Are You Ready For Some Football?!

 

In recognition of the beginning of A&M’s journey into the SEC, TAMU Press would like to celebrate one of the best Aggie football players to ever come through our university, Dat Nguyen, with a discount price on his book Dat:Tackling Life and the NFL. As some know, Nguyen was the first player of Vietnamese descent ever to play in the NFL. However, his outstanding performance began long before that time.

Nguyen was born in a refugee camp in Arkansas after his family narrowly escaped the North Vietnamese Army. Nguyen began his football career at Rockport-Fulton High School in Rockport, TX, where he had lived most of his childhood. In high school Dat played middle linebacker and handled punting duties where he earned All-State honors as a punter. Toward the end of Nguyen's high school career, he received scholarship offers from six different colleges, including Texas A&M University.

While at A&M, Nguyen battled the opinion that he was too small to play linebacker. However, after ending his career at A&M with a record 517 tackles, he is still the only Aggie to ever lead the school in tackles for four consecutive years. To this day, it is extensively believed that Nguyen was the undeniable on-field leader of the famous "Wrecking Crew" defense in the 1990s.

During his career at A&M, Nguyen also received many awards including Southwest Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year, first-team All-Big 12 honors three consecutive times, MVP, Bednarik Award, Lombardi Award, Jack Lambert Award, as well as many others.

Nguyen began his professional career in 1999 with the Dallas Cowboys. During his time there he led the team in special-teams stops as a rookie and became Dallas' starting middle linebacker in his second season. In 2001, he completed his first full season as a starting NFL middle linebacker with a record 112 tackles. In 2003, with Nguyen leading the team in tackles, he was selected second-team All-Pro by the Associated Press.

Nguyen officially retired from the NFL on March 3, 2006 after a neck injury that failed to improve. As of November 2010, Nguyen currently ranks 10th all-time in Cowboys recorded history for career total tackles. In 2007, Dat was hired by the Dallas Cowboys as the assistant linebackers coach and defensive quality control coach.

However, his journey with A&M did not end after he graduated nor after retiring from the NFL. In 2004, Nguyen was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall Of Fame. In 2005 he was named to the Big 12 Conference's 10th Anniversary Team and in 2010, he was voted on to the AP All-Time Big 12 Team. In 2007, Nguyen was also inducted into the AT&T Cotton Bowl Hall Of Fame. He is considered the best defensive player in Texas A&M football history and one of the greatest defensive players of all-time in the history of the Big 12 Conference. In 2010, after leaving the Cowboys, Nguyen rejoined his alma mater, this time as an inside linebackers coach.

In his first year, the Aggies ended the regular season with wins over Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas and Texas Tech. This marked the first time in school history that A&M had beaten all four of those teams in a single season. This feat helped lead to the resurgence of the Texas A&M "The Wrecking Crew."

Nguyen also helped fortify Von Miller's status in Texas A&M history by coaching him, eventually leading to Miller being awarded the 2010 Butkus Award, an achievement Nguyen never achieved.

For a more in-depth look into Dat’s struggles and triumphs and to help celebrate A&M’s move to the SEC, purchase a discounted copy of Dat Nguyen’s book, Dat: Tackling Life and the NFL using the code 25off when ordering online or by phone.

--Paige Bukowski

Texas A&M University Press to Extend 30% Conference Discount in Light of APSA Meeting Cancellation

About this time today, Texas A&M University Press would have been showcasing its best political science titles at a  special discount for APSA meeting attendees. Instead, Hurricane Isaac rages in Louisiana, on the anniversary of deadly Hurricane Katrina, no less.

Tuesday evening the American Political Science Association council made the decision to cancel this year’s APSA annual meeting in New Orleans.

Our Press would love to be in New Orleans exhibiting books, but we support APSA's decision to cancel.

Since we won't be there to show off this great collection in our booth, we've decided to extend our 30% conference discount through the month of September online. Access the order form for books we would have exhibited there, as well.

Or browse SUBJECT CATALOGS for POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONS and PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES here.
You can also search by series listings: Presidential Rhetoric and Political Communication, Landmark Speeches, and Library of Presidential Rhetoric.
Please use code 3BAPSA upon checkout on the Web site. Or call 800-826-8911 to order using the code.

Analysis of Presidential Term Limits Receives APSA Nod

While you are reviewing the list, be sure to also check out Presidential Term Limits in American History: Power, Principles, and Politics, by Michael J. Korzi. The author was slated to accept the prestigious Richard E. Neustadt Award at the APSA conference.

In Presidential Term Limits in American History, Korzi recounts the history of the two-term tradition, as well as the “perfect storm” that enabled Roosevelt to break with that tradition. Korzi’s analysis of Roosevelt’s pursuit of a fourth term offers a strong challege to biographers who have generally whitewashed this aspect of his presidency and decision making. His extended consideration of the selfom-studied 22nd Amendment and its passage reveals vindictive and political motivations and a sincere distrust of executive power that dates back to colonial America.

If you would like your copy of Presidential Term Limits in American History signed by the author, email Caitlin.Churchill@tamu.edu.

This Week In History

August 29, 1922 – The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.

August 30, 1836 – The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.

August 31, 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.

September 1, 1532 – Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.

September 2, 44 BC – Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.

September 3, 1838 – Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery.

September 4, 1951 – The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, California, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.

Conflict in a Socially Networked World

How important is social networking in affecting international warfare? According to author and analyst James Jay Carafano, it is vital. Never before has the world been as easily interconnected as it is now; with facebook, twitter, email, online newspapers and blogs, and mass internet search engines such as google and bing, information can travel faster and easier than it ever has done before. While there are many plus sides to instant communication, there are also other issues that have raised concern—such as an individual’s privacy or a nation’s security and safety.

In 2011, the Egyptian government sought in vain to shut down the Internet-based social networks of its people, when it started being used as part of the uprising against their president Hosni Mubarak. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange has been branded “public enemy number one” by some in the United States for posting material on the World Wide Web that concerns airstrikes in Iraq, US diplomatic communications, and other sensitive matters.

Carafano, deputy director of the Heritage Foundation’s international studies institute and director of its Center for Foreign Policy Studies, examines these and other internet-born initiatives and their future effect on war, diplomacy, and domestic politics in his book Wiki at War: Conflict in a Socially Networked World. The book is written in a lively and understandable style that is engaging for readers of all types. Carafano argues that old wisdom can still apply to the newly evolving online world of media and to protecting national security.

There is no doubt that the new age of internet has widespread and revolutionary impacts on the world’s communication, security, and politics. Become more informed and read more about it in Carafano’s book!

Medal of Honor Recognition for Bravery in War Turns 150

In 1862, Congress established the Army Medal of Honor -- recognition now bestowed by the President or a designated representative to a member of the Army who distinguishes himself conspicuously "by gallantry and intrepidity" in battle with an enemy "at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty."

Below, Historian Stephen Ochs, author of A Cause Greater Than Self: The Journey of Captain Michael J. Daly, World War II Medal of Honor Recipient, reflects on the medal's sequicentennial, the "greatest generation," and Michael J. Daly, the privileged, hell-raising youth turned war hero and Medal of Honor recipient who is the subject of his forthcoming book.

World War II, the so-called “good war,” continues to fascinate the public even as the “greatest generation” fades from the scene before our very eyes. Certainly, the torrent of books, articles, films, museum exhibits, conferences, and oral history projects over the last 25 years has added immensely to our understanding of America’s armed forces during that titanic struggle.

The Army History and Education Center proudly proclaims as its goal, “Telling the Army’s Story . . . One Soldier at a Time.” A Cause Greater Than Self attempts to do just that by recounting the story of Medal of Honor recipient Michael J. Daly, one of the bravest of the so-called “greatest generation.”

In doing so, it attempts to explore in the case of one man the questions that many of us have about the members of that storied fraternity who have received the Medal of Honor – those men and one woman whose actions seem to define bravery: What factors shaped them? What motivated them? What was the nature of their courage? What happened to them after their feats of heroism?  What, if anything, did they share in common? What do their stories teach us?

The book also uses the prism of Daly’s experiences on the platoon and company level, where battles were fought and won, to highlight key aspects of the war in Western Europe, especially the challenges faced by American troops not only in the well-known battles such as Omaha Beach, but also lesser known and often ignored campaigns in the Colmar Pocket in Eastern France and in central and southern Germany. In the closing months of the war, a defeated yet still dogged and resourceful foe tried to exact as much Allied blood as possible. Men such as Daly helped make possible the final destruction of the Third Reich.

The Medal of Honor that Daly received from Truman’s hands on a rainy summer day over 60 years ago originated in an act of Congress passed on July 12, 1862, during the Civil War. This year thus marks the sesquicentennial of the Army Medal of Honor. (A Navy Medal of Honor had been established in 1861.)

Because the medal was bestowed in the name of Congress, it has often been referred to as the “Congressional Medal of Honor,” but its correct name is the Medal of Honor. On July 9, 1918, Congress amended the law in order to clarify the criteria for the honor. It stipulated that the President or his designated representative bestow the Medal in the name of Congress upon a member of the Army – enlisted or officer -- who distinguished himself conspicuously “by gallantry and intrepidity” in battle with an enemy “at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”

Indeed, a member of the Army could not receive the Medal of Honor for simply acting under orders, no matter how bravely he executed them. The deed also had to be such that had the soldier not performed it, he could not later have been justifiably criticized for failing to act. To distinguish between “gallantry above and beyond the call of duty,” and estimable, but lesser forms of bravery, Congress also established a new “pyramid of Honor” providing for The Distinguished Service Cross, The Distinguished Service Medal, and The Silver Star. Congress authorized their presentation by the President, but not in the name of Congress.

The Army established rules and procedures for determining whether a soldier should receive the Medal of Honor. One of them required two eyewitnesses of the deed; another that a recommendation for the Medal had to be made within two years of the date of the deed, and a third, that the award of the Medal had to be conferred within three years of the deed. Normally, a man was nominated by his immediate commander, and then the nomination proceeded for review up through the service man’s chain of command. The review process included a Decorations Board that could recommend the Medal of Honor, a lesser decoration, or no award at all. The Army Chief of Staff, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of War, and finally the President all had to sign off on the award.

During World War II, out of approximately 14 million who served in the armed forces of the United States, 464 men received the Medal of Honor, over half of them posthumously.

The recipients of the Medal of Honor constitute one of the most illustrious fraternities of warriors in the world.  Michael J. Daly belonged to that select and very diverse company. Bur Daly’s heroics at Nuremburg were not a flash-in-the-pan occurrence. Rather, they were the culmination of eleven months of consistently brave actions in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). During that time, Daly, who had entered the Army as an eighteen year-old enlisted man, earned an officer’s commission and advanced to the rank of captain commanding an infantry company.  Prior to receiving the Medal of Honor and his second Purple Heart, he had received three Silver Stars for gallantry in combat, and a Bronze Star with an attached combat V device for valor. All of this happened within two years of his being dismissed from Portsmouth Priory School in 1942, and from the United States Military Academy in 1943.

This last aspect is one that my students find very appealing about the story. [Every year, as part of our unit on World War II, they do a case study of Michael Daly.] Mike Daly struggled with discipline while at Georgetown Prep, Portsmouth Abbey, and the United States Military Academy. As a teen, he “messed-up a lot.” Yet, in the cauldron of war, he found a cause greater than himself. He became a “rescuer,” a man “for others,” who repeatedly and selflessly risked his own life so that his men might live.

Stephen J. Ochs is an instructor in the history department at Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, where he holds the Lawler Chair of History and has taught since 1977. He is the author of two previous books.

This Week In History

August 22, 565 – St. Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.

August 23, 1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.

 

August 24, 79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash. 

 

August 25, 1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. 

 

August 26, 1920 – The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.

 

August 27, 2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.

 

August 28, 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most the British Empire.

Happy 100th Birthday Anniversary Julia Child!

Perhaps one of the most influential, talented, and spirited American chefs of this era, Julia Child was one gifted woman. She is most recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public, through both her cooking show The French Chef, which premiered in 1963, and her cooking book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Child was born in Pasadena, California, the eldest of three children in 1912. She attended Smith College and earned a degree in English. At six feet, two inches, Child played a lot of sports growing up, and during World War II joined the Office of Strategic Services after finding out she was too tall to enlist in the Women’s Army Corps or in the U.S. Navy’s WAVES. While serving in the OSS, Child met her husband and eventually moved to Paris together when he was stationed there as part of serving in the U.S. Foreign Service. It was there, in France, Julia found her love for French cooking.

Although Child died in 2004, August 15 would have been her 100^th birthday. In honor of Julia, restaurants across America are doing tribute menus and there will be The French Chef marathons on WHRO Create, as well as social media challenges to re-create a favorite Julia dish.

Thanks Julia, for all your contributions to the culinary world!