The fight for the Italian peninsula presented deep dilemmas to both the Allied and Axis powers. Was the Allies' campaign to liberate Italy worth the enormous loss of manpower and materiel and the devastation of the country? Could the Germans afford the diversion of resources from the Russian front for Italy's defense?
In "Sideshow War: The Italian Campaign, 1943-1945, " George F. Botjer examines the economic, political, and cultural factors that influenced the unfolding of this campaign and also provides new, unpublished documentation highlighting Axis defensive operations in Sicily,...

The Morse telegraph launched the electronic telecommunications industry and reduced the travel time of information from days, weeks and months to seconds and minutes. It was one of the most important breakthrough inventions of all time. George F. Botjer's examination of the creator of the telegraph is based on previously unpublished archival sources. It considers Samuel F. B. Morse, the creator of the first telegraph, and the ways in which place and time had an effect on the launch of his invention and his resulting fame, and how the invention affected the inventor himself.