New Books in Military History

Xabier Irujo and Queralt Solé, "Nazi Juggernaut in the Basque Country and Catalonia" (Center for Basque Studies, 2019)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Xabier Irujo about his book (co-authored with Queralt Solé) Nazi Juggernaut in the Basque Country and Catalonia (Center for Bas...

Stephen Bourne, "Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45" (The History Press, 2020)

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during ...

Jennifer Mittelstadt and Mark R. Wilson, "The Military and the Market" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout its history, the U.S. military has worked in close connection to market-based institutions and structures. It has run systems of free and u...

Eli Gumener, "A Ukrainian Chapter: A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir Of Sorrow" (Slavica, 2022)

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Michael Eli Nutkiewicz about his translation A Ukrainian Chapter: A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir Of Sorrow (Slavica, 2022).  Eli...

John Spencer and Liam Collins, "Understanding Urban Warfare" ((Howgate Publishing Limited, 2022)

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the growing urbanization of the world's population, it also follows that much of contemporary military operations would also be conducted within ...

Michael A. Verney, "A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic (University of Chicago Press, 2022) by Dr. Michael A. Verney ...

Steve Kemper, "Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor" (Mariner Books, 2022)

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen...

Michael A. Hunzeker, "Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front" (Cornell UP, 2021)

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front (Cornell UP, 2021), Michael Hunzeker develops a novel theory to explain how wartime milita...

Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn, "Genocide: The Power and Problems of a Concept" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the 1980s the study of genocide has exploded, both historically and geographically, to encompass earlier epochs, other continents, and new cases...

Abiodun Alao, "Rage and Carnage in the Name of God: Religious Violence in Nigeria" (Duke UP, 2022)

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Rage and Carnage in the Name of God (Duke University Press, 2022), Dr. Abiodun Alao examines the emergence of a culture of religious violence in ...

Stephen G. Rabe, "The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy: A Story of Resistance, Courage, and Solidarity in a French Village" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The fateful days and weeks surrounding 6 June 1944 have been extensively documented in histories of the Second World War, but less attention has been ...

On Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War"

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sometime around 450 BC in ancient Greece, a young Thucydides went with his father to hear the historian Herodotus speak. After the lecture, Thucydides...

Sarah E. Wagner, "What Remains: Bringing America's Missing Home from the Vietnam War" (Harvard UP, 2019)

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For many families the Vietnam War remains unsettled. Nearly 1,600 Americans— and more than 300,000 Vietnamese—involved in the conflict are still u...

William Doyle, "Napoleon at Peace: How to End a Revolution" (Reaktion Books, 2022)

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The French Revolution facilitated the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, but after gaining power he knew that his first task was to end it. In this book Will...

Jianglin Li, "When the Iron Bird Flies: China's Secret War in Tibet" (Stanford UP, 2022)

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In When the Iron Bird Flies: China's Secret War in Tibet (Stanford University Press, 2022), Jianglin Li presents an untold story that reshapes our u...

Holger Afflerbach, "On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War (Cambridge UP, 2022), Holger Afflerbach argues that the outcome of the war was actually in...

Richard Overy, "Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945" (Viking, 2022)

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 (Viking, 2022) to recast the way in which we view the Second World War a...

Daniel Scarborough, "Russia's Social Gospel: The Orthodox Pastoral Movement in Famine, War, and Revolution" (U Wisconsin Press, 2022)

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The late Russian Empire experienced rapid economic change, social dislocation, and multiple humanitarian crises, enduring two wars, two famines, and t...

Bree Akesson and Andrew R. Basso, "From Bureaucracy to Bullets: Extreme Domicide and the Right to Home" (Rutgers UP, 2022)

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are currently a record-setting number of forcibly displaced persons in the world. This number continues to rise as solutions to alleviate humani...

Andrew Fitzmaurice, "King Leopold's Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century" (Princeton UP, 2021)

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (1809–1897) was a model establishment figure in Victorian ...

Jonathan Brunstedt, "The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR (Cambridge UP, 2021), Jonathan Brunstedt examines how Sovi...

Clayton J. Butler, "True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South during the Civil War and Reconstruction" (LSU Press, 2022)

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During the American Civil War, thousands of citizens in the Deep South remained loyal to the United States. Though often overlooked, this small number...

Matthew Delmont, "Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad" (Viking, 2022)

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Matthew Delmont about his new book Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (V...

A. Carly Buxton, "Un-Thinking Collaboration: American Nisei in Transwar Japan" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I will be talking to Carly Buxton about her book Unthinking collaboration: American Nisei in transwar Japan, which came out this year [2022] wi...

Robert Hutchinson, "After Nuremberg: American Clemency for Nazi War Criminals" (Yale UP, 2022)

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Hutchinson's After Nuremberg: American Clemency for Nazi War Criminals (Yale UP, 2022) is about the fleeting nature of American punishment fo...

Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis, "Bio-Imperialism: Disease, Terror, and the Construction of National Fragility" (Rutgers UP, 2020)

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis's book Bio-Imperialism: Disease, Terror, and the Construction of National Fragility (Rutgers UP, 2020) focuses on an unders...

Eric Jay Dolin, "Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution" (Liveright, 2022)

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary Wa...

Orli Fridman, "Memory Activism and Digital Practices After Conflict: Unwanted Memories" (Amsterdam UP, 2022)

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Memory Activism and Digital Practices after Conflict: Unwanted Memories (Amsterdam UP, 2022), Orli Fridman traces the emergence of memory acti...

Jeffers Lennox, "North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution" (Yale UP, 2022)

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The story of the Thirteen Colonies’ struggle for independence from Britain is well known to every American schoolchild. But at the start of the Revo...

The Future of Cold War: A Discussion with Sergey Radchenko

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are we in a new cold war? And if so, is the US up against China or Russia? Join Owen Bennett Jones for a discussion with Sergey Radchenko, the Wilson ...

On Carl von Clausewitz's "On War"

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carl von Clausewitz wrote On War in 1832 after experiencing the Napoleonic wars. The eight books of this text contain Clausewitz’s theory of war. In...

Gerald Lalonde, "Athena Itonia: Geography and Meaning of an Ancient Greek War Goddess" (Brill, 2019)

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Athena Itonia: Geography and Meaning of an Ancient Greek War Goddess (Brill, 2019) Gerald V. Lalonde offers a comparative study of the social, po...

Tyler Wentzell, "Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War" (U Toronto Press, 2019)

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over two decades before the hard lines of the Cold War were drawn in North America, and long before any accurate information about what was happening ...

E. Amanda McVitty, "Treason and Masculinity in Medieval England: Gender, Law and Political Culture" (Boydell Press, 2020)

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Treason and Masculinity in Medieval England: Gender, Law and Political Culture (Boydell Press, 2020) by Dr. E. Amanda McVitty presents a groundbreaki...

Alexander Mikaberidze, "Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace" (Oxford UP, 2022)

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every Russian knows him purely by his patronym. He was the general who triumphed over Napoleon's Grande Armée during the Patriotic War of 1812, not m...

On John Hersey's "Hiroshima"

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In August of 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Less than a year later, American journalis...

Ofer Fridman, "Russian 'Hybrid Warfare': Resurgence and Politicization" (Oxford UP, 2022)

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Russia occupied the Crimea in 2014, a term appeared called “hybrid warfare” to describe the doctrine and strategies of the Russian military. ...

René Provost, "Rebel Courts: The Administration of Justice by Armed Insurgents" (Oxford UP, 2021)

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Warzones are sometimes described as lawless, but this is rarely the case. Armed insurgents often replace the state as the provider of law and justice ...

Ian Macpherson McCulloch, "John Bradstreet's Raid 1758: A Riverine Operation in the French and Indian War" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A year after John Bradstreet’s raid of 1758—the first and largest British-American riverine raid mounted during the Seven Years’ War (known in N...

Christopher Goscha, "The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam" (Princeton UP, 2022)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Vietnamese victory over the French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, which ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina, is one of t...

Sara E. Brown and Stephen D. Smith, "The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide" (Routledge, 2021)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sara Brown and Stephen Smith have edited a much needed and fascinating compilation of essays on the intersection of religion and mass atrocity. Their...

R. E. Evans and B. E. Kinnear, "'Richard Eager'": A Pilot's Story from Tennessee Eagle Scout to General Montgomery's 'Flying Fortress'" (Kieran Publishing, 2021)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Captain Richard E. Evans was an American B-17 "Flying Fortress" pilot. He flew 55 combat missions and during that time was also chosen to fly British ...

Johanna O. Zulueta, "Okinawan Women's Stories of Migration: From War Brides to Issei" (Routledge, 2022)

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The phenomenon of “war brides” from Japan moving to the West has been quite widely discussed, but this book tells the stories of women whose lives...

Reeva Spector Simon, "The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa: The Impact of World War II" (Routledge, 2019)

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Incorporating published and archival material, Reeva Spector Simon's book The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa: The Impact of World War II (...

Beverly Weintraub, "Wings of Gold: The Story of the First Women Naval Aviators" (Lyons Press, 2021)

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On Feb. 2, 2019, the skies over Maynardville, Tennessee, filled with the roar of four F/A-18F Super Hornets streaking overhead in close formation. In ...

Cold War Homefront

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We could do a whole season on Vietnam war films, but in this episode we chose three films that highlight the Cold War’s omnipresence in daily life. ...

Patrick O. Cohrs, "The New Atlantic Order: The Transformation of International Politics, 1860-1933" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The New Atlantic Order: The Transformation of International Politics, 1860-1933 (Cambridge UP, 2022) elucidates a momentous transformation process th...

Michael R. Gordon, "Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump" (FSG, 2022)

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump (FSG, 2022), Wall Street Journal na...

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last episode we discussed films about how a nuclear war would start, particularly the insane logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). In this epis...

The Future of Nuclear Weapons: A Conversation with Fred Kaplan

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For much of the Cold War the United States had thousands more nuclear weapons than it needed. And it took decades for American political leaders to re...

Máté Rigó, "Capitalism in Chaos: How the Business Elites of Europe Prospered in the Era of the Great War" (Cornell UP, 2022)

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Capitalism in Chaos: How the Business Elites of Europe Prospered in the Era of the Great War (Cornell UP, 2022) explores an often-overlooked conseque...

John M. Curatola, "Autumn of Our Discontent: Fall 1949 and the Crises in American National Security" (US Naval Institute Press, 2022)

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the Fall of 1949, a series of international events shattered the notion that the United States would return to its traditional small peacetime mili...

Theodore McLauchlin, "Desertion: Trust and Mistrust in Civil Wars" (Cornell UP, 2020)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Desertion: Trust and Mistrust in Civil Wars (Cornell UP, 2020) examines the personal and political factors behind soldiers' choices to stay in th...

A MAD, MAD, World

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The world lived under the shadow of the acronym MAD for forty years. Mutually Assured Destruction was no laughing matter, but Stanley Kubrick thought ...

Levi Roach, "Empires of the Normans: Makers of Europe, Conquerors of Asia" (Pegasus Books, 2022)

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Empires of the Normans: Makers of Europe, Conquerors of Asia (Pegasus, 2022) by Dr. Levi Roach is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freeboote...

Manoj Joshi, "Understanding the India-China Border: The Enduring Threat of War in High Himalaya" (Hurst, 2022)

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On June 16 2020, Indian and Chinese forces clashed high in the Himalayan mountains in Aksai Chin. Beijing and New Delhi both claim control over this r...

Jonathan Wyrtzen, "Worldmaking in the Long Great War: How Local and Colonial Struggles Shaped the Modern Middle East" (Columbia UP, 2022)

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It is widely believed that the political problems of the Middle East date back to the era of World War I, when European colonial powers unilaterally i...

Julia Margaret Zulver, "High-Risk Feminism in Colombia: Women's Mobilization in Violent Contexts" (Rutgers UP, 2022)

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In High-Risk Feminism in Colombia: Women's Mobilization in Violent Contexts (Rutgers University Press, 2022), Dr. Julia Zulver documents the experie...

Michael O'Hanlon, "The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint" (Yale UP, 2021)

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint (Yale University Press, 2021) Dr. Michael O’Hanlon presents an in...

Ian Campbell, "The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame" (Hurst, 2017)

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In February 1937, following an abortive attack by a handful of insurgents on Mussolini's High Command in Italian-occupied Ethiopia, 'repression squads...

Meighen McCrae, "Coalition Strategy and the End of the First World War: The Supreme War Council and War Planning, 1917-1918" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When the Germans requested an armistice in October 1918, it was a shock to the Allied political and military leadership. They had been expecting, and ...

Tommi Koivula and Heljä Ossa, "NATO’s Burden-Sharing Disputes: Past, Present and Future Prospects" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In NATO’s Burden-Sharing Disputes: Past, Present and Future Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Dr. Tommi Koivula & Heljä Ossa argues that burd...

John M. Kinder and Jason A. Higgins, "Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wartime military service is held up as a marker of civic duty and patriotism, yet the rewards of veteran status have never been equally distributed. C...

Nathaniel Jarrett, "The Lion at Dawn: Forging British Strategy in the Age of the French Revolution, 1783–1797" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In February 1793, in the wake of the War of American Independence and one year after British prime minister William Pitt the Younger had predicted fif...

Thomas Donald Conlan, "Samurai and the Warrior Culture of Japan, 471-1877: A Sourcebook" (Hackett, 2022)

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In addition to providing excerpts from classic tales of Japan’s warrior past, Samurai and the Warrior Culture of Japan, 471-1877: A Sourcebook (Ha...

Greg Woolf, "The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History" (Oxford UP, 2020)

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The human race is on a 10,000 year urban adventure. Our ancestors wandered the planet or lived scattered in villages, yet by the end of this century a...

Síobhra Aiken, "Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War" (Irish Academic Press, 2022)

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Siobhra Aiken teaches in the Department of Irish and Celtic Studies at Queens University Belfast. Her research interests include modernist Irish-langu...

Andrew Dubbins, "Into Enemy Waters: A World War II Story of the Demolition Divers Who Became the Navy SEALs" (Diversion Books, 2022)

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With echoes of Unbroken; the derring-do and bravado of The Right Stuff; and the battle-forged camaraderie of Band of Brothers, Andrew Dubbins' book...

Emizet F. Kisangani and Jeffrey Pickering, "African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Foreign military intervention has had a profound impact on post-colonial African history and politics. Interventions have destabilized borderlands, ov...

James Lacey, "Rome: Strategy of Empire" (Oxford UP, 2022)

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From Octavian's victory at Actium (31 B.C.) to its traditional endpoint in the West (476), the Roman Empire lasted a solid 500 years -- an impressive ...

Tom Zoellner, "Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire" (Harvard UP, 2020)

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For five horrific weeks after Christmas in 1831, Jamaica was convulsed by an uprising of its enslaved people. What started as a peaceful labor strike ...

Hans G. Myers, "The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War" (Casemate, 2022)

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hans G. Myers' book The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War (Casemate, 20...

Kristen A. Harkness, "When Soldiers Rebel: Ethnic Armies and Political Instability in Africa" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Military coups are a constant threat in Africa and many former military leaders are now in control of 'civilian states', yet the military remains unde...

Andrew Bacevich and Daniel A. Sjursen, "Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Forever Wars" (Metropolitan Books, 2022)

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Compiled by New York Times bestselling author Andrew Bacevich and retired army officer Danny A. Sjursen, Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against...

Blake Whitaker, "Built on the Ruins of Empire: British Military Assistance and African Independence" (UP of Kansas, 2022)

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During the Cold War, the British government oversaw the transition to independence of dozens of colonies. Often the most challenging aspect of this tr...

Jonathan Leader Maynard, "Ideology and Mass Killing: Radical Security Politics and the Infrastructure of Deadly Atrocities" (Oxford UP, 2022)

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In research on 'mass killings' such as genocides and campaigns of state terror, the role of ideology is hotly debated. For some scholars, ideologies a...

Anastasia Shesterinina, "Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia" (Cornell UP, 2021)

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anastasia Shesterinina begins Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia (Cornell University Press, 2021) with an account...

Sébastien Philippe and Tomas Statius, "Toxique: Enquête sur les essais nucléaires français en Polynésie" (Companyédition PUF/Disclose, 2021)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when you bring together an important collection of previously secret archival documents dealing with France's nuclear detonations in the ...

Craig L. Symonds, "Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay" (Oxford UP, 2022)

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Only days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped Chester W. Nimitz to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. N...

Yaniv Voller, "Second-Generation Liberation Wars" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The formation of post-colonial states in Africa, and the Middle East gave birth to prolonged separatist wars. Exploring the evolution of these separat...

Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray, "British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923" (Routledge, 2022)

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, ...

Vanda Wilcox, "The Italian Empire and the Great War" (Oxford UP, 2021)

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Italian Empire and the Great War (Oxford UP, 2021) by Vanda Wilcox brings an imperial and colonial perspective to the Italian experience of the ...

Peter Kornicki, "Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War With Japan" (Oxford UP, 2021)

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Japanese signals were decoded at Bletchley Park, who translated them into English? When Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, who int...

Richard Middleton, "Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World" (Yale UP, 2022)

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charles, First Marquis of Cornwallis (1738-1805), was a leading figure in late eighteenth-century Britain. His career spanned the American War of Inde...

Christy Pichichero, "The Military Enlightenment: War and Culture in the French Empire from Louis XIV to Napoleon" (Cornell UP, 2018)

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Covering the pivotal period from the mid-seventeenth century through the era of the French Revolution, Christy Pichichero's The Military Enlightenme...

Stuart Ellis-Gorman, "The Medieval Crossbow: A Weapon Fit to Kill a King" (Pen & Sword Military, 2022)

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The crossbow is an iconic weapon of the Middle Ages and, alongside the longbow, one of the most effective ranged weapons of the pre-gunpowder era. Unf...

Alexandra Lohse, "Prevail until the Bitter End: Germans in the Waning Years of World War II" (Cornell UP, 2021)

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Prevail until the Bitter End: Germans in the Waning Years of World War II (Cornell UP, 2021), Alexandra Lohse explores the gossip and innuendo, t...

Nic Maclellan, "Grappling with the Bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-Bomb Tests" (ANU Press, 2017)

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nic Maclellan's book Grappling with the Bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-Bomb Tests (ANU Press, 2017) is a history of Britain’s 1950s program to test t...

The Future of Al Qaeda: A Discussion with Nelly Lahoud

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The 9/11 attacks mean Al Qaeda will always have a place in history. But it that it? Or might it have the capacity to endure? Its striking that the UN ...

Maeve Ryan, "Humanitarian Governance and the British Antislavery World System" (Yale UP, 2022)

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Maeve Ryan’s new book Humanitarian Governance and the British Antislavery World System (Yale UP, 2022) highlights Britain’s early-nineteenth-ce...

The Bland Corporation: On the RAND Corporation and the Defence-Intellectual Industrial Complex

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to week two of our Darts and Letters summer showcase! Darts and Letters is a show about the politics of ideas. We’re celebrating joining the...

Duy Lap Nguyen, "The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam" (Manchester UP, 2019)

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Duy Lap Nguyen's book The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam (Manchester UP, 2019) proposes a reexamination of the Vietn...

David Brown, "Empire and Enterprise: Money, Power and the Adventurers for Irish Land During the British Civil Wars" (Manchester UP, 2020)

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Empire and Enterprise: Money, Power and the Adventurers for Irish Land During the British Civil Wars (Manchester UP, 2020), Dr. David Brown exami...

David D. Dworak, "War of Supply: World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean" (UP of Kentucky Press, 2022)

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The era of modern warfare introduced in World War II presented the Allied Powers with one of the more complicated logistical challenges of the century...

Ethan Mark, "Japan’s Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History" (Bloomsbury, 2018)

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Japan's Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History (Bloomsbury, 2018) by Ethan Mark draws upon written and oral Japanese, In...

The Future of War: A Discussion with Mark Galeotti

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wars have always been fought in different ways, depending not only on the manpower available – elite professional armies to mass mobilization of who...

Siniša Malešević, "Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In his book Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence (2022, Cambridge University Press), Siniša Malešević emphasises the cen...

Michael Mandelbaum, "The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower" (Oxford UP, 2022)

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The United States is now nearly 250 years old. It arose from humble beginnings, as a strip of mostly agrarian and sparsely populated English colonies ...

Niall Whelehan, "Changing Land: Diaspora Activism and the Irish Land War" (NYU Press, 2021)

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Niall Whelehan is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde, where he focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and themes...

Keith Thomson, "Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune" (Little Brown, 2022)

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The year is 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy, and more than three hundred daring, hardened pirates—a potent mix of low-life scallywags...