A Distant Mirror
by Barbara W. Tuchman | 
The Worst Hard Time
by Timothy Egan | 
Rubicon
by Tom Holland | 
All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945
by Max Hastings | 
100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof
by J. A. Rogers | 
Dreamers and Deceivers
by Glenn Beck | 
Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea
by Daniel V. Gallery |
History
by Adam Hart-Davis | 
Astoria
by Peter Stark | 
Nature's Metropolis
by William Cronon |
The Gold Hunters
by J. D. Borthwick |
The Search for Modern China
by Jonathan D. Spence | 
The Waning of the Middle Ages
by Johan Huizinga | 
Inside the Victorian Home
by Judith Flanders | 
Congo
by David Van Reybrouck |
The Structures of Everyday Life
by Fernand Braudel | 
Troublemakers
by Leslie Berlin | 
The Rich Don't Always Win
by Sam Pizzigati | 
Bird Woman
by J. W. Schultz | 
Defeat in the West
by Milton Shulman |
The year 1879 marked the beginning of one of the longest, bloodiest conflicts of nineteenth-century Latin America. The War of the Pacific pitted Peru and Bolivia against Chile in a struggle initiated over a festering border dispute. The conflict saw Chile's and Peru's armored warships vying for control of sea lanes and included one of the first examples of the use of naval torpedoes. On land, large armies using the most modern weapons--breech-loading rifles, Gatling guns, and steel-barreled artillery--clashed in battles that left thousands of men dead on the battlefields. Eventually, the warring parties revamped their respective military establishments, creating much needed, civilian-supported supply, transportation, and medical units. Chile ultimately prevailed. Bolivia lost its seacoast along with valuable nitrate and copper deposits to Chile, and Peru was forced to cede mineral rich Tarapaca and the province of Arica to the victor. Employing the primary and secondary sources of the countries involved, William F. Sater offers the definitive analysis of the conflict's naval and military campaigns. Andean Tragedy not only places the war in a crucial international context, but also explains why this devastating conflict resulted in a Chilean victory.