Iran Iraq War

Where did writing, culture, and agriculture begin? The Middle East is the cradle of civilization - where humankind once roamed in small groups of hunter-gatherers and foraged for food and shelter, then learned to plant crops and build structures. Today, we are an advanced civilization that has conquered the skies, oceans, and even the moon. To understand how this transformation occurred, take a brief trip back into the history of the Middle East, where it all began.

Iran and Iraq served as the first WWII theater in which the US, the UK, and the USSR fought alongside each other. Historian Ashley Jackson charts the intense Allied military activity in Iran and Iraq and reveals how deeply the war impacted common people's lives. He also provides revelations about the true nature of Anglo-American relations in the region, the beginnings of the Cold War, and the continuing corrosive legacy of Western influence in these lands.

The AC-130 gunship was quickly developed in 1968 to provide fire support for ground forces in Vietnam. Twenty-eight C-130 cargo aircraft were converted into AC-130s for night attack operations. The AC-130 was crude, ugly, ad hoc, and detested by many within the USAF...but it worked, and it worked well. Likewise, AC-130 crews were deemed unruly “biker gangs” but performed magnificently in every major US military operation from 1976 to 1995. Most of these combat operations were cloaked in secrecy, but records once classified for up to 20 years have now been opened.  

Faleeha Hassan became intimately acquainted with loss and fear while growing up in Najaf, Iraq. Now, in a deeply personal account of her life, she remembers those she has loved and lost.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Mirage by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul, read by Scott Brick. In October 1943, a US destroyer vanished out of Philadelphia, the result of a Navy experiment with electromagnetic radiation. The story was considered a hoax - but Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon colleagues aren't convinced. Now, a new weapon is for sale - one linked to the great inventor Nikola Tesla, who was working with the Navy when he died in 1943.