Cole C. Kingseed

On the hellish battlefields of World War II Europe, Major Dick Winters led his Easy Company—the now-legendary Band of Brothers—from the confusion and chaos of the D-Day invasion to the final capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. Winters was a quiet, reluctant hero whose modesty and strength drew the admiration of not only his men, but millions worldwide. Now comes the story of his last years as witnessed and experienced by his good friend Cole C. Kingseed. Kingseed shares the formative experiences that made Winters such an effective leader. He addresses Winters’s experiences and leadership during the war, his intense, unbreakable devotion to his men, his search for peace both without and within after the war, and how fame forced him to make adjustments to an international audience of well-wishers and admirers, even as he attempted to leave a lasting legacy before joining his fallen comrades. Following Winters’s death on January 2, 2011, the outpouring of grief and adulation for one of this nation’s preeminent leaders of character, courage, and competence showed just how much of an impact Dick Winters left on the world.INCLUDES PHOTOS

Saying that no generation of Americans has produced a finer array of combat commanders than that of World War II, a thirty-year army veteran examines combat leadership throughout the war at every level of command in the U.S. Army. The author argues that although Army chief of staff George C. Marshall’s organization and training policies were indispensable, the ultimate victory was the result of spirited leadership and the undaunted courage of those who served, from individual riflemen to the upper echelons of army command. Rather than a history of battles and campaigns, this book is an analysis of leadership in combat over three continents and across two oceans. It looks at how soldiers react in war -- how sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and generals direct soldiers in the most intense of all human dramas. The first part focuses on the generals and takes a thematic approach, examining such topics as restoring the fighting spirit and analyzing the unique characteristics required to command special units in combat. The second part examines a special breed of junior leaders who fought the German and Japanese armies on the front lines and whose contributions merit attention. Like war correspondent Ernie Pyle, Kingseed includes both the big and the little to offer a balanced view of what makes a good combat leader.

Historian Cole C. Kingseed reinforces the revisionist perspective on Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency in this study of one of the major foreign policy challenges of Eisenhower's the Suez crisis of 1956. Kingseed's principal focus is on the president - what he did and why and how he did it. Discussion of the Middle East situation forms the backdrop against which to analyze Eisenhower as chief executive.Forgoing late-twentieth-century hindsight, Kingseed evaluates Eisenhower's managerial performance according to what the president knew at the time. As much as possible, he relies on the president's own diary, his private letters and memoranda, his official correspondence, Department of State records, minutes of the National Security Council and cabinet meetings, presidential secretary Ann C. Whitman's diary and journals, written records and personal correspondence of staff secretary Andrew J. Goodpaster, and a wide array of oral histories.What Kingseed reveals about Eisenhower's command of the White House during the Suez crisis reflects his executive abilities Eisenhower was at the center of events, organizing the security departments within the federal government in such a manner that it was only at the presidential level that all aspects of strategy and policy coalesced. In devising and implementing long-term policy, he utilized more formal bodies, such as the National Security Council, but for matters that required personal and immediate attention, he convened an ad hoc group of special advisers.A major premise of Kingseed's analysis is that the method in which a president organizes and supervises the decision-making apparatus has a profound impact on the attainment of political goals. That Eisenhower, in responding to the Suez crisis, achieved his policy objectives amid dissenting allies, contentious military chiefs, and political opposition in a presidential election year clearly demonstrates, according to Kingseed, the unique, flexible leadership style of an extraordinarily active - and effective - chief executive.

Defining the United States as a people and a nation, the Civil War was the bloodiest war in its history. Concise topical chapters are bolstered by biographies, primary documents, maps, illustrations, and an annotated bibliography.

The Civil War is the central event in U.S. history. More than any other event, the war defined the United States as a nation and as a people. What the United States is today, how it views the role of its national government in its daily life, how it interprets its relations within its diverse population, and how it has evolved as a world power are largely the results of the cataclysmic struggle that shook the American republic in the mid-19th century. For better or worse, the irrepressible conflict that gripped the United States nearly 150 years ago has also formed its national character.Kingseed gives a thoroughly readable, learned overview of the Civil War before offering stimulating chapters on the Myth of Southern Martial Superiority, The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln, Could the South Have Won the War?, Anatomy of Defeat: Why Lee Lost the Battle of Gettysburg, and finally, Consequences of the War: A Contemporary Perspective. Eighteen biographical sketches of key civilian, military, and political figures such as Clara Barton, Matthew Brady, J.E.B. Stuart, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass personalize the momentous events of the Civil War, while 16 annotated primary documents, ranging from Lincoln's House Divided against Itself Speech to Jefferson Davis's Inagural Speech on his swearing in as the first, and last, President of the C.S.A., to a bluejacket's remembrances of the horrors witnessed during and after the Battle of Antietam. Ten illustrations, a map of the major campaigns, chronology of events, glossary, annotated bibliography, and index complete this one-stop research resource on the American Civil War.