The Best Second Italo-Ethiopian War Books of All Time

It was the war that changed everything, and yet it’s been mostly forgotten: in 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. It dominated newspaper headlines and newsreels. It inspired mass marches in Harlem, a play on Broadway, and independence movements in Africa. As the British Navy sailed into the Mediterranean for a white-knuckle showdown with Italian ships, riots broke out in major cities all over the United States. Italian planes dropped poison gas on Ethiopian troops, bombed Red Cross hospitals, and committed atrocities that were never deemed worthy of a war crimes tribunal.

But unlike the many other depressing tales of Africa that crowd book shelves, this is a gripping thriller, a rousing tale of real-life heroism in which the Ethiopians come back from near destruction and win. Tunnelling through archive records, tracking down survivors still alive today, and uncovering never-before-seen photos, Jeff Pearce recreates a remarkable era and reveals astonishing new findings. He shows how the British Foreign Office abandoned the Ethiopians to their fate, while Franklin Roosevelt had an ambitious peace plan that could have changed the course of world history—had Chamberlain not blocked him with his policy on Ethiopia. And Pearce shows how modern propaganda techniques, the post-war African world, and modern peace movements all were influenced by this crucial conflict—a war in Africa that truly changed the world. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The Italians were defeated at Adwa in 1898. But by 1935, they were playing for keeps. Learn more about the devastating Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Although the Ethiopians had beaten the Italians at their own game in the 1898 Battle of Adwa, when Italian armored divisions began pouring out of Italian-controlled Eritrea in 1935, the situation seemed almost impossible to overcome. This was not 1898 when the Italians were ill-equipped and ill-advised in their undertakings. The Italians had made sure they were guaranteed the upper hand. They had the best tanks and the best aircraft they could get their hands on.

The Ethiopians had no tanks and only a handful of old planes. Their arms were also hopelessly outdated. They were not much better than the weaponry they had used back in 1898. The Italians were determined to win this time around, and few thought the Ethiopians had much of a chance. Although Ethiopian armaments left much to be desired, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailie Selassie placed much of his hope in an international body known as the League of Nations. He ultimately had to flee his country when the Italians poured in. Selassie would continue to harangue the League of Nations from exile. But what happened after this? And what exactly happened during the invasion itself? This book aims to explore just that. Explore why the Italians wanted Ethiopia to begin with, and discover the story of Ethiopians who were willing to fight and die for the freedom of their country. In this book, you will learn all about the following:. The geopolitical background before the invasionHow the invasion was planned and what it entailedThe international role played by the League of NationsThe major battles fought during the Second Italo-Ethiopian WarThe exile of Haile Selassie and how he continued to take a stand in exileThe Italian occupation of EthiopiaThe atrocities the Italians committedWhat happened to EthiopiaAnd much more!

How did a black child, growing up in segregationist Mississippi during the early 1900s, become the commander of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Corps during the brutal Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935? In this gripping, never-before-told tale, biographer Thoma.