Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? By Graham Allison Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY, (2017) Reviewed by Randall Fortson Looking Back to Find a Way Forward Thucydides concluded that the underlying reason for war between Athens and Sparta, a war that neither side wanted, was the rise
Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal Solomons Naval Campaign of World War II By Jeffrey R. Cox, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, (2018). Reviewed by David F. Winkler, Ph.D. Morning Star, Midnight Sun represents the author’s second foray into the war in the Pacific. His Rising Sun, Falling Skies, The Disastrous Java Sea
The Armament Tide: Rearming America By RADM Stuart Franklin Platt (Ret.), Granville Island Publishing, Vancouver, Canada, (2002). Reviewed by Jon S. Middaugh, Ph.D When published in 2002, The Armament Tide envisioned a Pentagon soon to be awash in the waves of procurement dollars that typically flow during times of war. Such large amounts
Squadron: Ending the African Slave Trade By John Broich, Overlook Dockworth, New York (2017). Reviewed by Diana L. Ahmad, Ph.D. When asked about the history of the slave trade, without hesitation most people will discuss slavery in the United States prior to 1865. Few will talk about the slave business in East Africa,
American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction By Craig Symonds, Oxford University Press, UK (2018). Reviewed by Warrant Officer Darien J. Garland, USMC Craig L. Symonds delivers a fast-paced narrative covering the history of change and advancements in the United States Navy. American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction gives the reader a broad
In the Warlords’ Shadow: Special Operations Forces, the Afghans, and Their Fight Against the Taliban. By Daniel R. Green, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. (2017). Reviewed by 1stLt Walker D. Mills, USMC In his new book In the Warlords’ Shadow, Daniel Green describes the success of Village Stability Operations (VSO) and the Afghan
Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules of Law By Jeremy Rabkin, John Yoo,: Encounter Books, New York, NY. (2017). Reviewed by John Grady Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules of Law is a thought-provoking and disturbing book. It fits well into the manner
Blue versus Purple: The U.S. Naval War College, the Soviet Union, and the New Enemy in the Pacific, 1946. By Hal Friedman, Naval War College Press, Newport, RI. 2017. Reviewed by Corbin Williamson, Ph.D. Hal Friedman likes trilogies.[1] His first three books (the American Lake series) examined the strategic, political, and administrative history
British Destroyers 1939-45: Wartime-built classes (New Vanguard #253) By Angus Konstam, Osprey, New York (2017). Reviewed by Jeffrey Schultz Angus Konstam, a naval historian and a prolific Osprey titles author, pens his second in the British destroyer series which follows up the earlier British Destroyers 1939-45: Pre-war Classes (New Vanguard #246). This work
U-Boats Off Bermuda: Patrol Summaries and Merchant Ship Survivors Landed in Bermuda 1940-1944 By Eric Wiberg, Fonthill Media, Charleston, SC: (2017). Reviewed by Timothy Heck Eric Wiberg’s U-Boats Off Bermuda recounts a story of the western side of the War in the Atlantic. With much of the scholarship focused on the combatants, and
Crucible of a Generation: How the Attack on Pearl Harbor Transformed America. By J. Kenneth Brody, Routledge, New York, (2017). Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D., Independent Scholar “All I know is what I read in the papers.” Will Rogers (Brody 2017:vi). This is an often mentioned quote (with variations) cited by author
Incidents at Sea: American Confrontations and Cooperation with Russia and China 1945-2016 by David F. Winkler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017). Reviewed by Charles Bogart The Cold War was exceptionally “cold” on land, as there were very few confrontations between Soviet and American ground forces along the land border between NATO and
In the Shadow of Greatness: The Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest War By Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz, and Graham Plaster, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. (2012). Reviewed by Capt. Lee Duckworth, USN (Ret.) In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest
The Strategy of Victory: How George Washington Won the American Revolution By Thomas Fleming. Da Capo Press, New York. (2017). Reviewed by David Curtis Skaggs, PhD Few topics in American history have received more attention than the War for Independence and George Washington’s role in it. Into this crowded field Thomas Fleming (1927-2017) brings
Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail By Suzanne J. Stark, Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Md. (2017). Reviewed by Joseph-James Ahern Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail is a reprint of the late Suzanne Stark’s 1996 study of women who went to sea aboard Royal Navy warships
