Lt. William Frederick “Bill” Harris was an officer with the China Marine, the elite 4th Marine Regiment stationed in Shanghai, China, prior to World War II to protect American citizens. In the summer of 1941, with war clouds gathering, Harris and the 4th Marine were withdrawn from China to the presumably safer Philippines. “Valor: The…

In 21st-century modernity, air conditioning, antiseptics, and ultrasound are commonplace. Yet the three were hardly dreamed of in the late 19th century. Proving that necessity is the mother of invention, scientists and inventors worked round the clock for 80 days to provide both comfort and lifesaving measures for the suffering, newly elected president, shot by…

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” penned Oscar Wilde in an 1889 essay, “The Decay of Lying.” Yet “The Gettysburg Cyclorama: The Turning Point of the Civil War on Canvas” is one exception. The book’s writers, Chris Brenneman and Sue Boardman, who have worked as licensed guides at the Gettysburg National Military…