John Parker

The Royal Marines were originally formed under the auspices of the Royal Navy to guard its sailing ships from harm. They are proud of their history and origins but the Navy heritage is fading. John Parker charts how the units have moved away from their nautical beginnings to develop, over time, into the most versatile force in the British military, containing one of their most elite brigades. The Royal Marines Commandos have, over the past few years, developed into the premier fighting organisation on land, sea and air. This history deals with events associated with the Royal Marines and subsequently in their commando role, starring in all major conflicts including Italy, Malaysia, the Borneo confrontation with Indonesia, and more recently Afghanistan.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. Key themes in current thinking about Africa's history are illustrated with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Black Watch is one of the finest fighting forces in the world and has been engaged in virtually every worldwide conflict for the last three centuries. Named after the dark tartan of the soldiers' kilts, it is the oldest Highland regiment. As part of the British army, their first battle abroad was in Flanders in 1745 but the regiment soon moved to North America to fight the French, and then shared the capture of Montreal, the Windward Islands and Martinique. The American War of Independence saw the regiment once again in America, fighting horrific battles and eventually storming Fort Washington in 1776. Since then the regiment has held its own from the Napoleonic Wars to the Indian mutiny to Iraq. The Black Watch is the UK's most decorated regiment, combining the proud history and tradition of an organisation that has been soldiering for over 250 years.

For many Africanist historians, traditional religion is simply a starting point for measuring the historic impact of Christianity and Islam. In Tongnaab, Jean Allman and John Parker challenge the distinction between tradition and modernity by tracing the movement and mutation of the powerful Talensi god and ancestor shrine, Tongnaab, from the savanna of northern Ghana through the forests and coastal plains of the south. Using a wide range of written, oral, and iconographic sources, Allman and Parker uncover the historical dynamics of cross-cultural religious belief and practice. They reveal how Tongnaab has been intertwined with many themes and events in West African history—the slave trade, colonial conquest and rule, capitalist agriculture and mining, labor migration, shifting ethnicities, the production of ethnographic knowledge, and the political projects that brought about the modern nation state. This rich and original book shows that indigenous religion has been at the center of dramatic social and economic changes stretching from the slave trade to the tourist trade.

Their ferocity is as legendary as their loyalty to the British Monarch and their regimental histories are crammed with actsof incredible bravery and sacrifice. The Gurkhas' particular reputation as fearsome fighting men remains undisputed and the mere threat of their kukri knives has put fear into the hearts of opposing forces throughout the world. The Gurkhas have been on the British frontlines since 1815 and these small but extraordinarily tough fighters have demonstrated their courage ever since, in battles ranging from the Indian Mutiny through Afghanistan to Kosovo. John Parker has fully updated his bestselling book to include the Gurkhas' recent operations in Africa and to celebrate their successful campaigning for British citizenship. His book is a fascinating testimony to a fighting force that standsdramatically apart in British military history.

In the recent war in Iraq, the 7th Armoured Brigade, bearers of the Desert Rats insignia, was immediately engaged in some of the fiercest early fighting, ultimately taking Basra for the Allies. The war in Iraq revived public focus on the Desert Rats whose famous battles of World War II helped turn the tide of German dominance. After World War II the Desert Rats re-emerged as part of the NATO forces during the Cold War years, and in other major deployments in the 1991 Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo. In this latest of his military histories, John Parker once again draws heavily on the drama of first-hand accounts for a story that is a seminal part of modern military history.

An account of John Parker's personal investigation into the secretive SBS.

The Royal Navy at the start of the twenty-first century had undergone the most remarkable transformation. The Fleet is today the smallest since the start of the Napoleonic wars as surface vessels are no longer viable as a principal line of defence. That preserve is now in the hands of Britain's nuclear-armed submarine fleet, well chronicled in THE SILENT SERVICE and the Air Force, as outlined in STRIKE COMMAND. This book will complete the triangle of our essential military might, telling the story of today's sea-going ultra-mobile, rapid reaction, missile- and aircraft-carrying task force. John Parker includes personal interviews from the men and women who have served in the Senior Service to bring his story vividly to life.

The two key components of air warfare conducted by the Royal Air Force virtually for the whole of the last century were the fighters and the bombers. By the 1960s these two roles had evolved into a single force known in the RAF by its current title, Strike Command. Colloquially, their pilots were known as Top Guns. Full of personal tales of airborne derring-do in just about every conflict in which Britain has been engaged, this is the latest in John Parker's excellent series of elite fighting units.

Through World War II, the Falklands conflict and the sinking of Belgrano, to present-day machines, the Royal Navy Submarine Service has played a large part in British defence. This personality-led investigation includes diaries from the early 20th century and first-person testemonies.

The story of the Mafia hunters and the gangsters they fight. Told with the help and co-operation of Judge Liliana Ferraro, the truth is revealed about the Mafia today and the battle fought against this cynical, ruthless group of criminals.

A growing concern of mine has been the unrealistic expectations for new computer-related technologies introduced into all kinds of organizations. Unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment, and a schizophrenic approach to the introduction of new technologies. The UNIX and real-time UNIX operating system technologies are major examples of emerging technologies with great potential benefits but unrealistic expectations. Users want to use UNIX as a common operating system throughout large segments of their organizations. A common operating system would decrease software costs by helping to provide portability and interoperability between computer systems in today's multivendor environments. Users would be able to more easily purchase new equipment and technologies and cost-effectively reuse their applications. And they could more easily connect heterogeneous equipment in different departments without having to constantly write and rewrite interfaces. On the other hand, many users in various organizations do not understand the ramifications of general-purpose versus real-time UNIX. Users tend to think of "real-time" as a way to handle exotic heart-monitoring or robotics systems. Then these users use UNIX for transaction processing and office applications and complain about its performance, robustness, and reliability. Unfortunately, the users don't realize that real-time capabilities added to UNIX can provide better performance, robustness and reliability for these non-real-time applications. Many other vendors and users do realize this, however. There are indications even now that general-purpose UNIX will go away as a separate entity. It will be replaced by a real-time UNIX. General-purpose UNIX will exist only as a subset of real-time UNIX.

With increased public attention focused on the environment and government legislation on competition, landscape managers are coming under increasing pressure to adopt a more disciplined analytical approach to their work. Landscape Management and Maintenance will help you to set objectives for the use of your land, your manpower and your resources. The authors draw on their wide experience of different types of landscape management to give you clear examples of the methods and alternatives. At each stage they emphasise how to make cost effective choices, and achieve the best value for money.