1914: The Year the World Ended by Paul Ham

$49.95 NZD

Category: History | Reading Level: very good

Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth, yet 1914 did. The story of the outbreak of World War I.In July of 1914, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain, and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth, yet 1914 did. The story of the outbreak of World War I.In July of 1914, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain, and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems, and set the course for the bloodiest century in human history. In the long run, the events of 1914 set the world on the path toward the Russian Revolution, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Nazism, and the Cold War. Here, award-winning historian Paul Ham tells the story of the outbreak of WWI from German, British, French, Austria-Hungarian, Russian, and Serbian perspectives. Along the way, he debunks several stubborn myths. European leaders, for example, did not stumble or "sleepwalk" into war. They fully understood that a small conflict in the Balkans--the tinderbox at the heart of the continent--could spark a European war. Yet they carried on. This book seeks to answer the most vexing question of the 20th century: Why did European governments decide to condemn the best part of a generation of young men to the trenches and four years of slaughter, during which 8.5 million would die? ...Show more

1914: The Year the World Ended (Audio CD) by Paul Ham

$49.95 NZD

Category: Events

Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth: 1914 did. In July that year, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems and set t Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth: 1914 did. In July that year, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems and set the course for the bloodiest century in human history. In the longer run, the events of 1914 set the world on the path toward the Russian Revolution, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Nazism and the Cold War. In 1914: The Year the World Ended, award-winning historian Paul Ham tells the story of the outbreak of the Great War from German, British, French, Austria-Hungarian, Russian and Serbian perspectives. ...Show more

Captain Bullen's War: The Vietnam War Diary of Captain John Bullen by John Bullen & Paul Ham

$35.00 NZD

Category: Biography & Memoir

Combines the irreverent humour of M*A*S*H with the sharp satire of 'Catch 22' in portraying one man's extraordinary experiences of the war in Vietnam in 1968 the bloodiest year of the conflict. The difference is that neither Captain John Bullen nor his experiences are fictional. Nor was he a reluctant s Combines the irreverent humour of M*A*S*H with the sharp satire of 'Catch 22' in portraying one man's extraordinary experiences of the war in Vietnam in 1968 the bloodiest year of the conflict. The difference is that neither Captain John Bullen nor his experiences are fictional. Nor was he a reluctant soldier. A graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon and a career soldier in the Australian Army Bullen commanded the vital map-producing section of the Australian Task Force at Nui Dat. Alert to the possibility of humour in the bleakest circumstances, Captain Bullen chronicles the events around him with great wit and perceptivity. What emerges is one of the most darkly funny and lacerating accounts of the Vietnam War ever written. Strewn with wonderful character sketches and hilarious anecdotes Captain Bullen's War is more than just one man's insightful account of the absurdity of war. He perceives with unsparing clarity the nature and enormity of the conflict around him. A thoughtful 'decent man' Bullen's is a voice of sanity in a world gone mad. ...Show more

Godless by Paul Ham

$40.00 NZD

Category: History

IN FEBRUARY 1534 a radical religious sect whose disciples were being persecuted throughout Europe seized the city of M nster, in the German-speaking land of Westphalia. They were convinced that they were God's Elect, specially chosen by the Almighty to be the first to ascend to Paradise on Judgement Da IN FEBRUARY 1534 a radical religious sect whose disciples were being persecuted throughout Europe seized the city of M nster, in the German-speaking land of Westphalia. They were convinced that they were God's Elect, specially chosen by the Almighty to be the first to ascend to Paradise on Judgement Day, as told in the Book of Revelation. And it would all happen here, in 'New Jerusalem' (as they renamed the city), during Easter 1535, when God and Christ would descend and usher in the End Times. But the 'Melchiorites', as they were called after their founding prophet, would be well-prepared for Apocalypse, swiftly turning the city into a Christian theocracy- They threw out the Catholics and Lutherans, 'rebaptised' their followers, destroyed all old religious icons, adopted a communist system of shared property, and imposed a new law of polygamy that compelled all women and girls who'd reached puberty to marry. Because women outnumbered men about three times, many men had 3-5 wives. John of Leiden, who proclaimed himself 'king' of New Jerusalem, had 16 wives - all according to God's exhortation in Genesis to 'go forth and multiply'. The backlash against the sect would be long and brutal. The Catholic and Lutheran powers were determined to make a terrible example of what they saw as a dangerous mob of crazed heretics. And so began the siege of Munster. For 18 months, the city was shut off from the world, periodically attacked and then slowly starved. And yet, for most of this time, the sect clung to their faith with astonishing resilience, even as they descended into hellish suffering. 'New Jerusalem- Judgement Day 1535' is a story of religious obsession and persecution, of noble ideals trampled to dust, of slavish sexual surrender....all in the name of Christ. It tells of one of the first violent revolts of the Reformation, which, together with the Peasants' War of 1524-25, helped to ignite 110 years of religious conflict that ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The story holds a terrible fascination in our own time, on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, scarred again by the return of religious wars, of hatred and slaughter, all in the name of a god or a faith. ...Show more

Ham / Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth (Audio MP3 CD) by Paul Ham

$49.95 NZD

Category: No Category

Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, t Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle. The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious. ...Show more

Hiroshima Nagasaki by Paul Ham

$35.00 NZD

Category: History

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice," Am The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice," American leaders claimed at the time--and still today most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians that began in Germany and had till then exacted its most horrific death tolls in Dresden and Tokyo. He gives powerful witness to the bomb's destruction through the eyes of eighty survivors, from 12-year-olds forced to work in war factories to wives and children who faced it alone, reminding us that these two cities were full of ordinary people who suddenly, out of a clear blue summer's sky, felt the sun fall on their heads. ...Show more

New Jerusalem by Paul Ham

$45.00 NZD

Category: No Category | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

IN FEBRUARY 1534 a radical religious sect whose disciples were being persecuted throughout Europe seized the city of M nster, in the German-speaking land of Westphalia.They were convinced that they were God's Elect, specially chosen by the Almighty to be the first to ascend to Paradise on Judgement Day, IN FEBRUARY 1534 a radical religious sect whose disciples were being persecuted throughout Europe seized the city of M nster, in the German-speaking land of Westphalia.They were convinced that they were God's Elect, specially chosen by the Almighty to be the first to ascend to Paradise on Judgement Day, as told in the Book of Revelation. And it would all happen here, in 'New Jerusalem' (as they renamed the city), during Easter 1535, when God and Christ would descend and usher in the End Times. But the 'Melchiorites', as they were called after their founding prophet, would be well-prepared for Apocalypse, swiftly turning the city into a Christian theocracy- They threw out the Catholics and Lutherans, 'rebaptised' their followers, destroyed all old religious icons, adopted a communist system of shared property, and imposed a new law of polygamy that compelled all women and girls who'd reached puberty to marry. Because women outnumbered men about three times, many men had 3-5 wives. John of Leiden, who proclaimed himself 'king' of New Jerusalem, had 16 wives - all according to God's exhortation in Genesis to 'go forth and multiply'. The backlash against the sect would be long and brutal. The Catholic and Lutheran powers were determined to make a terrible example of what they saw as a dangerous mob of crazed heretics. And so began the siege of Munster. For 18 months, the city was shut off from the world, periodically attacked and then slowly starved. And yet, for most of this time, the sect clung to their faith with astonishing resilience, even as they descended into hellish suffering.'N New Jerusalem- Judgement Day 1535 is a story of religious obsession and persecution, of noble ideals trampled to dust, of slavish sexual surrender....all in the name of Christ. It tells of one of the first violent revolts of the Reformation, which, together with the Peasants' War of 1524-25, helped to ignite 110 years of religious conflict that ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The story holds a terrible fascination in our own time, on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, scarred again by the return of religious wars, of hatred and slaughter, all in the name of a god or a faith. ...Show more

Passchendaele by Paul Ham

$40.00 NZD

Category: History

The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with po The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why?What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious.Paul Ham?s Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youthshows how ordinary men on both sides endured this constant state of siege, with a very real awareness that they were being gradually, deliberately, wiped out. Yet the men never broke- they went over the top, when ordered, again and again and again. And if they fell dead or wounded, they were casualties in the 'normal wastage', as the commanders described them, of attritional war. Only the soldier?s friends at the front knew him as a man, with thoughts and feelings. His family back home knew him as a son, husband or brother, before he had enlisted. By the end of 1917 he was a different creature- his experiences on the Western Front were simply beyond their powers of comprehension.A century later, this is what 'Passchendaele' has come to mean in the public mind- a struggle that, even by the standards of the Great War, entered the realm of the abominable, infernal and monumentally futile. Humans, animals, ordnance and pouring rain were thrown together in a maelstrom of steel and flesh in the name of a strategy that prescribedcasualty lists in the hundreds of thousands. Such huge losses were not some epic blunder. Casualties on this scale were planned and, in the context of the time, expected, in the minds of commanders captive to an offensive they were helpless to avert.Paul Ham distinguishes his book from other 'mud and blood' accounts by setting the soldiers' experiences in the context of the military and political power that controlled him. He shines a light in particular on the fraught relationship between David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief of the British (and Dominion forces) on the Western Front, to show how their poisonous relationship influenced the outcome of the battle. Lloyd George had pledged never to fight another Somme, another 'Haig' war. But Haig, short of the political will to stop the war, believed he had no choice other than to keep battering away at the German lines. Their relationship degenerated into a state of mutual loathing that had a direct impact on the tragedy of Passchendaele.Paul Ham?s Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youthtells the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaelelays down a powerful challenge to the idea of war as an inevitable expression of the human will, and examines the culpability of governments and military commanders in a catastrophe that destroyed the best part of a generation. ...Show more

Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth by Paul Ham

$50.00 NZD

Category: History

The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with po The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious. Paul Ham's Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youthshows how ordinary men on both sides endured this constant state of siege, with a very real awareness that they were being gradually, deliberately, wiped out. Yet the men never broke- they went over the top, when ordered, again and again and again. And if they fell dead or wounded, they were casualties in the 'normal wastage', as the commanders described them, of attritional war. Only the soldier's friends at the front knew him as a man, with thoughts and feelings. His family back home knew him as a son, husband or brother, before he had enlisted. By the end of 1917 he was a different creature- his experiences on the Western Front were simply beyond their powers of comprehension. A century later, this is what 'Passchendaele' has come to mean in the public mind- a struggle that, even by the standards of the Great War, entered the realm of the abominable, infernal and monumentally futile. Humans, animals, ordnance and pouring rain were thrown together in a maelstrom of steel and flesh in the name of a strategy that prescribedcasualty lists in the hundreds of thousands. Such huge losses were not some epic blunder. Casualties on this scale were planned and, in the context of the time, expected, in the minds of commanders captive to an offensive they were helpless to avert. Paul Ham distinguishes his book from other 'mud and blood' accounts by setting the soldiers' experiences in the context of the military and political power that controlled him. He shines a light in particular on the fraught relationship between David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief of the British (and Dominion forces) on the Western Front, to show how their poisonous relationship influenced the outcome of the battle. Lloyd George had pledged never to fight another Somme, another 'Haig' war. But Haig, short of the political will to stop the war, believed he had no choice other than to keep battering away at the German lines. Their relationship degenerated into a state of mutual loathing that had a direct impact on the tragedy of Passchendaele. Paul Ham's Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youthtells the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaelelays down a power ...Show more

Passchendaele - Requiem for Doomed Youth (Audio CD; unabridged; 14 CDs) by Paul Ham

$49.95 NZD

Category: No Category

Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, t Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle. The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious. ...Show more

Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham

$69.99 NZD

Category: Military

Yoko's Diary by Paul Ham (Editor); Debbie Edwards (Translator)

$19.99 NZD

Category: Children & Young Adult

The diary is one little girl's vision of her world as it closes in and destroys her. She is a highly intelligent child; but the full weight of Japanese propaganda can be felt through her thoughts and observations; she is also a classic example of the dutiful Japanese daughter, but one with a keenly obse The diary is one little girl's vision of her world as it closes in and destroys her. She is a highly intelligent child; but the full weight of Japanese propaganda can be felt through her thoughts and observations; she is also a classic example of the dutiful Japanese daughter, but one with a keenly observant eye. The book consists of Yoko's diary as well as a stirring prologue from Yoko's brother, a diary entry from Yoko's father after her death and a very moving letter of Yoko's death from the woman who nursed Yoko as she died. While the core of the book is Yoko's diary, it would also include information about the war, the Japanese way of life, Hiroshima today and extra material to complete a poignant and comprehensive view of one of history's most horrific events. Ages: 8-12 ...Show more