Central Kansas Library System

Follows the development of roads in the United States--and the new forms of transportation that used them--from the National Highway of 1805 through railroads and paved roads for bicycles and automobiles to the interstate system--

"This little-known WWII story introduces a renegade pilot whose personal mission to rescue his family from a POW camp changed modern air warfare forever. December 1941: Manila is invaded, and US citizen and Philippine Airlines manager, Pappy Gunn, is ordered to fly key military command out of the country, leaving his family at home. So Gunn was miles away when the Japanese captured his wife and children, placing them in an internment camp where they...

"What would life be like without cars, refrigerators, the Internet, or the omnipresent smartphone? Learn about the discovery of the most important inventions that have influenced the contemporary world, from the end of the nineteenth century to our own time. They include innovations in technology, such as alternating current, plastic, and the robot; communications (cameras, radio, cinema); medicine, from aspirin and penicillin to x-rays and the pacemaker;...

Explore some of history's most significant tanks, including Britain's Little Willy prototype and the Soviet T-34, credited as WWII's most effective and influential design. Discover how tanks evolved as the nature of war changed, and learn all about each tank's key design elements, including its firepower, protection, and mobility. Fascinating cross-sections and close-up photographs reveal the innermost workings of each tank, while the text and helpful...

"In this fascinating foray into the centuries-old relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. "The overlap is strong, and the knowledge flows in both directions," say the authors, because astrophysicists and military planners care about many of the same things: multi-spectral...