Books by Jon E. Lewis

In this encyclopedic book, Lewis provides insights into the origins, training, tactics, weapons and achievements of special forces and special mission units throughout the world, focusing particularly on US and UK forces. He also looks at the codes that that bind the members of these elite units together. He reveals training secrets in everything from wilderness survival to hand-to-hand combat. In doing so, he draws extensively on biographies, autobiographies, training manuals, interviews and press coverage of key operations. The elite forces covered include: The British Army s Special Air Service (SAS), established in 1950, which has served as a model for the special forces of many countries. Its counter-terrorist wing famously took part in the hostage rescue during the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980. The Parachute Regiment, the airborne infantry element of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which spearheads the British Army s rapid intervention capability. It is closely linked to United Kingdom Special Forces. The US Navy s SEALS (Sea, Air, Land Teams), trained to conduct special operations in any environment, but uniquely specialised and equipped to operate from and in the sea. Together with speedboat-operating Naval Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen, they form the operational arm of the Naval Special Warfare community, the Navy component of the US Special Operations Command. Their special operations include: neutralizing enemy forces; reconnaissance; counter-terrorism (famously in the killing of Osama bin Laden); and training allies. The US Army s Delta Force: The Special Mission Unit, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), known simply as Delta Force, the Army component of Joint Special Operations Command. Its role is counter-terrorism, direct action and national intervention operations, though it has the capability to conduct many different kinds of clandestine missions, including hostage rescues and raids. The US Army Rangers, a light infantry combat formation under the US Army Special Operation Command. The Green Berets motto: to free the oppressed trained in languages, culture, diplomacy, psychological warfare and disinformation. Russia s Spetsnaz, whose crack anti-terrorist commandos ended the Moscow theatre siege, and who have a reputation for being among the world s toughest and most ruthless soldiers. Spetsnaz units saw extensive action in Afghanistan and Chechnya, often operating far behind enemy lines. Israeli Special Forces, especially Shayetet 13 (Flotilla 13), whose motto, in common with the rest of the Israeli military, is Never again , a reference to the Holocaust. They are particularly adept at the specifically Israeli martial art Krav Maga, which they dub Jew-jitsu .

This selection of the very best writing on Everest begins with the first attempts and continues, via Mallory's failed bid and Hillary and Tenzing's triumph, to the disasters of recent years. It features 35 white-knuckle accounts of climbing on the world's highest mountain, with all the tragedy and triumph of humankind's striving for the top of the world, by those who know the 'Death Zone' best - the climbers themselves. But this is much more than just the best of exhilarating first-hand accounts of climbing on Everest. It includes the full history of the conquest of Everest, and provides an evocative portrait of the cruel, natural beauty of Chomolungma, 'The Mother Goddess of the World'.

The First World War in vivid, personal detail, in the voices of those who lived it

By 1969, following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, over 500,000 US troops were in country in Vietnam. Before America s longest war had ended with the fall of Saigon in 1975, 450,000 Vietnamese had died, along with 36,000 Americans. The Vietnam War was the first rock n roll war, the first helicopter war with its doctrine of airmobility , and the first television war; it made napalm and the defoliant Agent Orange infamous, and gave us the New Journalism of Michael Herr and others. It also saw the establishment of the Navy SEALs and Delta Force. At home, America fractured, with the peace movement protesting against the war; at Kent State University, Ohio National Guardsmen fired on unarmed students, killing four and injuring nine. Lewis s compelling selection of the best writing to come out of a war covered by some truly outstanding writers, both journalists and combatants, includes an eyewitness account of the first major battle between the US Army and the People s Army of Vietnam at Ia Drang; a selection of letters home; Nicholas Tomalin s famous The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong ; Robert Mason s R&R , Studs Terkel s account of the police breaking up an anti-war protest; John Kifner on the shootings at Kent State; Ron Kovic s Born on the Fourth of July ; John T. Wheeler s Khe Sanh: Live in the V Ring ; Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh on the massacre at My Lai; Michael Herr s It Made You Feel Omni ; Viet Cong Truong Nhu Tang s memoir; naval nurse Maureen Walsh s memoir, Burning Flesh ; John Pilger on the fall of Saigon; and Tim O Brien s If I Die in a Combat Zone .

The Western, though a singularly American art form, is one of the great genres of world literature with a truly global readership. It is also durable despite being often unfairly maligned. Ever since James Fenimore Cooper transformed frontier yarns into a distinct literary form, the Western has followed two paths: one populist - what Time magazine famously billed 'the American Morality Play' - capable of taking many points of view, from red to redneck, but always populist, with a sentimental attachment to the misfit; the other literary - eschewing heroism, debunking with unsettling candour many of the myths of the West. It can sometimes be difficult to draw a sure line between the two forms, but both are represented in this outstanding collection which includes stories by Rick Bass, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Larry McMurtry, Mari Sandoz, Christopher Tilghman, and Mark Twain, among many others.

A celebration of the machine and the men who took to the skies in defence of Britain. It is also the dramatic illustration of a little understood truth: the Spitfire did more than win the Battle of Britain - it won the war. It was not Stalingrad which turned the corner of the war against Hitler, it was the Spitfire in the summer of 1940 when RAF Fighter Command destroyed the myth of Nazi invincibility.Praise for his previous books:London: The Autobiography:'Fascinating ... brings the story of London to life' Good Book guideThe English Soldier: The Autobiography: 'A triumph' Saul David, author of Victoria's Army'Harrowing, funny and often unbelievable book.' Daily Express'[A] compelling tommy's eye view of war from Agincourt to Iraq' Daily Telegraph

The history of Ancient Rome has been passed down to us through official accounts, personal letters, annotated words of great orators and the considered histories of powerful men. It is found on inscriptions, in private memoirs and official reports from every corner of the Empire. Over 150 pieces are collected in this autobiography of Ancient Rome, from the written accounts of Caesars and slaves, generals and poets on major battles, conspiracy and politics to the minutiae of everyday life and includes amongst them:How to keep a slave, by Cato the Elder; The Life of a Roman Gentleman by Pliny the Younger; Gang Warfare in Rome, by Cicero; a Chariot Fight, by Julius Caesar; Female Athletes and Gladiators, by Juvenal; the Eruption of Vesuivius, by Pliny the Younger; Nero Murders Britannicus, by Tacitus; On Going to bed with Cleopatra, by Mark Antony; Homosexuals in Rome, Juvenal; Alaric the Visogoth Sacks Rome,by Jordanes; The Great Fire of Rome, by Tacitus; Gladitorial Shows, by Seneca; Two Days in the Life of an Emperor's Son, Marcus Aurelius.

No one sees clearer than an individual whose life is hanging by the finger tips on the edge of an abyss. Probing the furthest reaches of human daring and endurance, here are 28 of the great first-hand accounts of extreme mountaineering, from legendary names. Featuring: Heinrich Harrer - first conqueror of the notorious Eigerwand. Robert Bates - the classic account of the ill-fated American 1953 expedition to K2. Maurice Herzog - his unstoppable ascent of Annapurna at the cost of frostbite. Walter Bonatti - tragedy on the Central Pillar of Freney on Mont Blanc. George Leigh Mallory - surviving an avalanche on the 1922 Everest expedition. Ren Desmaison - his epic story of 14 days stuck on The Grandes Jorasses in winter. Jon Krakauer - recalling his solo ascent of The Devil's Thumb in Alaska.The price of the summit is often measured in human suffering, yet for those who succeed the rewards can be incalculable. Nerve-wracking and unputdownable.

From the start of the 20th century to the most recent major offensives, here are fifty accounts of the battles that made the modern world, described in superb detail by historians and writers including John Keegan, Alan Clark, John Strawson, Charles Mey, John Pimlott, and John Laffin.All the major conflicts are covered, from two world wars, through Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Chechnya, to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the battles featured are: the Somme, Passchendaele, Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Omaha Beach, Iwa Jima, Dien Bien Phu, Ia Drang, Hamburger Hill, Desert Storm, Kabul, Baghdad, and Basra.

The Assassination of JFK, 9/11, the Da Vinci Code, The Death of Diana, Men in Black, Pearl Harbor, The Illuminati, Protocols of Zion,Hess, The Bilderberg Group, New World Order, ElvisFluoridization, Martin Luther King's murder, Opus Dei, The Gemstone Files, John Paul I, Dead Sea Scrolls, Lockerbie bombing, Black helicopters... In other words everything 'they' never wanted you to know and were afraid you might ask! Jon E. Lewis explores the 100 most terrifying cover-ups of all time, from the invention of Jesus' divinity (pace the Da Vinci Code) to Bush's and Blair's real agenda in invading Iraq. Entertainingly written and closely documented, the book provides each cover-up with a plausibility rating.Uncover why the Titanic sank, ponder the sinister Vatican/Mafia network that plotted the assassination of liberal John Paul, find out why NASA 'lost' its files on Mars, read why no-one enters Area 51, and consider why medical supplies were already on site at Edgware Road before the 7/7 bombs detonated. Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean that they aren't out to conspire against you.

In 1930, the editor of Everyman Magazine requested entries for a new anthology of Great War accounts. The result was a revolutionary book unlike any other of the period; for as Malcolm Brown notes in his introduction 'I believe it might fairly be described as a rediscovered classic'. It was the very first collection to reveal the many dimensions of the war through the eyes of the ordinary soldier and offers heart-stopping renditions of the very first gas attack; aerial dogfights above the trenches; the moment of going over the top. Told chronologically, from the first scrambles of 1914, the drudgery of the war of attrition once the trenches had been dug, to the final joy of Armistice.

A collection of rare, first-hand accounts that tell the story of D-Day and the subsequent battle.

An unmissable collection of true war stories from first-hand accounts of those on the front line to the master chroniclers such as Ernest Hemingway.

Native Americans make up less than one per cent of the total US population but represent half the nation's languages and cultures. Here, in one grand sweep, is the full story of Native American society, culture and religion. Here is everything from the land-based spirituality of their early creation myths and the late rise of Indian Pride, to the 88 uses to which the Sioux put the flesh and bones of the buffalo and the practice of berdache (men adopted as women). The book offers a chronological history of America's indigenous peoples. It covers their dramatic early entry into North America, out of the now submerged continent of Beringia, then in more recent times the 'forgotten wars' of the 16th and 17th centuries, which wiped many tribes from the face of the East Coast, and finally describes to the last struggles of the Cheyenne and the Comanche. Celebrating these peoples' way of life rather than focusing narrowly on the manner of their genocide, it does not ignore uncomfortable facts of the Amerindian past - including the cannibalism believed to have been practised by some tribes and the Native Americans' part in the decimation of North America's buffalo herds.