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Officers led and men followed; all were expected to do their duty without thought of reward. Enlisted men rarely penetrated the officer ranks and promotion owed more to money than merit. Then came the Crimean War.The incompetence and ineffectiveness of the senior officers contrasted sharply with the bravery of the lower ranks. Fuelled by the reports from the first-ever war correspondents which were read by an increasingly literate public, the mumblings of discontent rapidly grew into a national outcry. Questions were asked in Parliament, answers were demanded by the press why were the heroes of the Alma, Inkerman and the Charge of the Light Brigade not being recognised? Something had be done.That something was the introduction of an award that would be of such prestige it would be sought by all men from the private to the Field Marshal. It would be the highest possible award for valour in the face of the enemy and it bore the name of the Queen for whom the men fought.This is the story of how the first Victoria Crosses were attained in the heat of the most deadly conflict of the nineteenth century. It is also an examination of how the definition of courage, as recognised by the awarding of VCs, evolved, from saving the regimental colours at the Alma to saving a comrade in the No Mans Land before Sevastopol.
“An incisive history of the venture-capital industry.” —New Yorker “An excellent and original economic history of venture capital.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “A detailed, fact-filled account of America’s most celebrated moneymen.” —New Republic “Extremely interesting, readable, and informative...Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to the present multibillion-dollar venture funds.” —Arthur Rock “In principle, venture capital is where the ordinarily conservative, cynical domain of big money touches dreamy, long-shot enterprise. In practice, it has become the distinguishing big-business engine of our time...[A] first-rate history.” —New Yorker VC tells the riveting story of how the venture capital industry arose from America’s longstanding identification with entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Whether the venture is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the latest Silicon Valley startup, VC is a state of mind as much as a way of doing business, exemplified by an appetite for seeking extreme financial rewards, a tolerance for failure and experimentation, and a faith in the promise of innovation to generate new wealth. Tom Nicholas’s authoritative history takes us on a roller coaster of entrepreneurial successes and setbacks. It describes how iconic firms like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia invested in Genentech and Apple even as it tells the larger story of VC’s birth and evolution, revealing along the way why venture capital is such a quintessentially American institution—one that has proven difficult to recreate elsewhere.
What would you do if you were struck by an enemy bullet in wartime, then realized you were still alive? For most of us, that would be the end of our fight. If we were capable of thought while we tried to cope with the pain, we'd probably hope to be rushed to hospital, so that someone could save our lives. But a hundred years ago, in the opening battle of World War I at Mons, two young men didn't react like that. Lieutenant Maurice Dease and Private Sidney Godley, born only weeks apart into sharply contrasting worlds, shared the same defiance. They didn't think of themselves and went back for more, sustaining dreadful wounds in the process. One man died, the other lived—pieced back together painstakingly by the Germans, who had taken so many casualties of their own while overrunning the British position. Together Dease and Godley became the first winners of the Victoria Cross in World War I.
In eBOYS, Randall Stross takes us behind the scenes and inside the heads of the gutsy entrepreneurs who are financing the hottest businesses on the Web. The six tall men who started Benchmark, Silicon Valley's most exciting venture capital firm, put themselves at the cutting edge of the new economy by backing billion dollar start-ups like eBay and Webvan. The risks were enormous--but the rewards have proven to be staggering. Within two years, eBay's net worth grew from $20 million to more than $21 billion, while each Benchmark founding partner saw his own personal net worth soar by hundreds of millions of dollars. For two roller-coaster years, Stross had total access not only to Benchmark's executives but to the companies they financed. He was a fly on the wall as fortunes were made in an instant, snap decisions got locked in, and new ventures took off--and sometimes crashed. Here are the testosterone-pumped conversations, round-the-clock meetings, and gutsy deals that launched the eBoys and their clients into the stratosphere of mega-wealth. Written like a novel but absolutely true, eBOYS brings to vivid life the glory days of the greatest business adventure of our time.
During the opening four months of the First World War no fewer than forty-six soldiers from the British and Commonwealth armies were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry.In a series of biographies, Gerald Gliddon examines the men and the dramatic events that led to the award of this most coveted of medals and explores the post-war experiences of those who survived. These men, ordinary soldiers from widely differing social backgrounds, acted with valour above and beyond the call of duty. Their stories and experiences offer a fresh perspective on the opening stages of the ‘war to end wars’.
Of more than 600 Victoria Crosses awarded to British and Empire servicemen during the First World War, nineteen were awarded to airmen of the newly formed Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. Of these, four were posthumous awards and all but one of the total were to officers. Some of these valorous airmen were from humble backgrounds and with limited education; others were collegiate men from wealthy families. But in the words of one senior officer they all had in common 'the guts of a lion'. Each VS winner's act of bravery is recorded here in intricate detail, along with their backgrounds and their lives after the war.
Of all the costly campaigns fought across the Western Front during the First World War, none strikes a more chilling chord than Passchendaele. Even now, more than ninety years on, the very mention of the name is enough to conjure up apocalyptic images of desolation and misery on a quite bewildering scale – humanity drowning in a sea of mud. Passchendaele has come to serve as a symbol of the folly and futility of war, chiefly remembered for its carnage and profligate waste of human lives. It also stands as testament to the endurance and extraordinary courage displayed by men of all ranks and nationalities. During the 3 1⁄2 month long struggle, which claimed the lives of more than 60,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen, 61 men were adjudged to have performed deeds worthy of the Empire's highest award for valour – the Victoria Cross. Men from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were among their number, alongside men from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They came from all walks of life, counting humble privates and, for the first time, a general among their ranks. This is a lasting memorial to a body of men who deserve to be numbered among the bravest of the brave.
The Battle of the Somme, which lasted from 1 July to 18 November 1916, is remembered as one of the most horrific and tragic battles of the First World War. On the first day alone nearly 19,000 British troops were killed – the greatest one-day loss in the history of the British Army. By November the death toll from the armies of Britain, France and Germany had risen to over a million. This book tells the stories of fifty-one soldiers from the Commonwealth and Empire armies whose bravery on the battlefield was rewarded by the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour – men like Private Billy McFadzean, who was blown up by two grenades which he smothered in order to save the lives of his comrades, and Private 'Todger' Jones, who single-handedly rounded up 102 German soldiers. Not only do we learn of heroic endeavours of these men at the height of battle, but we also read of their lives before 1914, ranging from the backstreets of Glasgow to a country house in Cheshire, and of what life was like after the war for the thirty-three survivors.
The predictions of the war 'being over by Christmas' turned out to be far from the truth. By January 1915 the British Expeditionary Force found themselves trapped in the murderous stalemate of trench warfare. British troops had suffered badly in the early campaigns and by January 1915 were holding some 30 miles of trench. The year 1915 was to witness some of the bloodiest and bitter battles of the Great War, including the first blooding at Neuve Chapelle, the Second Battle of Ypres and the appalling failure of Loos. By the end of the summer almost 50,000 men of Kitchener's Army had been killed. This book tells the story of the 67 VC winners from this period on the Western Front. Each of their stories are different and 20 medals were awarded posthumously. However, they all have one thing in common - acts of extraordinary bravery under fire.
The thirteenth and final volume of the VCs of the First World War series features the lives and careers of forty-six servicemen who won the coveted Victoria Cross in theatres of war – or ' Sideshows', as they became known – beyond the Western Front and Gallipoli. Opening with the stories of four VC winners who took part in the prolonged struggle to drive the German Army out of East Africa, VCs of the First World War: The Sideshows goes on to tell the stories of the two Indian Army winners of the VC defending the North-West Frontier. Finally, it covers the campaigns against the Austro–German forces in Italy; securing the oil wells in Mesopotamia (later Iraq); defending the Suez Canal and attacking the Ottoman Army in Palestine and lastly serving in Salonika in the Balkans. Each VC winner's act of bravery is recorded here in intricate detail, together with the background of the men and their lives after the war – if they survived.