Born in July 1821, Danield Harvey Hill grew up in “genteel poverty” on a large plantation in York District, South Carolina. He entered West Point and graduated in the middle of the renowned Class of 1842. Following garrison duty as a junior lieutenant with the First and Third Artilleries, Hill joined the Fourth Artillery at Fortress Monroe in January 1846. Six months later he was en route to Mexico. Published here for the first time, Hill’s diary vividly recounts the Mexican War experiences of this proud young officer.

Beyond Forgetting is a unique collection of poetry and short prose about Alzheimer’s disease written by 100 contemporary writers—doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, daughters, sons, wives, and husbands—whose lives have been touched by the disease. Through the transformative power of poetry, their words enable the reader to move “beyond forgetting,” beyond the stereotypical portrayal of Alzheimer’s disease to honor and affirm the dignity of those afflicted. With a moving foreword by poet Tess Gallagher, this anthology forms a richly textured literary portrait encompassing the full range of the experience of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.

The U.S. Company of Sappers, Miners, and Pontooniers, which Congress authorized on May 13, 1846, quickly became one of the army’s elite units. During the Mexico City campaign, Company ‘A’ played a significant role in scouting, building fortifications, and setting artillery batteries. Gustavus Woodson Smith, the unit commander and author of the text, describes the training and discipline of the enlisted soldiers. His commentary also provides interesting insights into the early careers of future Civil War generals – Lee, Beauregard, Pemberton, and McClellan. The narrative is also a striking testament to the impact of West Point-trained officers on the course of the war and to the effectiveness of Winfield Scott’s army.

Howe’s autobiographical record was originally published in 1925. Out of print for some time, this book is now available in a paperback reprint, offering a new introduction by James F. Richardson, professor of history and urban studies at the University of Akron. Richardson’s helpful analysis covers Howe’s distinguished career in public life and evaluates his contributions to early twentieth-century America.

The history of African American entrepreneurship has produced a number of studies of economic development on the national level, but very few have examined this growth at the local level. Confronting the Odds was written to bridge that gap, and Bessie House-Soremekun provides this historical analysis of African American entrepreneurship in Cleveland, Ohio, from the early 1800s to the present. Additionally, in examining these historical and current trends, House-Soremekun presents brief biographies of several successful entrepreneurs, among them George C. Fraser, best-selling author; Robert P. Madison, internationally acclaimed architect; Leroy Ozanne, founder of Ozanne Construction Company; and Rachel Y. Daniel, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Synergy International Limited, Inc. and Decision Point Marketing and Research, Inc.

Historical patterns suggest that democratic governments, which often fight wars against authoritarian regimes, maintain peaceful relationships with other governments that uphold political freedoms and empower their civil societies—a concept known as “democratic peace.” Democratic Peace in Theory and Practice is a timely collection of essays by leading scholars that examines how democracies maintain relationships and how democracies are spread throughout the world.

Guerrilla Daughter is a memoir of this family’s extraordinary struggle to survive the Japanese occupation of Mindanao from the spring of 1942 until the end of the war in September 1945. The men in the family fought as guerrilla soldiers in the island’s resistance movement, while Holmes, her mother, and her older sister were left to their own resources to evade the Japanese, who had been given orders to execute Americans. The Hansen women, faced with immediate death if found and suffering from hunger, disease, and barely tolerable living conditions, hid out in the Philippine jungle and remote villages to remain just ahead of the growing Japanese presence and avoid capture.

Author Douglas R. Hoffman explores sacredness in houses of worship and examines the critical question of what architectural elements contribute to make sacred space. His underlying premise is that sacred space, while ephemeral, can be perceived and understood through a careful investigation of its architecture. After laying out the definition and architectural attributes of sacred space, Hoffman examines four contemporary American examples: the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Adath Jeshurun Synagogue in Minnetonka, Minnesota, the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, and Riverbend Church in Austin, Texas.

The 1952 court-martial of Major General Robert W. Grow, senior U.S. military attaché in Moscow during the Korean War era, involved a general officer who had used questionable judgment in securing a personal diary that contained impolitic statements portions of which had been photocopies by an alleged Soviet agent in Frankfurt, West Germany. This era of Cold War tensions and McCarthyism, Western media sensationalism, and communist propaganda created a cause célèbre and influenced the Army Staff in the Pentagon, led by Lieutenant General Maxwell D. Taylor, to exercise controversial command influence under the aegis of the new Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Selected Works of Elinor Wylie contains 113 of the 161 poems Wylie chose for the volumes published in her lifetime and 100 more that appeared in Collected Poems and in Last Poems. Also included are the first chapters of each of her novels, Jennifer Lorn, The Venetian Glass Nephew, The Orphan Angel, and Mr. Hodge and Mr. Hazard. Editor and scholar Evelyn Hively chose short stories, essays, reviews, and articles to further define Wylie’s rich and broad repertoire and her place on the 1920s literary scene. Scholars and researchers of this modern woman writer and her contemporaries will find this a welcome addition to women’s literary studies.