Walter Lord

Includes more than 25 illustrations WALTER LORD NEVER STARTS FROM SCRATCH. For months before a word of this book was written, he could be found roaming the country, ferreting out the fascinating people who helped shape these years. One week it might be Elijah Baum, who piloted Wilbur Wright to his first lodgings at Kitty Hawk…the next, and old fireman who fought the flames at San Francisco…the next, some militant suffragette. Even in his raids...

Lord's stunning account of the War of 1812, when a young nation won its independence once and for all At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the great powers of Western Europe treated the United States like a disobedient child. Great Britain blocked American trade, seized its vessels, and impressed its sailors to serve in the Royal Navy. America's complaints were ignored, and the humiliation continued until James Madison, the country's fourth president,...

Outgunned and outmanned on the Pacific Ocean, a small American fleet defied the odds and turned the tide of World War II On the morning of June 4, 1942, doom sailed on Midway. Hoping to put itself within striking distance of Hawaii and California, the Japanese navy planned an ambush that would obliterate the remnants of the American Pacific fleet. On paper, the Americans had no chance of winning. They had fewer ships, slower fighters, and almost no...

In the bloodiest island combat of World War II, one group of men risked it all to fight from behind Japanese lines The Solomon Islands was where the Allied war machine finally broke the Japanese empire. As pilots, marines, and sailors fought for supremacy in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and the Slot, a lonely group of radio operators occupied the Solomon Islands' highest points. Sometimes encamped in comfort, sometimes exposed to the elements, these...

The bestselling accounts of three decisive events of WWII: the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, and the miraculous evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler's blitzkrieg, retreated to the beach at Dunkirk. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds...

Three decades after his landmark work A Night to Remember, Walter Lord revisits the Titanic Years after A Night to Remember stoked the fires of public interest in the doomed RMS Titanic, the clamor for details about April 14, 1912, has not abated. As die-hard professional and amateur historians-"rivet counters," they are called-puzzle over minute details of the ship's last hours, a wealth of facts and myth have emerged. Revisiting the subject more...

For most of his life, an explorer fought to conquer the North Pole On March 1, 1909, only 413 miles of treacherous ice separated Robert E. Peary from realizing his lifelong dream of becoming the first man to set foot on the North Pole. On that dark morning on Canada's Ellesmere Island, it was cold enough to freeze a bottle of brandy. Though appearing solid, the ice sat atop seawater, and shifted violently according to the whims of the ocean below....

Three New York Times–bestselling World War II histories, including the true story of the miraculous evacuation portrayed in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk. The monumental scope and breathtaking heroism of World War II are brought to vivid life in three riveting accounts that span the conflict's Western Front, Eastern Front, and Pacific Theater. The Miracle of Dunkirk: The definitive account of the evacuation of 338,000 British and French soldiers...

In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler's blitzkrieg, retreated to Dunkirk. Hemmed in by overwhelming Nazi strength, the 338,000 men gathered on the beach were all that stood between Hitler and Western Europe. Crush them, and the path to Paris and London was clear. Unable to retreat any farther, the Allied soldiers set up defense positions and prayed for deliverance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an...