New Books in Military History
Episodes
Jayita Sarkar, "Ploughshares and Swords: India's Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War" (Cornell UP, 2022)
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ploughshares and Swords: India’s Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Jayita Sarkar challenges this received ...
Alison Macor, "Making The Best Years of Our Lives: The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation" (U Texas Press, 2022)
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Released in 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives became an immediate success. Life magazine called it “the first big, good movie of the post-war era”...
Ricardo A. Herrera, "Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778" (UNC Press, 2022)
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 (University of North Carolina Press, 2022), Dr. Ricardo Herrera presents a m...
Sheila A. Smith, "Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power" (Harvard UP, 2019)
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Sheila A. Smith about her book Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power (Harvard UP, 2019). Modern Japan is not only respond...
Nick Sharman, "Britain’s Informal Empire in Spain, 1830-1950: Free Trade, Protectionism and Military Power| (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Based on five years of archival research, Britain's Informal Empire in Spain, 1830-1950: Free Trade, Protectionism and Military Power offers a radica...
Supalak Ganjanakhundee, "A Soldier King: Monarchy and Military in the Thailand of Rama X" (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2022)
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is the relationship between the military and the monarchy in Thailand? How has that relationship changed since King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) assum...
Annie Tracy Samuel, "The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (Cambridge UP, 2021) represents a fascinating and c...
Roberto J. González, "War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future" (U California Press, 2022)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A critical look at how the US military is weaponizing technology and data for new kinds of warfare—and why we must resist. War Virtually: The Quest...
Holly A. Pinheiro Jr., "The Families' Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice" (U Georgia Press, 2022)
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Families' Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice (U Georgia Press, 2022) tells the stories of freeborn northern African Ameri...
The Human Tragedy in Yemen
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The civil war in Yemen has going on since 2014. Noria al-Hossini, Communications Director of Mwatana for Human Rights, discusses the war and the n...
Hikmet Karčić, "Torture, Humiliate, Kill: Inside the Bosnian Serb Camp System" (U Michigan Press, 2022)
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Half a century after the Holocaust, on European soil, Bosnian Serbs orchestrated a system of concentration camps where they subjected their Bosniak Mu...
Claire Bellerjeau and Tiffany Yecke Brooks, "Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth" (Lyons Press, 2021)
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Claire Bellerjeau about her book (co-authored with Tiffany Yecke Brooks) Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True S...
Sophie Haspeslagh, "Proscribing Peace: How Listing Armed Groups as Terrorists Hurts Negotiations" (Manchester UP, 2021)
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Proscribing Peace: How Listing Armed Groups as Terrorists Hurts Negotiations (Manchester UP, 2021), Dr. Sophie Haspeslagh offers a systematic exa...
Jeremy Black, "The Great Battles of All Time" (Thames & Hudson, 2022)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cannae and Agincourt, Waterloo and Gettysburg, Stalingrad and Midway, this compact volume, edited by master historian, Professor Jeremy Black, collect...
Tehmton S. Mistry, "The 24th Mile: An Indian Doctor's Heroism in War-torn Burma" (HarperCollins, 2021)
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The story of India and Indians in World War II has been overshadowed by other historical events of the 1940s, a busy decade that included such histori...
Aaron Hiltner, "Taking Leave, Taking Liberties: American Troops on the World War II Home Front" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During the Second World War, locals in Australia and Britain described American GIs as “overpaid, oversexed, and over here.” But this conflict bet...
Ukrainian Nationalism in Historical Context
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of the ongoing war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, it is vital that the lay-educated public understand the historical origins...
Michael Berry, "The Musha Incident: A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial Taiwan" (Columbia UP, 2022)
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On October 27, 1930, members of six Taiwanese indigenous groups ambushed the Japanese attendees of an athletic competition at the Musha Elementary Sch...
Brandi Clay Brimmer, "Claiming Union Widowhood: Race, Respectability, and Poverty in the Post-Emancipation South" (Duke UP, 2020)
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Claiming Union Widowhood: Race, Respectability, and Poverty in the Post-Emancipation South (Duke UP, 2020), Brandi Clay Brimmer analyzes the US p...
David P. Oakley, "Subordinating Intelligence: The DoD/CIA Post-Cold War Relationship" (UP of Kentucky Press, 2019)
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the late eighties and early nineties, driven by the post–Cold War environment and lessons learned during military operations, United States polic...
Risa Brooks et al., "Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: The Military, Society, Politics, and Modern War" (Oxford UP, 2020)
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most existing literature regarding civil-military relations in the United States references either the Cold War or post-Cold War era, leaving a signif...
Shiv Kunal Verma, "1965: A Western Sunrise--India's War with Pakistan" (Aleph Book Company, 2021)
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The history of India and Pakistan since Partition has been marked by countless skirmishes–and four major wars. The second conflict–the 1965 war be...
Jahara Matisek and Buddhika Jayamaha, "Old and New Battlespaces: Society, Military Power, and War" (Lynne Rienner, 2022)
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
War is ever changing. Just within the last decade or so, new domains have opened up as potential battlefields of the present and the future. These ran...
Andrew Bickford, "Chemical Heroes: Pharmacological Supersoldiers in the US Military" (Duke UP, 2021)
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Chemical Heroes: Pharmacological Supersoldiers in the US Military (Duke UP, 2021), Andrew Bickford analyzes the US military's attempts to design...
The Forgotten Children of the Second Sino-Japanese War
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Disparaged as "Japanese devils" and "half-breed," some children with Chinese mothers and Japanese fathers born during the Second Sino-Japanese war lon...
Christopher J. Gilbert, "Caricature and National Character: The United States at War" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2021)
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Christopher Gilbert, Assistant Professor of English at Assumption College, has a new book that examines the understanding of American national cha...
Maksim Goldenshteyn, "So They Remember: A Jewish Family's Story of Surviving the Holocaust in Soviet Ukraine" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of Nazi camps, names such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau come instantly to mind. Yet the history of the Holocaust extends beyon...
Putin's War on Ukraine in Historical Perpective
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of stopping anytime soon, it was thought a worthwhile idea to have an informed discussion with four expert hi...
Katrina Goldstone, "Irish Writers and the Thirties: Art, Exile and War" (Routledge, 2020)
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The theme of exile in Irish writing often calls to mind Joyce or Beckett, but rarely does it conjure up other writers or literary networks, particular...
Jim Downs, "Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine" (Harvard UP, 2021)
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most stories of medical progress come with ready-made heroes. John Snow traced the origins of London's 1854 cholera outbreak to a water pump, leading ...
Elizabeth Oyler and Katherine Saltzman-Li, "Cultural Imprints: War and Memory in the Samurai Age" (Cornell UP, 2022)
20 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Oyler and Katherine Saltzman-Li's book Cultural Imprints: War and Memory in the Samurai Age (Cornell UP, 2022) draws on literary works, a...
Paddy Docherty, "Blood and Bronze: The British Empire and the Sack of Benin" (Hurst, 2022)
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artis...
Jaclyn Granick, "International Jewish Humanitarianism in the Age of the Great War" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Jaclyn Granick about her book International Jewish Humanitarianism in the Age of the Great War (Cambridge UP, 2021). In 1914, ...
Michael Mackenzie, "Otto Dix and the First World War: Grotesque Humor, Camaraderie and Remembrance" (Peter Lang, 2019)
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Otto Dix fought in the First World War for the better part of four years before becoming one of the most important artists of the Weimar era. Marked b...
Heather Jones, "For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War (Cambridge UP, 2021) is a ground-breaking history of the British monarchy in the ...
Joseph Fewsmith, "Forging Leninism in China: Mao and the Remaking of the Chinese Communist Party, 1927–1934" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
29 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Forging Leninism in China: Mao and the Remaking of the Chinese Communist Party, 1927–1934 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) is a re-examination of...
Susan H. Allen, "Interactive Peacemaking: A People-Centered Approach" (Routledge, 2022)
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Susan H. Allen's Interactive Peacemaking: A People-Centered Approach (Routledge, 2022) examines the theory and practice of interactive peacemaking, ...
Dean A. Nowowiejski, "The American Army in Germany, 1918-1923: Success Against the Odds" (UP of Kansas, 2021)
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The American Army in Germany, 1918–1923: Success against the Odds (UP of Kansas, 2021) by Dean A. Nowowiejski fills a gap in American military and...
Mark R. Anderson, "Down the Warpath to the Cedars: Indians' First Battles in the Revolution" (U Oklahoma Press, 2021)
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1776 more than two hundred Indian warriors descended the St. Lawrence River to attack Continental forces at the Cedars, west of Montreal. In ju...
Nicole Elizabeth Barnes, "Intimate Communities: Wartime Healthcare and the Birth of Modern China, 1937-1945" (U California Press, 2018)
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When China’s War of Resistance against Japan began in July 1937, it sparked an immediate health crisis throughout China. In the end, China not only ...
David H. Ucko, "The Insurgent's Dilemma: A Struggle to Prevail" (Oxford UP, 2022)
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Despite attracting headlines and hype, insurgents rarely win. Even when they claim territory and threaten governmental writ, they typically face a mil...
Gregg Huff, "World War II in Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To say that World War II and Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is an impressive achie...
Robert A Jacobs, "Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha" (Yale UP, 2022)
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Jacob’s book Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha (Yale UP, 2022) re‑envisions the history of the Cold War as a slow nuclear war, fought ...
Yveline Alexis, "Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte" (Rutgers UP, 2021)
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte (Rutgers University Press, 2021), by Yveline Alexis is the first US study of the poli...
Jason K. Stearns, "The War That Doesn't Say Its Name: The Unending Conflict in the Congo" (Princeton UP, 2022)
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a "forever war"--a perpetual cycle of war, c...
Nic Marsh et al., "Indefensible: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms Trade" (Zed Books, 2017)
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard ...
Adrian Shubert, "The Sword of Luchana: Baldomero Espartero and the Making of Modern Spain, 1793–1879" (U Toronto Press, 2021)
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I spoke to Prof. Adrian Shubert, professor of History at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada about his book on the ninet...
William D. Adler, "Engineering Expansion: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Engineering Expansion: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860 (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021) threads together political science, history, ec...
Jochen Lingelbach, "On the Edges of Whiteness: Polish Refugees in British Colonial Africa during and after the Second World War" (Berghahn Books, 2020)
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the horrors of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine unfold before our eyes, we have witnessed a massive wave of refugees absorbed by a range of East...
Jonathan Fisher and Nina Wilén, "African Peacekeeping" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In African Peacekeeping (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Dr. Jonathan Fisher and Dr. Nina Wilén explore the story of Africa's contemporary histo...
Sherzod Muminov, "Eleven Winters of Discontent: The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan" (Harvard UP, 2022)
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the Second World War, about 600,000 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner after the Soviet Union swept through Manchuria in the very fin...
Steven J. Brady, "Chained to History: Slavery and US Foreign Relations to 1865" (Cornell UP, 2022)
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Chained to History: Slavery and US Foreign Relations to 1865 (Cornell University Press, 2022), Dr. Steven J. Brady places slavery at the centre o...
Caroline Mezger, "Forging Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918-1944" (Oxford UP, 2020)
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Mezger's Forging Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918-1944 (Oxford UP, 202...
Liz Clarke, "The American Girl Goes to War: Women and National Identity in US Silent Film" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During the 1910s, films about war often featured a female protagonist. The films portrayed women as spies, cross-dressing soldiers, and athletic defen...
Jonathan M. Katz, "Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire" (St. Martin's Press, 2022)
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Katz’s Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire (St. Martin’s Press, 202...
Daniel Y. Kim, "The Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War" (NYU Press, 2020)
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I talk with Daniel Y. Kim, Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Brown University, about his 2020 book Intimacies o...
Molly M. Melin, "The Building and Breaking of Peace: Corporate Activities in Civil War Prevention and Resolution" (Oxford UP, 2021)
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Private corporations are rarely discussed as playing a role in efforts to curb civil violence, even though they often have strong interests in maintai...
Brian J. Peterson, "Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa" (Indiana UP, 2021)
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa (Indiana University Press, 2021) by Brian J. Peterson is a thoroughly researched biography of Thom...
Sandy Gall, "Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud" (Haus Publishing, 2021)
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On September 9th, 2001, Ahmed Shah Massoud—called one of the greatest guerilla leaders in history, alongside names like Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh,...
Togzhan Kassenova, "Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb" (Stanford UP, 2022)
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month we are delighted to host Togzhan Kassenova on our NBN Central Asian Studies podcast. Dr Kassenova is the author of the beautifully resear...
Michael Gorra, "The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War" (Liveright Publishing, 2020)
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
William Faulkner, one of America's most iconic writers, is an author who defies easy interpretation. Born in 1897 in Mississippi, Faulkner wrote such ...
Michael Silvestri, "Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World: Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) by Michael Silvestri examines the development of imperial intellig...
Jeremy Black, "The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War" (Roman and Littlefield, 2022)
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The wars between 1792 and 1815 saw the making of the modern world, with Britain and Russia the key powers to emerge triumphant from a long period of b...
Daniel Chirot, "You Say You Want a Revolution?: Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences" (Princeton UP, 2020)
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why have so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times ended in bloody tragedies? And what lessons can be drawn from these failures today, in a wo...
Erica de De Bruin, "How to Prevent Coups D'État: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival" (Cornell UP, 2020)
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Erica De Bruin about her book How to Prevent Coups d’état: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival (Cornell University Press, 2020...
Jadwiga Biskupska, "Survivors: Warsaw under Nazi Occupation" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Survivors tells the harrowing story of life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation. As the epicenter of Polish resistance, Warsaw was subjected to violent pe...
Julian Stallabrass, "Killing for Show: Photography, War, and the Media in Vietnam and Iraq" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the autumn of 2014, the Royal Air Force released blurry video of a missile blowing up a pick-up truck that may have had a weapon attached to its fl...
Maria Bucur, "The Nation’s Gratitude: World War I and Citizenship Rights in Interwar Romania" (Routledge, 2022)
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A pioneering work for the history of veterans’ rights in Romania, Maria Bucur's book The Nation’s Gratitude: World War I and Citizenship Rights i...
Carol Berger, "The Child Soldiers of Africa's Red Army: The Role of Social Process and Routinised Violence in South Sudan's Military" (Routledge, 2022)
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The Child Soldiers of Africa's Red Army: The Role of Social Process and Routinised Violence in South Sudan's Military (Routledge, 2022), Dr. Caro...
Boyd van Dijk, "Preparing for War: the Making of the 1949 Geneva Conventions" (Oxford UP, 2022)
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1949 Geneva Conventions are the most important rules for armed conflict ever formulated. To this day they continue to shape contemporary debates a...
Joseph J. Krulder, "The Execution of Admiral John Byng As a Microhistory of Eighteenth-Century Britain" (Routledge, 2021)
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Admiral John Byng’s execution for failing to “do his utmost” to relieve the British garrison on Minorca in 1756 is remembered today mainly for V...
Mark Edele, "Stalinism at War: The Soviet Union in World War II" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stalinism at War: The Soviet Union in World War II (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) tells the epic story of the Soviet Union in World War Two. Startin...
Devin O. Pendas, "Democracy, Nazi Trials and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945–1950" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Democracy, Nazi Trials, and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945-1950 (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Dr. Devin O. Pendas exam...
Michelle Gordon, "Extreme Violence and the ‘British Way’: Colonial Warfare in Perak, Sierra Leone and Sudan" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Analysing three cases of British colonial violence that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century, this book argues that all three share commona...
Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal, "Incredible Commitments: How UN Peacekeeping Failures Shape Peace Processes" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why do warring parties turn to United Nations peacekeeping and peacemaking even when they think it will fail? In Incredible Commitments: How UN Pe...
Robert K. Sutton, "Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II" (Casemate, 2022)
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Robert K. Sutton's Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II (Casemate, 2022) is the first full accou...
Stanislav Aseyev, "In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas" (HURI, 2022)
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stanislav Aseyev is a Ukrainian journalist and writer born in Donetsk, which at present remains occupied by Russia-backed militants. Sometime after th...
Clarissa Ceglio, "A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of U.S. Museums" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of US Museums (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), Dr. Ceglio argues that attempts ...
Marc David Baer, "The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs" (Basic Books, 2021)
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Ottoman Empire has been many things throughout its long history. One of the greatest and gravest threats to Christian Europe. A source of inspirat...
Nicholas Mulder, "The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War" (Yale UP, 2022)
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Economic sanctions dominate the landscape of world politics today. First developed in the early twentieth century as a way of exploiting the flows of ...
Anthony Tucker-Jones, "Churchill, Master and Commander: Winston Churchill at War 1895–1945" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From his earliest days Winston Churchill was an extreme risk taker and he carried this into adulthood. Today he is widely hailed as Britain's greatest...
Arthur W. Gullachsen, "Bloody Verrieres: The I. SS-Panzerkorps Defence of the Verrieres-Bourguebus Ridges" (Casemate, 2021)
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
South of the Norman city of Caen, the twin features of the Verrières and Bourguebus ridges were key stepping stones for the British Second Army in la...
Paul French, "Bloody Saturday: Shanghai's Darkest Day" (Penguin, 2018)
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Thirties and Forties were some of the first instances of aerial bombardment of civilian populations—and an indication of their destructive power...
Daniel Finn, "One Man's Terrorist: A Political History of the IRA" (Verso, 2021)
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When most people think of the Irish Republican Army, they naturally think of terrorism. But what of the political context that led to some 10,000 Iris...
Alexander Lanoszka, "Military Alliances in the Twenty-First Century" (Polity Press, 2022)
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alliance politics is a regular headline grabber. When a possible military crisis involving Russia, North Korea, or China rears its head, leaders and c...
Nathaniel L. Moir, "Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare" (Oxford UP, 2021)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare (Oxford UP, 2021), Dr. Nathaniel L. Moir studies the thought of this overlo...
Ola Hnatiuk, "Courage and Fear" (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2019)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lemberg, Lwów, Lvov, Lviv… The city, which is located in the western part of Ukraine, evokes a highly entangled past that contains references to a ...
David L. Hoffmann, "The Memory of the Second World War in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia" (Routledge, 2021)
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over 75 years have passed since the end of World War II, but the collective memory of the conflict remains potently present for the people of the Russ...
Simon Topping, "Northern Ireland, the United States and the Second World War" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Northern Ireland, the United States and the Second World War (Bloomsbury, 2022), Dr. Simon Topping analyses the American military presence in Nor...
Susan Gilson Miller, "Years of Glory: Nelly Benatar and the Pursuit of Justice in Wartime North Africa" (Stanford UP, 2021)
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When France fell to Hitler's armies in June 1940, a flood of refugees fleeing Nazi terror quickly overwhelmed Europe's borders and spilled across the ...
Paweł Markiewicz, "Unlikely Allies: Nazi German and Ukrainian Nationalist Collaboration in the General Government During World War II" (Purdue UP, 2021)
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unlikely Allies: Nazi German and Ukrainian Nationalist Collaboration in the General Government During World War II (Purdue UP, 2021) offers the firs...
Omar Ashour, "How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt" (Edinburgh UP, 2021)
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt (Edinburgh UP, 2021), Omar Ashour has written a detailed and data-rich analysi...
Fay A. Yarbrough, "Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country" (UNC Press, 2021)
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When the Choctaw Nation was forcibly resettled in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma in the 1830s, it was joined by enslaved Black people—the ...
Katja Hoyer, "Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire" (Pegasus Books, 2021)
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before 1871, Germany was not yet nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-n...
Jeremy Black, "A Short History of War" (Yale UP, 2021)
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, warfare has transformed social, political, cultural, and religious aspects of our lives. We tell tales of wars--past, present, and...
Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl, "Quagmire in Civil War" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Quagmire in Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2020) Dr. Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war, moving ...
Sumantra Bose, "Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict" (Yale UP, 2021)
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Kashmir” carries the burden of being known as one of the world’s biggest flashpoints. If a novel, TV show, or video game wants an easy internat...
Kyle J. Anderson, "The Egyptian Labor Corps: Race, Space, and Place in the First World War" (U Texas Press, 2021)
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During World War I, the British Empire enlisted half a million young men, predominantly from the countryside of Egypt, in the Egyptian Labor Corps (EL...
Charles Melson, "Fighting for Time: Rhodesia's Military and Zimbabwe’s Independence" (Casemate Academic, 2021)
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the 1960s through 1970s there were a series of conflicts in Africa involving Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal in conflict with the so-called ...
Sarah J. Purcell, "Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era" (UNC Press, 2022)
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2022) examines how the public funerals of major figures from the Civ...