: the spectres of inner violence and death; the pressurised arrival of manhood; and the place of conscience, friendship and beauty in the pervasive atmosphere of futile warfare.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=396584 A comprehensive look at the continent of Africa and the countries that comprise it, including peoples and cultures, the land and its history, art and architecture, and daily life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=439101 Missionary and explorer David Livingstone traveled 11,000 miles of African territory. This book is his account of his lifelong African journeys and adventures, exciting exploits that tell a story of unsurpassed courage and determination. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=404795 This volume covers the major historic civilizations and fifty-two existing countries in Africa. Alphabetical entries narrate the countries histories, detail their current political and economic systems, and describe their cultures. Comprehensive lists of rulers are included, and biographical sketches of major political personalities are also provided. Specific sections describe the development of the continent and the state of Africa today. Maps, chronologies, and numerous illustrations are featured. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431855 Frederick Coopers latest book on the history of decolonization and independence in Africa initiates a new textbook series: New Approaches to African History. His book will help readers understand the historical processes which have shaped Africas current position in the world. Covering the last half-century, it bridges the divide between colonial and post-colonial history, allowing readers to see just what political independence did and did not signify. The book follows the development question across time, seeing how first colonial regimes and then African governments sought to transform African societies in their own ways. Readers will see how men and women, peasants and workers, religious leaders and local leaders found space within the crevices of state power to refashion the way they lived, worked, and interacted with each other. And they will see that the effort to turn colonial territories into independent nation-states was only one of the ways in which radical political and social movements imagined their future and how deeply the claims of such movements continued to challenge states after independence. By looking at the post-war era as a whole, one can begin to understand the succession of crises that colonial and post-colonial states faced without getting into a sterile debate over whether a colonial legacy or the failings of African governments are the cause of Africas current situation.--BOOK JACKET.