Much has been written about the exploits of the American Expeditionary Forces, the men and women sent overseas to fight during World War I, but much less is known about the two million who served in the Army without ever setting foot on foreign soil. This book examines the history of depot brigades, development battalions, U.S. Guards units, Students' Army Training Corps, and other "forgotten" troops charged with training soldiers, guarding installations, and performing myriad other duties. It also chronicles the service of men like actor Jimmy Cagney, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, movie director Frank Capra, children's author Ludwig Bemelmans, and the two million others who served in the United States during the war. At the time, many of these men considered themselves unfortunate cast-offs, doomed to spend the war safe at home while their friends served in combat overseas. But, in the end, it was largely because of them that America could field an effective fighting force.

By October 1918, the U.S. had more than a million men fighting in the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The American Expeditionary Forces' logistics army, the Services of Supply (SOS), provided critical support to the combat forces. An enormous array of maintenance, medical, motor transport, railroad, quartermaster and engineer units served in this role--as well as British women from Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, African American labor and pioneer regiments, a U.S. Marine brigade led by a legendary officer, volunteers from the Salvation Army, Chinese laborers and even German prisoners of war.. The SOS kept American soldiers at the front supplied with "bullets, bandages and beans" while repairing weapons, producing vast quantities of lumber, buying horses from Spain, operating a massive railroad network, caring for the sick and wounded, fighting fires on troopships, driving trucks under enemy fire and administering a notorious prison. This book gives a full account of perhaps the most overlooked yet crucial military effort of World War I.

This book explores five generations of the Barnes family, concentrating on the author's father, Carl F. Barnes, whose nickname was "Carefree"-derived from the fact that for many years he went on drinking sprees that were sometimes frightening and sometimes humorous (at least in hindsight). Who else could show up with a rowboat in the driveway without any recollection of where, or why, he got it-and not have a lake to put it in? Carefree abused alcohol intermittently for thirty years, then suddenly (and unexpectedly) quit drinking for the last thirty years of his life. The author's mother's life is likewise examined: how she coped with Carefree's drinking and with the sorrow of the accidental death of her younger son. The author discusses his difficult relationship with his parents, especially his mother. For many years estranged from his sons, he explains how he and they made peace and became good friends through the efforts of their stepmother. Looking to the future, the author also includes his grandchildren. The story is told in word and picture, there being more than one hundred photos covering the span of a century. Is this an exceptional family? No, not in a political sense or social sense. It is family like many others, one that experienced laughs and tears, stresses and strains, triumphs and tragedies. The family motto was AD ASTRA PER ASPERA, "To the Stars through Hardship."

How did the Democratic Party--party of JFK, LBJ, and civil rights--fall from glory? How did Texas become Bush territory? What do politicians on either side need to do today to get our country back on track? Ben Barnes has the answers. Barnes had a front-row seat through it all. He won a seat in the Texas Legislature in 1960, at the age of 22, and four years later became the youngest Speaker of the House since the Civil War. In 1968, he helped Congressman George H. W. Bush get his son into the National Guard. How did his party lose its place in Texas, and the nation? Here, Barnes takes readers inside the rise and fall of the party he loves. He uses lessons learned in the Texas trenches as a guiding light for a new generation of lawmakers and political hopefuls, and calls for a return to bipartisan consensus building.--From publisher description.

Wisdom and Initiation in Gabon: A Philosophical Analysis of Fang Tales, Myths, and Legends is a study of the philosophical significance of Fang mythology and the rituals of Initiation that lead to Wisdom. Bonaventure Mvé Ondo argues that Fang tales, myths, and legends are components of the foundation of a worldview that sustains and protects a unique, historical Fang identity. For Mvé Ondo, the contemporary challenges to the existence and identity of the Fang require, perhaps more than ever, recognition of the central role of mythology. At an historical moment when Africans are faced with the challenges of westernization, the metaphysics of the Fang, illustrated and preserved by tales, myths, and legends, is a critical element of Fang survival. Mythology is far more than a collection of amusing or awe inspiring stories, they are profoundly important moral lessons for the Fang in their continuing encounters with such contemporary challenges as materialism and, as the “stories” in this book illustrate, the constant struggle to live lives of purpose and meaning. For Mvé Ondo, the critical, central issue for the Fang is to focus on the distinction at the heart of his analysis, i.e., the crucial distinction between “to have” and to “to be.” The lessons transmitted from generation to generation by these marvelous stories are, Mvé Ondo argues, central to living lives that reflect and perpetuate the eternal truths of the Fang experience.

This book by Carl Barnes presents the first high-quality colour facsimile of a key manuscript of Gothic art and architecture and medieval scientific thought, the 'Portfolio' of Villard de Honnecourt, and gives the first complete codicological and palaeographical analysis of the text. Barnes clearly identifies what is and what is not known about Villard himself and the drawings and text in the manuscript, so removing many of the multiple layers of speculation that have clouded study of the work. The book is completed by an extensive bibliography of studies relating to Villard.

Many major- and minor-league ballplayers traded their team uniforms for Army khaki and Navy blue

During World War I, hundreds of thousands of foreign-born soldiers served in the US military