New Books in Military History
Episodes
George S. Takach, "Cold War 2.0: Artificial Intelligence in the New Battle between China, Russia, and America" (Pegasus Book, 2024)
24 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A vivid, thoughtful examination of how technological innovation—especially AI—is shaping the tensions between democracy and autocracy during the n...
Chiara Renzo, "Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity" (Routledge, 2023)
24 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chiara Renzo's book Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity (Routledge, 2023) focuses on the experiences of...
Dan Stone, "The Holocaust: An Unfinished History" (Mariner Books, 2023)
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Holocaust is much-discussed, much-memorialized and much-portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked. Spanning ...
Erica L. Fraser, "Military Masculinity and Postwar Recovery in the Soviet Union" (U Toronto Press, 2019)
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Catastrophic wartime casualties and postwar discomfort with the successes of women who had served in combat roles combined to shatter prewar ideals ab...
Jonathan W. White, "Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), historian Jonat...
Amy Lidster and Sonia Massai, "Shakespeare at War: A Material History" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Presenting engaging, thought-provoking stories across centuries of military activity, Shakespeare at War: A Material History (Cambridge UP, 2023) de...
Raanan Rein and Susanne Zepp-Zwirner, "Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War" (Routledge, 2024)
10 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War (Routledge, 2024) is the first scholarly volume to offer an insight into the less-known stories of women, ch...
Edda Fields-Black, "Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War" (Oxford UP, 2023)
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most Americans know of Harriet Tubman's legendary life: escaping enslavement in 1849, she led more than 60 others out of bondage via the Underground R...
Alan Bollard, "Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars" (Oxford UP, 2020)
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wartime is not just about military success. Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars (Oxford UP, 2020) tel...
Bryan Mark Rigg, "Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II" (Knox Press, 2024)
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II (Knox Press, 2024) combines research conducted in over eighte...
Ilmari Käihkö, "'Slava Ukraini!': Strategy and the Spirit of Ukrainian Resistance 2014–2023" (Helsinki UP, 2023)
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In wake of the Maiden Revolution of 2013-14, the pro-Russian government of Ukraine under Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in place of a regime seeking...
Peter Harmsen, "Bernhard Sindberg: The Schindler of Nanjing" (Casemate, 2024)
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six weeks...
Obert Bernard Mlambo, "Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this highly original book Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War (Bloomsbury, 2022), Dr. Obe...
Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu, "Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam" (Duke UP, 2021)
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Through a creative focus on skin, in Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam (Duke UP, 2021), Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu examines th...
Peter Harmsen, "Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze" (Casemate, 2015)
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Harmsen's book Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze (Casemate, 2015) describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At...
Ivo Goldstein and Slavko Goldstein, "The Holocaust in Croatia" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
25 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Holocaust in Croatia (U Pittsburgh Press, 2016) recounts the history of the Croatian Jewish community during the Second World War, with a focus ...
Angela Wanhalla, "Of Love and War: Pacific Brides of World War II" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)
25 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1942 and 1945 more than two million servicemen occupied the southern Pacific theater, the majority of whom were Americans in service with the ...
Paul Scharre, "Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" (Norton, 2023)
24 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An award-winning defense expert tells the story of today’s great power rivalry―the struggle to control artificial intelligence. A new industrial r...
The Future of the Chinese Military: A Discussion with James A. Siebens
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For all the talk of China being a peaceful country with no aggressive intentions, it has behaved like most other rising powers – spending lots of mo...
Devin O. Pendas, "Democracy, Nazi Trials and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945–1950" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
23 Feb 2024
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...
Mara Josi, "Rome, 16 October 1943: History, Memory, Literature" (Legenda, 2023)
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Mara Josi about her new book Rome, 16 October 1943: History, Memory, Literature (Legenda, 2023). Rome. Saturday 16 October 1943. ...
Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, "American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15" (FSG, 2023)
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner so...
Ricky W. Law, "Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German Japanese Relations, 1919-1936" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German Japanese Relations, 1919-1936 (Cambridge University Press, 2019), associate prof...
Alexander Henry, "War Through Italian Eyes: Fighting for Mussolini, 1940-1943" (Routledge, 2021)
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is a popular notion that the Italian armed forces of the Second World War were an inferior fighting force. Despite the vast numbers taken prison...
Tom Hamilton, "A Widow's Vengeance After the Wars of Religion: Gender and Justice in Renaissance France" (Oxford UP, 2024)
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Paris, 1599. At the end of the French Wars of Religion, the widow Renée Chevalier instigated the prosecution of the military captain Mathurin Delacan...
Daphna Sharfman, "Jerusalem in the Second World War" (Routledge, 2024)
18 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Daphna Sharfman's book Jerusalem in the Second World War (Routledge, 2024) is the first to present the unique story of the city of Jerusalem during ...
Sarah Parry Myers, "Earning Their Wings: The WASPs of World War II and the Fight for Veteran Recognition" (UNC Press, 2023)
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Established by the Army Air Force in 1943, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program opened to civilian women with a pilot's licence who coul...
Jewish War Ethics, Ancient to Contemporary: A Conversation with Rabbi Shlomo Brody
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How should we think about violent accounts in the Bible? Why did Gandhi urge the Jews to turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism during World War II? What i...
"War is what you make of it" with Neta Crawford of Oxford University and the Costs of War Project
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We begin this new season of International Horizons with an interview by RBI Director John Torpey with Neta Crawford from Oxford University and the Co...
Matteo Millan, "The Blackshirts' Dictatorship: Armed Squads, Political Violence, and the Consolidation of Mussolini's Regime" (Routledge, 2022)
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On October 1922 Mussolini became head of the Italian government, a situation that would last for twenty years. That power was obtained was largely due...
Bjørn Westlie, "My Father's War: Confronting Norway's Nazi Past" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023)
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My Father's War: Confronting Norway's Nazi Past (U Wisconsin Press, 2023) is simultaneously a history of the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War I...
Timothy A. Sayle, "Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order" (Cornell UP, 2019)
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization regularly appears in newspapers and political science scholarship. Surprisingly, historians have yet to devote ...
Daniel Immerwahr, "How to Hide an Empire: The History of the Greater United States" (FSG, 2019)
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Is America an Empire?” is a popular question for pundits and historians, likely because it sets off such a provocative debate. All too often, how...
Despina Stratigakos, "Hitler’s Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway" (Princeton UP, 2020)
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book Hitler’s Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway (Princeton University Press, 2020), Despina Stratigakos investi...
George Eisen, "A Summer of Mass Murder: 1941 Rehearsal for the Hungarian Holocaust" (Purdue UP, 2022)
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and flames, in the summer ...
Klaus Schmider, "Hitler's Fatal Miscalculation: Why Germany Declared War on the United States" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hitler's decision to declare war on the United States has baffled generations of historians. In this revisionist new history of those fateful months, ...
Matthew Kruer, "Time of Anarchy: Indigenous Power and the Crisis of Colonialism in Early America" (Harvard UP, 2021)
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A gripping account of the violence and turmoil that engulfed England’s fledgling colonies and the crucial role played by Native Americans in determi...
Dallas Michelbacher, "Jewish Forced Labor in Romania, 1940-1944" (Indiana UP, 2020)
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Between Romania's entry into World War II in 1941 and the ouster of dictator Ion Antonescu three years later, over 105,000 Jews were forced to work in...
Todd Mildfelt and David D. Schafer, "Abolitionist of the Most Dangerous Kind: James Montgomery and His War on Slavery" (U Oklahoma Press, 2023)
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A controversial character largely known (as depicted in the movie Glory) as a Union colonel who led Black soldiers in the Civil War, James Montgomery...
Elizabeth Varon, "Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South" (Simon & Schuster, 2023)
04 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An authoritative biography of the controversial Confederate general, who later embraced Reconstruction and became an outcast in the South. It was the ...
Beatrice Heuser, "War: A Genealogy of Western Ideas and Practices" (Oxford UP, 2022)
03 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
War is often thought of mainly the concern of professional soldiers and maybe politicians as well. However, philosophers and theorists of varying type...
Robin Judd, "Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides After the Holocaust" (UNC Press, 2023)
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Facing the harrowing task of rebuilding a life in the wake of the Holocaust, many Jewish survivors, community and religious leaders, and Allied soldie...
Emma Bridges, "Warriors' Wives: Ancient Greek Myth and Modern Experience" (Oxford UP, 2023)
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Epic poetry and tragic drama provide us with some of the richest ancient Greek depictions of women who are married to soldiers. In tales of the Trojan...
J. Overton, "Seapower by Other Means: Naval Contributions to National Objectives Beyond Sea Control, Power Projection, and Traditional Service Missions" (Nomos, 2023)
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Naval forces exist to control the seas and project power, often through the use of violence. This does not, however, include everything they have done...
Curtis Fox, "Hybrid Warfare: The Russian Approach to Strategic Competition and Conventional Military Conflict" (30 Press Publishing, 2023)
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The on-going war in Ukraine continues to highlight the distinct differences between how Russia operates large-scale military operations from the usual...
Anna Reid, "A Nasty Little War: The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution" (Basic Books, 2024)
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In A Nasty Little War: The Western Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution (Basic Books, 2024), award-winning reporter Anna Reid tells the extraordi...
Ridley Scott's "Napoleon": A Historian's Review
28 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Coutino discusses Ridley Scott's film "Napoleon" with military historian Jeremy Black. Is it accurate? Is it inaccurate? Does it matter? List...
Calder Walton, "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West" (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
28 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West (Simon & Schuster, 2024) is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been w...
Paddy Walker and Peter Roberts, "War's Changed Landscape?: A Primer on Conflict's Forms and Norms" (Howgate, 2023)
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout much of the 21st century thus far, the common argument among military pundits was that war has or will soon be radically changed in manners...
Elliot Short, "Building a Multiethnic Military in Post-Yugoslav Bosnia and Herzegovina" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On 1 January 2006, soldiers from across Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered to mark the official formation of a unified army; and yet, little over a decad...
John J. Michalczyk et al.. "Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and the Holocaust: A Prelude to Genocide" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For decades scholars have pored over Hitler's autobiographical journey/political treatise, debating if Mein Kampf has genocidal overtones and arguab...
Paul D. Barclay, "Kondo the Barbarian: A Japanese Adventurer and Indigenous Taiwan's Bloodiest Uprising" (Eastbridge Books, 2023)
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kondo the Barbarian: A Japanese Adventurer and Indigenous Taiwan's Bloodiest Uprising (Eastbridge Books, 2023) is a gripping and revealing account of...
Nicholas Morton, "The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187" (Oxford UP, 2020)
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Morton’s The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187 (Oxford UP, 2020) explores the military history of the m...
Simon Shuster, "The Showman: The Inside Story of the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky" (William Morrow, 2024)
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since Simon Shuster's November 2023 Time cover story ("Nobody believes in our victory like I do - Nobody"), anyone with an interest in the war in Ukra...
Bradley R. Clampitt, "Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity" (LSU Press, 2022)
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity (LSU Press, 2022) by Dr. Bradley R. Clampitt is a groundbreaking analysis...
Christopher Corker, "The Business and Technology of the Sheffield Armaments Industry, 1900-1930" (U of York, 2016)
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Corker's The Business and Technology of the Sheffield Armaments Industry, 1900-1930 (U of York, 2016) focuses on four in-depth case stud...
Uri Kaufman, "Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East" (St. Martin's Press, 2023)
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
October 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dange...
James C. Goodall, "Nautilus to Columbia: 70 Years of the US Navy's Nuclear Submarines" (Osprey, 2023)
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Nautilus to Columbia: 70 Years of the US Navy's Nuclear Submarines (Osprey, 2023), James C. Goodall covers the origins, design and development o...
Jeffrey A. Friedman, "The Commander-in-Chief Test: Public Opinion and the Politics of Image-Making in US Foreign Policy" (Cornell UP, 2023)
14 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Americans frequently criticize US foreign policy for being overly costly and excessively militaristic. With its rising defense budgets and open-ended ...
Matthew Levitt, "Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad" (Yale UP, 2008)
14 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The world is reeling from the savage terror attack that brutalized, raped, murdered and kidnapped Israelis and civilians from at least 25 other countr...
Yaroslav Trofimov, "Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence" (Penguin, 2023)
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since February 2022, a string of books have been published about the war in Ukraine but, for the most part, these have been histories and political st...
Paul F. Diehl et al., "When Peacekeeping Missions Collide: Balancing Multiple Roles in Peace Operations" (Oxford UP, 2023)
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The contemporary world is beset with a wide variety of conflicts, all of which have features without historical precedent. While most accounts of peac...
Bryan Mark Rigg, "The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers: Rebbe Joseph Isaac Schneersohn and His Astonishing Rescue" (UP of Kansas, 2016)
07 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Hitler invaded Warsaw in the fall of 1939, hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped in the besieged city. The Rebbe Joseph Schneersohn, th...
Colin Jones, "The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris" (Oxford UP, 2021)
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The day of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) is universally acknowledged as a major turning-point in the history of the French Revolution. At 12.00 midnight,...
Genealogies of Modernity Episode 7: A Genealogy of Gun Violence
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roo...
Julia F. Irwin, "Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century" (UNC Press, 2023)
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century (UNC Press, 2023) offers a sweeping history of US foreign disaster ass...
Elena Schneider, "The Occupation of Havana: War, Trade and Slavery in the Atlantic World" (UNC Press, 2018)
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Histories of the British occupation of Havana in 1762 have focused on imperial rivalries and the actions and decisions of European planters, colonial ...
Jeffrey Whyte, "The Birth of Psychological War: Propaganda, Espionage, and Military Violence from WWII to the Vietnam War" (Oxford UP, 2023)
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jeffrey Whyte's book The Birth of Psychological War: Propaganda, Espionage, and Military Violence from WWII to the Vietnam War (Oxford UP, 2023) exp...
Jeremy Yellen, "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War" (Cornell UP, 2019)
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Yellen’s The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Cornell University Press, 2019) is a challenging transn...
On Native American Warfare: A Discussion with Author and Historian Wayne E. Lee
24 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How did Native Americans make war, not with European settlers, but amongst themselves? Historian Wayne E. Lee, a professor at the University of North ...
Yael A. Sternhell, "War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War" (Yale UP, 2023)
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Yael A. Sternhell's War on Record: The Archive and the Aftermath of the Civil War (Yale University Press, 2023) is a history of the United States' g...
John D. Hosler, "Seven Myths of Military History" (Hackett Publishing, 2022)
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John D. Hosler's book Seven Myths of Military History (Hackett Publishing, 2022) "offers snapshots of seven pernicious myths in military history th...
Huw Bennett, "Uncivil War: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966–1975" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Huw Bennett is a Reader in International Relations at Cardiff Unviersity. He specializes in strategic studies, the history of war, and intelligence st...
Magda Stroińska, "My Life in Propaganda: A Memoir about Language and Totalitarian Regimes" (Durvile, 2023)
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My Life in Propaganda: A Memoir about Language and Totalitarian Regimes (Durvile, 2023) is Magda Stroińska’s personal account of growing up with c...
Wayne Soon, "Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History" (Stanford UP, 2020)
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Wayne Soon about his book Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History (Stanford UP, 2020). In 1938, one year into the Second Si...
Vladyslav Besedovskyy, "Uniforms and History of the Soviet Airborne in Afghanistan" (Safar, 2023)
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The central focus of Vladyslav Besedovskyy's book Uniforms and History of the Soviet Airborne in Afghanistan (Safar, 2023) is a massive collection...
Gary J. Bass, "Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia" (Knopf, 2023)
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia (Knopf, 2023), a book ten years in the making, is the definitive account of t...
Ronald C. White, "On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain" (Random House, 2023)
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdo...
Troels Burchall Henningsen, "Western Intervention and Informal Politics: Simulated Statebuilding and Failed Reforms" (Routledge, 2021)
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Western Intervention and Informal Politics: Simulated Statebuilding and Failed Reforms (Routledge, 2021) by Dr. Troels Burchall Henningsen examines t...
Jonathan Sumption, "Triumph and Illusion: The Hundred Years War, Vol. 5" (Faber & Faber, 2023)
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Triumph and Illusion (Faber & Faber, 2023) is the final volume of Jonathan Sumption's epic history of the Hundred Years War. It tells the story of...
Louis-Alexandre Berg, "Governing Security After War: The Politics of Institutional Change in the Security Sector" (Oxford UP, 2022)
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Security assistance has become the largest component of international peacebuilding and stabilisation efforts, and a primary tool for responding to ci...
Martin C. Dean, "Investigating Babyn Yar: Shadows from the Valley of Death" (Lexington Books, 2023)
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Investigating Babyn Yar: Shadows from the Valley of Death (Lexington Books, 2023) pieces together the story of the destruction of Kyiv's Jews using ...
Alexandra Kitty, "A Different Track: Hospital Trains of the Second World War" (Heritage House, 2023)
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Railroads played an integral role in the Second World War. Trains brought food, munitions, and essential supplies. They transported troops. They were ...
Katharine M. Millar, "Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community" (Oxford UP, 2022)
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the past, it was assumed that men, as good citizens, would serve in the armed forces in wartime. In the present, however, liberal democratic states...
Burkhard Bilger, "Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets" (Random House, 2023)
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A New Yorker staff writer investigates his grandfather, a Nazi Party Chief, in this “unflinching, gorgeously written, and deeply moving exploration ...
Ibrahim Fraihat and Isak Svensson, "Conflict Mediation in the Arab World" (Syracuse UP, 2023)
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Isak Svensson (editor) and Laurie Nathan (contributor) about Conflict Mediation in the Arab World (Syracuse UP, 2023), a very im...
Timothy G. Heck and Walker D. Mills, "Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences" (Army UP, 2023)
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Timothy G. Heck and Walker D. Mills edited volume Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences (Army UP, 2023) is an extensive collection of...
Sima Saigal, "The Second World War and North East India: Shadows of Yesteryears" (Routledge, 2022)
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sima Saigal's The Second World War and North East India: Shadows of Yesteryears (Routledge, 2022) discusses the untold story of North East India's r...
Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilisation
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The “barbarian” nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. T...
Andrew Pettegree, "The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict" (Basic Books, 2023)
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chairman Mao was a librarian. Stalin was a published poet. Evelyn Waugh served as a commando - before leaving to write Brideshead Revisited. Since the...
Andrekos Varnava, "British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925: Empire, Loyalties and Democratic Deficit" (Routledge, 2020)
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most of the Cypriot population, especially the lower classes, remained loyal to the British cause during the Great War and the island contributed sign...
Ran Zwigenberg, "Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ran Zwigenberg’s Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (U Chicago Press, 2023) explores early ...
G. H. Bennett, "The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys" (US Naval Institute Press, 2023)
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys (US Naval Institute Press, 2023) by Dr. G. H. Bennett examines th...
Brian D. Blankenship, "The Burden-Sharing Dilemma: Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics" (Cornell UP, 2023)
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Burden-Sharing Dilemma: Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics (Cornell UP, 2023) examines the conditions under which the United States is wi...
Peter Samsonov, "IS-2: Development, Design, and Production of Stalin's Warhammer" (Military History Group, 2022)
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The IS-2 is the quintessential Soviet heavy tank from World War 2. Heavily armored and boasting a fearsome 122mm gun, this tank matched the German pan...
Edward L. Ayers, "American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860" (Norton, 2023)
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 (Norton, 2023) is a revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation d...
Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel, "Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States" (Polity, 2023)
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russia and Ukraine have alternative histories and alternative destinies. After the Soviet Union collapsed - depending on who you spoke to – they wer...
Jenny Benham, "International Law in Europe, 700–1200" (Manchester UP, 2022)
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Was there international law in the Middle Ages? Using treaties as its main source, International Law in Europe, 700-1200 (Manchester University Pres...
William S. Kiser, "Illusions of Empire: The Civil War and Reconstruction in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The 19th-century Mexican-American borderlands were a complicated place. By the 1860s, Confederates, Americans, Mexicans, French, and various Native so...
Andrew Monaghan and Richard Connolly. "The Sea in Russian Strategy" (Manchester UP, 2023)
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The common perception of Russia's status as a great power is often portrayed as being based largely on land power. Being the largest country in the wo...