<b>The general’s story</b> The year is 1971. Army Lieutenant Ezell "EZ" Ware Jr. is the copilot of a Huey Cobra gunship, assigned to do covert missions in Vietnam. His captain is a white man from West Virginia who hates him not because of anything Ware has said or done, but because Ware is black. Returning from a mission, their chopper is hit. They crash in the Vietnamese jungle, with little more than two pistols, a handful of snacks and one canteen. The captain is seriously injured, but together the men must survive tigers, leeches, disease, starvation and Vietcong guerrillas. To do it, they must overcome their hatred for each other.

This is not a Hollywood thriller; it is a true story from Ware’s remarkable life. <b>By Duty Bound: Survival and Redemption in a Time of War</b> tells the story of that life, which begins with a boy born into abject poverty, abandoned by his parents, surrounded by a society that hates him. Despite these obstacles Ware not only survives, but thrives, becoming a decorated Army officer and eventually a general in the California National Guard.

Switching easily back and forth between Ware’s experiences growing up in Jim Crow Mississippi and his harrowing trek through enemy territory, By Duty Bound is a portrait of a man following the vaguest hints of hope for escape, for a better life, for freedom whether from Vietcong guerrillas or the violent racism of his own countrymen. In the end, his story is as much about America’s struggles as it is about Ware himself. It is a story worth the telling, and worth the reading.

<i> HOWARD SHIRLEY</i>

Joseph Wheelan raises serious questions about Thomas Jefferson’s legacy as a wise, elegant and eloquent Founding Father in Jefferson’s Vendetta: The Pursuit of Aaron Burr and the Judiciary. “Belying his carefully constructed image of benevolence was Jefferson’s dark history of vindictiveness,” Whelan writes. That aspect of the third president’s character is the focus of this book about Jefferson’s efforts to rein in the power of the federal judiciary, which he believed had overreached its authority, as well as his zeal in tracking and prosecuting his former vice president on a charge of treason.

Aaron Burr was bright, energetic and from a distinguished family. A skilled politician, he came close to being elected president in 1800. Although he was on the Republican ticket as its vice presidential candidate, the electoral system at that time gave him the same number of electoral votes as Jefferson. The tie in the House of Representatives was not broken until a Burr supporter switched his vote to Jefferson in exchange for the latter’s commitment to certain Federalist policies. Burr’s refusal to bow out of the presidential race, after having agreed to do so, fueled a hostility that created an irreparable breach between the two men. In 1806, when Jefferson learned that Burr was pursuing an ill-advised attempt to appropriate Spanish territory in North America, the president led an effort to bring him to trial. Wheelan’s narrative skillfully weaves together political, legal and diplomatic history leading to the most important of Burr’s trials at Richmond, Virginia, in 1807. The re-creation of this lengthy trial, which occupies a considerable portion of the text, is masterfully done. It was the “trial of the century” with appearances by some of the country’s best lawyers, including William Wirt, whose published text of his speech for the prosecution became an “instant classic” according to Wheelan. Wheelan says this speech “probably single-handedly did more than anything else to fix Burr’s villainy in the public memory.” For the defense, Luther Martin spoke for 14 hours over a two-day period.

The presiding judge was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. A Federalist appointed by John Adams and under threat of losing his position, Marshall rendered his opinion in a four-hour presentation which found that the prosecution had not made its case; the jury found Burr “not guilty.” Jefferson’s extraordinary efforts to convict Burr included a national manhunt, a dragnet for evidence and a trial with 140 witnesses, though the president knew his adversary was not guilty.

Wheelan’s stimulating book, with its finely drawn portraits of Burr, Marshall and Jefferson, among many others, helps us to better understand a crucial episode in the early history of the country.

Roger Bishop is a Nashville bookseller and frequent contributor to BookPage.

Philip II of Spain was, without question, the most powerful ruler in Europe during the 1580s. A zealous Catholic, he felt it was his role to eliminate heretical Protestantism from the continent. At the same time, he envisioned a Spanish empire that would stretch from the Baltic to the New World. As his country’s relationship with England faltered, Philip began to prepare for what he hoped would be the first link in a chain of events to achieve his goals. He decided to invade England. The result was not what Philip had hoped, but led instead to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, one of the major events of Elizabeth I’s reign and of European history in that period.

Neil Hanson, using a wide range of sources, recreates the period and personalities in both countries in magnificent detail in his The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada. He explores the diplomatic, military and commercial aspects of the event as seen from the highest level Philip and Elizabeth and their numerous advisors and military leaders and from the lowest the galley slaves and seamen. As Hanson shows, the outcome came as a surprise to many (“some felt that the mere sight of [the Armada] would be enough to make Elizabeth capitulate”). Others, however, were not so certain of victory. The Venetian ambassador in Madrid noted that the Englishmen bear “a name above all the West for being expert and enterprising in maritime affairs, and the finest fighters upon the sea . . . for the English never yield.” English ships that were not only faster and easier to maneuver, but were also, Hanson writes, “armed with weapons that were, by the standards of the day, precision engineered, delivering projectiles with greater frequency, velocity and accuracy, over a greater range.” Hanson also portrays the sharp contrast between the two royal leaders. Philip, austere and remote, consulted with others, yet remained the grand strategist. He had known battle only once, but, having ruled for 30 years, did not lack self-confidence. Neither did Elizabeth, though Morgan believes, “It was evident that neither the Queen nor her ministers had the slightest comprehension of the tactics that had brought her fleet to victory.” Hanson’s riveting narrative enlightens and stimulates our thinking about a major turning point in European history. Roger Bishop is a Nashville bookseller and frequent contributor to BookPage.

All right, you maggots, listen up! You say you don’t know what MRE stands for? Can’t tell an RPG from a BAR? Wonder how to dig a foxhole? Well, the Gunny’s gonna tell ya, as only your ever-lovin’ Gunny can! For the straight skinny on all things military from medieval crossbows to futuristic jet fighters few books are more fun than Mail Call. Mail Call is based on the popular History Channel show of the same name, hosted by actor and retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey, “The Gunny” to his fans. The book follows the format of the show, answering viewers’ questions about military life, history and hardware in layman’s terms.

Mail Call draws on a variety of experts, including historians, engineers and military personnel and sometimes the Gunny himself. The book is a quick, fun read, with interesting sidebars, quick facts and photos from the show. Mail Call is divided into six parts Weapons, Gear, Grunts, Airplanes, Ships and Vehicles and each question and answer section is written in a conversational style that’s often quite funny. And of course, the book is peppered with the Gunny’s favorite drill-sergeant jargon, familiar to his fans (and generations of hapless recruits). Oh, and in case you didn’t know, an MRE is a “Meal Ready to Eat” (a precooked food package), an RPG is a Rocket Propelled Grenade, and a BAR is a Browning Automatic Rifle. To find out how to dig a foxhole, you’ll have to read the book!

No one knows when Chaucer died (don’t be fooled by the date on his tomb in Westminster Abbey). Despite the immense popularity of Chaucer’s poetry during his lifetime and the important offices he held in the court of King Richard II, his name disappears from all public record in the year 1400, with no mention of his death at all. This is odd imagine if Stephen King or John Grisham were to simply disappear without a trace today. Who Murdered Chaucer? A Medieval Mystery, written by Terry Jones with Robert Yeager, Terry Dolan, Alan Fletcher and Juliette Dor, explores Geoffrey Chaucer’s mysterious disappearance.

Terry Jones, you ask? Wasn’t he one of the guys in Monty Python? He was, but he also happens to be a famed expert on the Middle Ages whose academic work on the period has garnered significant critical acclaim. Who Murdered Chaucer? is not a biography; Jones describes it as “less of a whodunit? than a Wasitdunnatall?” Unlike Ackroyd, Jones delights, much as Chaucer himself did, in stirring the quiet pond of beliefs scholars have accepted for centuries. Jones explores Chaucer’s relationship to King Richard II and his successor, Henry IV, as well as Chaucer’s vitriolic criticism of the church in The Canterbury Tales, to examine and support the hypothesis that Chaucer’s disappearance owes far more to dissident political opinions and a change in regime brought by a usurper king than the fault of time and incomplete record-keeping. Jones is not unbiased; he has clear opinions of people such as Henry IV and Archbishop Arundel, yet these opinions and his controversial conclusions are supported with meticulous research of a myriad of texts from the Middle Ages, ultimately creating a terrific piece of revisionist history that offers a highly plausible explanation for the death of Geoffrey Chaucer. Who Murdered Chaucer? is a riveting and engrossing read for anyone from the medievalist to the average reader seeking entertainment.