Ralph Waldo Emerson is said to have observed, “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” As we do each year at The Strategy Bridge, we pause to reflect on our #Reviewing series, the books and movies and other work we’ve consumed as a community—the intellectual meal we’ve shared—and consider what they have helped us to make of ourselves, what they’ve helped us become.
Has the intellectual feast of the past year made us more aware of the interaction between changing technologies in war and the psychology of those who fight in war? Has it opened us to a better understanding of why humans fight these things we call wars, a clearer idea of the enduring nature and changing character of what it means to win in war, a sobering reflection on what fighting and not winning wars can do to a military? Has it opened a window through which we can view our own history and the history of others, making us more thoughtful in our approach to war, strategy, and each other? Has it given us a less prosaic language to express who we were, who we are, and who we will become? Perhaps our intellectual feast of the past year has done all this and more.
Looking forward to the coming year, we confront the beautiful reality that who we were and who we are perhaps matter less than who we will be. What matters is not what has been made but what we will make, not having become but becoming. And just as the books we have read made us, so the books we will read will transform us.
We look forward to working with all of you in making ourselves and each other—our Strategy Bridge community—stronger and broader and better in the coming year.
#TheBridgeReads
Remote Warfare: New Cultures of Violence. Edited by Rebecca A. Adelman and David Kieran. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2020.
Read a review from Adrian R. Lewis here:
This book is worth reading. Some of the essays are excellent. However, for those seeking a broader understanding of the conduct of drone warfare, I would recommend some foundational reading on the development and evolution of airpower theory and doctrine before delving into the development and employment of drone technology since 9/11.
The British are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777. Rick Atkinson. NY: Henry Holt and Co., 2019.
Read a review from Alexander N. Pickands here:
A mighty military with a global reach and a warrior tradition bogged down in the complexities of war waged in dispersed battlegrounds upon another continent. A fearsome host unable to achieve its goals despite outclassing the training, discipline, equipment, and resources of its foes. National leaders with every confidence in victory reinforced by a continuing stream of misleading and optimistic reports. Although evocative of a more contemporary conflict and military, war historian Rick Atkinson’s latest work is about the bloody birth of America and masterfully exposes the Revolutionary War in all its confusion, complexity, and discord.
The Arab Bulletin. R.L. Bidwell, ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, Archive Editions, 1986.
Read Michael Barr’s review here:
In The Arab Bulletin, the origins of many of the region’s current instabilities can be found in the reports about restive tribes, dynasties, and leaders. Even today, the content, methodology, analysis, and writing style of the Arab Bulletin are relevant. In essence the Bulletin is a fourteen volume master class in the use of intelligence and hybrid warfare in immediate and long term strategy. T.E. Lawrence was the only officer who wrote comprehensively about his work with the Arab Bureau, and some of his work is suspect.
The Wolves of Helmand: A View from Inside the Den of Modern Warfare. Frank “Gus” Biggio. Forefront Books, 2020.
Read Emily Swain’s review here:
Overall, Biggio conveys a great deal of information in a compact, highly-readable form. He touches lightly, but from the heart, on serious topics which makes this an accessible book for even the least militarily-savvy reader. An informed reader will appreciate the tale, while less-knowledgeable readers will enjoy gaining a broad understanding of the events without having to consult references.
Rational Empires: Institutional Incentives and Imperial Expansion. Leo Blanken. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Read a review from Jason L. Lepore here:
The literature on international security for the last three decades has primarily focused on the twin problems of terrorism and insurgency as the principal threats to the global status quo, and in doing so has neglected the role of conquest as an instrument within great power competition. The emerging era of bare-knuckled territorial aggrandizement by revisionist great powers, therefore, has largely caught the academy underprepared. Given this, I offer a ten-year anniversary review of a book that could assist in shaping our understanding of the changing nature of the international system today.
So Frag & So Bold: Short Poems, Aphorisms & Other Wartime Fun. Randy Brown. Johnston, IA: Middle West Press, 2021.
Read a review from Andria Williams here:
The line between poems and jokes runs thin in Randy Brown’s new collection, So Frag and So Bold—but in the best possible way. Brown, in a series of mostly very-short poems, quips, and aphorisms, brings the gallows humor of military life to the stage in a unique, funny, and moving way all at once. These poems feel both very real and also imaginative, almost like a Greek chorus calling out in intervals from stage left, telling you the real thing you need to know.
Just and Unjust Uses of Limited Force. Daniel Brunstetter. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Read a review from Paul Vicars here:
Just and Unjust Uses of Limited Force by Daniel Brunstetter offers an insightful look into the permissions and limits of international force short of war. Brunstetter proposes a theory of justice for limited force (or vim in Latin). The need for such a study is indicated by the fact that most of the terminology used to describe morality in war does not adequately capture contemporary uses of force, which warrants additional vocabulary. This is what Brunstetter provides. Full of contemporary examples and counterfactuals, Brunstetter's work offers a relevant heuristic to aid in understanding the fights of today.
Why War? Christopher Coker. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Read Wayne Lee’s review here:
It is no small task to write a book that begins with the evolutionary history of humans and ends with artificial intelligence and the “Skynet” problem, but Coker has a long track record of wide-ranging analyses of war and warfare. Despite being retired from a professorship of International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science, he continues to direct the LSE’s foreign policy think tank and is a regular participant or consultant in UK and NATO military education and strategic planning circles. Crucial to this book, he has published a number of other works, many of them full length treatments of subjects that are revisited more briefly in this impressive synthesis.
The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict. Elbridge A. Colby. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021.
Read a review by Kelley Jhong here:
Elbridge Colby, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development and a leading official in the development of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, has the curriculum vitae to provide an authoritative reassessment of U.S. defense strategy. Anchored in theory and bolstered by historical references, the book provides valuable nuggets of information, but it stops short of being groundbreaking—particularly for readers who are already well abreast of Chinese affairs and the principles of strategy.
Brutality in an Age of Human Rights: Activism and Counterinsurgency at the End of the British Empire. Brian Drohan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017.
Read Heather Venable’s review here:
Culture and, more specifically, human terrain has not gone away with the returned focus on strategic competition. Drohan’s work highlights the tensions between moral and immoral and legal and illegal ways of seeking to defeat insurgencies as well as how governments shape and disseminate narratives that will be equally important in more conventional conflicts of the future. From winning hearts and minds to large-scale combat operations themselves, morality—indeed the whole expanse of human terrain—is just as important as lethality, not only to strategic narratives but to strategy itself.
War of Supply: World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean. David D. Dworak. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2022.
Read Jobie Turner’s review here:
In the historiography of the Second World War, scholars marvel at the wonders of Normandy and D-Day, followed by the famed Red Ball Express on the drive to Paris. Dworak makes the compelling case that the real support and logistics operation came from wartime experience further south. As a reader, it is delightful to see a simple and straightforward narrative play out. Dworak digs into all facets of logistics and stays on task. The author keeps his chapters fast-paced, focused on the big operations of Torch, Husky, Avalanche, Shingle, and Dragoon, while also describing fascinating tidbits along the way.
Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy. Wolfram Eilenberger, trans. Shaun Whiteside. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2020.
Read a review from Nathan H. White here:
The continent-wide desolation of the First World War left its impact on the philosophical landscape of Europe. We cannot yet know what effects the Global War on Terror will have on the philosophy of the future. The philosophical problems and solutions will certainly be different, but the reality of war experiences, although varied, will no doubt precipitate new attempts at unraveling the mysteries of human lived experience. We must give attention to this influence and the diverse ways it may manifest itself in the lives of those both directly and indirectly affected by war…Eilenberger’s able account is necessary reading, for its creativity, its depth of philosophical understanding, and its exploration of the “decade that reinvented philosophy,” whose insights have significant resonances and cautions for our own time.
Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and The Diffusion of Military Technology. Robert M. Farley and Davida H. Isaacs. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Read a review from Jo Brick here:
Robert M. Farley and Davida H. Isaacs’s contribution to both fields of international relations and intellectual property lies in their ability to explain the legal system that results in the diffusion of military technology in some cases. The diffusion of military technology is explained in the book by the difference in political factors, organizational structures, or protective security frameworks. The legal explanation for the commonality of some military technologies is not well understood but is a significant factor for explaining why some military technologies are more accessible and widespread than others. Further, their work is of contemporary importance noting the monolithic nature of the global defense industry, consisting of public and private partnerships as well as collaborative approaches to high end military technologies that require complex legal frameworks.
Promising Young Woman [Motion Picture]. Emerald Fennell (Director). United States: United International Pictures, 2020.
Read Daniel Hulter’s review here:
We need to be willing to push through the perception of oppression and subsequent defensiveness if we want to have any hope of creating a cultural system of respect and dignity, to combat and dismantle the firmly established and thriving cultural system that keeps women as unsafe as they are. Much of this work lies with us who like to consider ourselves clean-handed simply because we are not overt predators. We need to be in the arena and willing to fail embarrassingly in front of our peers, who will judge us, cast us out, and retaliate against us for violating their cultural system, the system built for us, and from which we benefit.
On Operations: Operational Art and Military Disciplines. Brett A. Friedman. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2021.
Read Paul J. Cook’s review here:
On Operations is both well-written and a solid work of theory supported by strong historical research. One may argue against Friedman’s conclusions on the utility of the operational level of war as a valid concept, and a much smaller and more logical SOT Snowman, but one cannot argue that the arguments are not well constructed. Similarly, his articulation of operational art and its constituent disciplines are both logical and clear. Operational art represents something of a niche topic, but for those studying it, Friedman’s work is the proverbial must read.
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War. Malcolm Gladwell. New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2021.
Read Michael L. Miranda’s review here:
Malcolm Gladwell is known for telling stories—stories about success, societal change, underdogs, and how people or groups of people misunderstand each other. In his book, The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World. Gladwell brings to life historical figures who were instrumental in developing the United States’ bombing campaigns during World War II.
Marine Maxims: Turning Leadership Principles into Practice. Thomas J. Gordon. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2021.
Read a review from Jim Dietz here:
Before you finish the author’s introduction of Thomas Gordon’s Marine Maxims, Gordon confronts you with the assertion that there is nothing new in this book, that it is an accumulation of others’ ideas. On the surface, Gordon is correct. The concepts he discusses are not new. But dig a little deeper and Gordon’s assertion is also irrelevant. The value of Marine Maxims is in Gordon’s organization and synthesis of the material; his summation of each section; and the massive bibliography he provides for readers’ personal growth through further reading.
Mars Adapting: Military Change During War. Frank G. Hoffman. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2021.
Read a review from Martijn van der Vorm here:
In Mars Adapting, Frank Hoffman studies bottom-up adaptation through the lens of organizational learning theory to explain its dynamics. This theory states that business organizations must continuously evaluate their performance in a competitive and shifting environment to prosper and even survive. Hoffman states that this notion applies to militaries during wartime as they seek to gain an advantage over their adversaries.
Habits of Highly Effective Maritime Strategists. James R. Holmes. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2021.
Read a review from Kip DiEugenio here:
Holmes argues the profession of arms requires habits of mind, heart, and deed that are compatible with, though distinct from, Covey’s principles. The thrust of Holmes’ book is elegant in its simplicity: aspirants and practitioners of military strategy alike should learn from the habits of history’s great strategists and understand how to emulate their behaviors in the present.
Intelligence and the State: Analysts and Decision Makers. Jonathan M. House. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2022.
Read a Zachary Selden’s review here:
For a relatively short volume, Intelligence and the State manages to fill a range of gaps in the existing literature on the intelligence community. First and foremost, it provides a timely look at the issues confronting both policy makers and intelligence analysts that will only grow more relevant as technological advances increase the volume of raw information available to the intelligence community. Second, it offers the reader a condensed history of the European and American experiences with developing intelligence communities that would otherwise require combing through a range of academic literature. Finally, author Jonathan House leverages his decades of experience as a U.S. Army intelligence officer with valuable advice that can alleviate some of the pressures on the intelligence community and help the national security establishment avoid missing warning signs in the current environment.
Hoarding Memory: Covering the Wounds of the Algerian War. Amy L. Hubbell. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2020.
Read Evan Procknow’s review here:
Overall, Hubbell’s work illustrates how literature, history, and art refract the memory of the Algerian War. These memories are multiple, varied, and ultimately accretive, which impedes healing and progress for both French and Algerians across both sides of the Mediterranean. Hubbell’s book will be of great interest not only to scholars of France and Algeria, but also to anyone examining memory, trauma, and contested historical narratives.
Streets Without Joy: A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959–2009. Michael A.K.G. Innes. London: Hurst Publishers, 2021.
Read Andrew J. Whitford’s review here:
Innes’ work is an important starting place for any scholar or practitioner seeking to understand the significance of sanctuary as a guiding concept as well as the evolution of Cold War thinking through the era of globalization and the U.S. Global War on Terror. His book is a superb example of blending real world experience with in-depth research and analysis. Its insightful examination of the shifting definitions and uses of the concept of sanctuary offers important cautions for the present as it reveals the blind spots of the past.
First Platoon: A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance. Annie Jacobsen. New York: Dutton, 2021.
Read a review from Aaron Cross here:
Annie Jacobsen shows the reality of the concept of identity dominance over a population in First Platoon. She weaves together her main themes through four questions—what are the boundaries of a persistent surveillance state enabled by advances in biometrics; who should own and have access to biometric data of a population; how has the face of battle changed in an identity dominance environment; and what is justice in this new environment?
Three Dangerous Men: Russia, Iran, China, and the Rise of Irregular Warfare. Seth G. Jones. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.
Read a review from Andrew Webster here:
Three Dangerous Men is a fast read that is also full of details and insights into the lives of Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, the late Iranian Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani, and Vice Chair Zhang Youxia of China’s Central Military Commission. Jones presents the reader with formative experiences in the life and professional development of the three military leaders and how they each contributed to shaping the 21st century military and foreign policies of their respective countries.
The Immigrant Superpower: How Brains, Brawn, and Bravery Make America Stronger. Tim Kane. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Read Gavin Kim’s review here:
This book is relevant today as Americans constantly disagree on the impact of immigrants. It will also continue to remain relevant as immigrants will always be a point of contention for years to come. The United States may not be perfect, but Kane argues for immigrants making it better, not worse. Any American would benefit from reading this book and educating themselves on the impact immigrants have on the U.S. and why they contribute to making this country a true world superpower.
The Inheritance: America’s Military After Two Decades of War. Mara E. Karlin. Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution Press, 2022.
Read Amy Rutenberg’s review here:
Mara E. Karlin’s new book, The Inheritance: America’s Military After Two Decades of War is a sobering yet necessary read. In looking at the effects of the post-9/11 wars on the U.S. military, she asks—and proposes answers to—two questions. First, “[h]ow did the most capable military in U.S. history—indeed in the history of the world—fight to, at best, a draw in its longest contemporary conflict?” And second, “why has this not been the subject of greater reflection and debate.”
Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II. Paul Kennedy and Ian Marshall. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022.
Read a review from Erik Sand here:
Almost eighty years after that war’s end, it sometimes seems little remains to be written about the war at sea. Is another history needed? Kennedy’s genius has always been his ability to highlight how the shifting tectonic plates of power underlie and help explain the surface history, sometimes represented in a single event. Rather than uncovering new history, Victory at Sea arranges existing history in ways that better reveal the whole.
Centre for Military Ethics Playing Cards: Military Deck. King’s College London Centre for Military Ethics, 2021.
Read a review from Ray Kimball here:
The KCME Military Ethics Education Playing Cards Deck is an exceptionally versatile tool that has great utility for both individual reflection and organizational-level ethics education. It should become part of professional military ethics education toolkits across the U.S. Armed Forces and its allies and partners. As more military practitioners use the Deck, they should contribute their own stories and perspectives to KCME to make the tool even better.
Hemispheric Alliances: Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America. Andrew J. Kirkendall. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2022.
Read Miles Culpepper’s review here:
In Hemispheric Alliances: Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America, Andrew J. Kirkendall provides a thoughtful analysis of the Latin America policy devised by liberal Democrats in the period running from the 1960s to 1980s. The book’s core argument is that liberals in the Democratic Party attempted to design and implement a foreign policy for Latin America that moved beyond the Cold War strategy of containment. Instead of containment, these policymakers sought to leverage U.S. power to foster economic development, democracy, and human rights in the region.
Soldiers of End-Times: Assessing the Military Effectiveness of the Islamic State. Ido Levy. Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2021.
Read a review from Kyle K. Rable here:
Soldiers of End-Times: Assessing the Military Effectiveness of the Islamic State is a timely study of the effectiveness of the military tactics and strategy of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 to 2019. Throughout his study, Levy examines how IS fought their form of an effective conventional war. In examining the effectiveness of IS military operations, Levy is one of the first to attempt to create a larger study on IS. Levy is restricted in his study by the novelty of his subject. The fall of IS is still very recent at the time of publication and many of the U.S. defense sources are still restricted to the general public.
Slow Burn: The Road to the Iraq War. Noreen Malone. Podcast Audio, 2021.
Read Katherine Judith Anderson’s review here:
Telling the story of forever wars requires a long cast list. It is a lot of story—maybe even a forever story—not only because it must communicate an overwhelming amount of information about an event that has not yet ended, but also because it is the story about ourselves that Americans must compulsively return to, retelling it again and again in an effort to make sense of the imbroglio that has defined the United States for the last twenty years.
Battle Tested!: Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders. Jeffrey D. McCausland and Tom Vossler. Brentwood TN: Post Hill, 2020.
Read Leo Li’s review here:
Battle Tested! focuses on the three decisive days of battle—July 1 to 3, 1863—between George Meade’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near the sleepy town of Gettysburg. The chapters provide historical and biographical background and then present a “Leadership Moment” for the reader, asking what they would do in a particular commander’s shoes at that point. Then the authors present several leadership qualities at play in the scenario, explain the importance of each, and provide modern examples to supplement their analysis.
Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games. Sid Meier with Jennifer Lee Noonan. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Read a review from Brandon Valeriano here:
Constructing open worlds and the freedom to develop innovative strategies that incubate strategic minds or threaten authoritarian societies are the unexplored frontiers. The lessons in game design that Civilization offers are important for the developing wargame research community to understand as decision-making games become a critical part of the military education process.
Pearl Harbor: Japan’s Attack and America’s Entry into World War II. Takuma Melber. trans. by Nick Somers. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2020.
Read a review from John Gripentrog here:
Given the profusion of books, articles, websites, and documentaries about Japan’s surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, even someone with a passing interest in this historic event may wonder what another scholarly title could possibly add to the discussion. Japanese-German historian Takuma Melber’s answer in Pearl Harbor: Japan’s Attack and America’s Entry into World War II is two-fold: his book eloquently synthesizes both Japanese and American secondary and primary sources on the attack, and the narrative is told primarily from the perspective of the Japanese.
War and Resistance in the Philippines, 1942-1944. James Kelly Morningstar. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2021.
Read a review from John S. Reed here:
Morningstar succeeds in his stated intention to “provide a basis for a fuller discussion of resistance during war as experienced in the Philippines during World War II.” As his work makes clear, localized regional insurgencies, both unified and fragmented, can coincide with and fit into larger symmetric conflicts. However, he ignores the evolution of the scholarship in elucidating the nature of asymmetric war. Specifically, he stops short of critically explaining the conflict that he otherwise ably narrates.
¡Vamos a Avanzar!: The Chaco War and Bolivia’s Political Transformation, 1899-1952. Robert Niebuhr. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2021.
Read John Bawden’s review here:
In 1932, Bolivia and Paraguay went to war over dry, sparsely populated territories in the Chaco region of South America. Three years of fighting had wide-ranging consequences. National consciousness developed among Bolivia’s disparate peoples and the war increased the importance of public opinion in political life. One postwar rallying cry of veterans, ¡Vamos a avanzar! (Let’s move forward), expressed their desire for reformist modernization.
Disruption: Inside the Largest Counterterrorism Investigation in History. Aki J. Peritz. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2021.
Read a review from James Forest here:
Written in the style of an engaging spy thriller, the story takes the reader through a series of events involving real individuals with capabilities and intentions to harm others. The plot in a nutshell: a handful of individuals inspired–and in some cases trained–by al-Qaeda attempted to smuggle liquid explosives on board U.S.-bound transatlantic flights. If successful, they would have destroyed multiple aircraft, murdered thousands of people, and increased public fear worldwide about aviation travel. The economic toll could have been comparable to that of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the end, the most impactful thing these plotters did was provoke a change in aviation security wherein passengers can no longer bring over three ounces of liquids through the airport security checkpoints. This is a story, certainly a compelling one, about the failure of a terrorist plot.
Out Standing in the Field: A Memoir by Canada's First Female Infantry Officer. Sandra Perron. Toronto, Canada: Cormorant Books, 2017.
Read Brandee Leon’s review here:
Out Standing in the Field gives valuable insight into what women go through in the armed forces. While it is a military-specific memoir, it will also resonate with many women who are in any traditionally male-dominated professions. Perron’s experiences are important to understand for those looking to bring about change, a popular topic in this Me Too era. What Perron endured, and the response of those in leadership roles, highlights what needs to be addressed to put the military on track for improvement.
Beyond Blue Skies: the Rocket Plane Programs That Led to the Space Age. Chris Petty, with foreword by Dennis R. Jenkins. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2020.
Read Stephanie Smith’s review here:
In Beyond Blue Skies: the Rocket Plane Programs That Led to the Space Age, Chris Petty provides a basic, thoroughgoing primer on the history of rocket plane programs at Edwards Air Force Base, California, beginning with the X-1. This history connects directly both to the military and national security aims of the United States in the post-World War II world and the dawning of the space race.
On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones. Wayne Phelps. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2021.
Read Geoffrey Britzke’s review here:
While the intense psychological burden borne by the soldier engaged in battle is not in doubt, understanding what specific factors exact the greatest toll, or how the willingness to kill relates to battlefield outcomes, remains ripe for exploration…Wayne Phelps’s addition to this literature seems to be a direct continuation of Grossman’s work, and Phelps pushes the same thesis as Grossman—that warriors do not naturally want to kill—into the field of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs).
The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Way of War. Stephen Robinson. Dunedin, New Zealand: Exisle Publishing, 2021.
Read a review from Robert Ehlers here:
The book is bold and provocative. Its ideas deserve serious consideration across the services—particularly in the Marine Corps, where maneuver warfare was most fully adopted. It is nonetheless paradoxical: strong in many respects but not in others, beautifully balanced in several key arguments but also weaker in others, ultimately reducing the strength of Robinson’s central argument that Boyd was a blind strategist whose theories did much more harm than good in the American military establishment. Specifically, while Robinson addresses specific weaknesses in Boyd’s theory and approach effectively, he misses or ignores its strengths.
Her Cold War: Women in the US Military, 1945-1980. Tanya L. Roth. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Read a review from Marissa Kester here:
Her Cold War by Tanya Roth offers an insightful explanation of how, contrary to the popular narrative, Cold War era servicewomen were essentially the pioneers of the second wave feminist push for gender equality in the United States. The book focuses on the period between 1945 and 1980—a deceptively small window of time for such an impactful period both for women in the military and in U.S. culture more broadly. In 1945, there was no Department of Defense, separate Air Force, or a permanent place for women in any existing branch of the military. By 1980, only two generations later, the first groups of women were piloting military aircraft and graduating from military service academies.
Rough Draft: Cold War Military Manpower Policy and the Origins of Vietnam-Era Draft Resistance. Amy J. Rutenberg. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019.
Read William A. Taylor’s review here:
Rough Draft is the best work on this topic to appear in quite some time. It should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the draft and will likely become the standard work for the foreseeable future. It is lucidly written, tightly argued, and prodigiously researched. Most importantly, it provides an original interpretation of the inner workings of manpower policies during the Cold War and their tremendous—and often unintended—consequences.
A Machine-Gunner In France: The Memoirs of Ward Schrantz, 35th Division, 1917-1919. Ward Schrantz, Jeffrey L. Patric, ed. Denton, TX: University Of North Texas Press, 2019.
Read a review from David Retherford here:
Captain Ward Schrantz has written a detailed account of his personal experiences during a 22-month deployment covering his mobilization in the United States, his combat involvement on The Western Front, and his demobilization back to the United States during the First World War. Schrantz’s account was executed with minute details that highlight the sacrifices and hardships endured by the soldiers of Company A, and a general reader with limited knowledge of the 35th Infantry Division’s role in the First World War may not benefit as much from the elaborate detail left by Schrantz or the archival work added by Patrick. But this is ultimately a book about one soldier before, during, and after the First World War.
Forces. Lisa Stice. Johnston, IA: Middle West Press, 2021.
Read Kate Gaskin’s review here:
Throughout the collection, the invisible forces that shape the speaker in Stice’s collection move in mysterious and yet predictable ways. The result is a world rich in detail and meaning that is nevertheless captive to the churning rituals of an often faceless and capricious military bureaucracy. Stice captures both the tension and beauty of these unseen forces in poems that celebrate quiet domestic moments and gently interrogate the hardships created by the itinerant lifestyle of a military family.
Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr. Paul Stillwell. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2021.
Read a review from Hal Friedman here:
Taking over forty years to complete as Stillwell worked on other projects for the United States Naval Institute, the final result was well worth the wait since it not only demonstrates Lee’s importance to American naval professionalism in his own day, but also his legacy of leadership for today’s Navy. The particular goal for Stillwell was to revive the memory of Lee to illustrate these leadership traits. Whether Stillwell succeeds in bringing Lee to our generation of sailors in the United States Navy—much less general American society—remains to be seen, but the biography is top notch.
Winning Wars: The Enduring Nature and Changing Character of Victory from Antiquity to the 21st Century. Matthias Strohn, ed. Oxford and Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022.
Read a review from B.K. Greener here:
The contributions in the text are easy to follow and highly interesting to read. The book is also very timely. It contributes a wide range of interesting material to ongoing debates about the future of war, the place of hybrid or grey operations as well as reminding us about the role of narratives, myth, and belief in shaping our understandings of what constitutes a win.
Clear, Hold, and Destroy: Pacification in Phú Yên and the American War in Vietnam. Robert J. Thompson. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021.
Read Daniel R. Hart’s review here:
The American response to the dilemma of creating a democratic society while waging a guerilla war was pacification, a European concept born out of colonization that was relatively new to Americans. In Clear, Hold, and Destroy, Army University Press historian Robert J. Thompson III closely analyzes Phu Yen, a mountainous and agricultural coastal province in Vietnam’s central highlands, to understand the gestation of American pacification, how it was implemented, and why it ultimately failed. In this study of the American commitment in Vietnam, Thompson underscores the centrality of conventional military forces in the implementation of pacification.
Liberating Libya: British Diplomacy and War in the Desert. Rupert Wieloch. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2021.
Read Brad W. Gladman’s review here:
Rupert Wieloch’s Liberating Libya: British Diplomacy and War in the Desert brings new insights to the story of British military and diplomatic involvement in Libya from the late seventeenth century to the present. The author draws mainly on a vast amount of secondary literature, supplemented with some primary material to tell the long story of British involvement in Libya. His compelling narrative is punctuated by numerous well-developed stories of personal action and sacrifice, and misfortune, which give it vivid depth and detail.
Understanding Peacekeeping, 3rd Edition. Paul D. Williams and Alex J. Bellamy. Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021.
Read a review from Christina Cliff here:
In the midst of ongoing armed conflicts in Yemen, Ethiopia, and myriad other locations, understanding potential tools for mitigating these crises is necessary. Paul Williams and Alex Bellamy’s third edition of Understanding Peacekeeping is timely. In this volume, Williams and Bellamy continue to build out their original 2004 release by evaluating and providing in-depth discussions of the changes in the international landscape and the drivers of peace operations over time. This is a textbook of peace operations centered on those endeavors that incorporate military personnel, which provides students and scholars in-depth analysis. For academics and students interested in peace operations, this book is a necessary research edition that could be used as a primary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses.
“Africa and Global Society: Marginality, Conditionality and Conjecture.” Stephen Wright. In Africa in the Post-Cold War International System. Edited by Sola Akinrinade and Amadu Sesay. London; Washington: Pinter, 1998.
Read a review from Will Turner here:
Wright’s “Africa in Global Society,” despite being twenty years old, contains a set of timeless lenses for viewing Africa in the contemporary era: Regionality, Continentality, New Issue solutions, and Democracy. When analyzed through this four-pillared framework, strategic and political engagement strategies may be more coherently framed and contextualized to facilitate the elusive whole-of-government approach.
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Header Image: Richard Macksey’s home library. (Will Kirk/Johns Hopkins University)