Michigan War Studies Review
Reviews, surveys, original essays, and commentary in the field of military studies.
Submissions
Persons interested in writing for the Michigan War Studies Review should (a) read our Book Review Guidelines, (b) subscribe to the Review and (c) indicate their qualifications and areas of expertise by contacting us. The Review does not accept contributions by pre-PhD scholars. Volunteers with extensive journalistic, military, or other relevant experience are welcome.

Inquiries from mainstream publishers, including university presses, wishing to have books reviewed in MiWSR are welcome; contact the editor.

Books Available for Review (most recent listings starred):

Ancient, Mediaeval

The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy
By Myke Cole
New York: Osprey Publ., 2021. Pp. xxii, 464. ISBN 978-1-4728-4375-3.
Sparta's Second Attic War: The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta, 446-418 B.C.
By Paul A. Rahe
New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2020. Pp. xxii, 384. ISBN 978-0-300-24262-1.

Early Modern

Revolutionary War

Napoleonic Wars/War of 1812

US West/Indian Wars

US Civil War

Civil War Places: Seeing the Conflict through the Eyes of Its Leading Historians
By Gary W. Gallagher and J. Matthew Gallman
Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2019. Pp. 199. ISBN 978-1-4696-4953-5.
* Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army after Appomattox
By Caroline E. Janney
Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2021. Pp. 331. ISBN 978-1-4696-6337-1.
Faces of Union Soldiers at South Mountain and Harpers Ferry
By Joseph Stahl and Matthew Borders
Charleston, SC: History Press, 2021. Pp. 188. ISBN 978-1-4671-4743-9.
A Fierce Glory: Antietam--The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery
By Justin Martin
New York: Da Capo Press, 2018. Pp. xvii, 318. ISBN 978-0-306-82525-5.
Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War
By S.C. Gwynne
New York: Scribner, 2019. Pp. xii, 395. ISBN 978-1-5011-1622-3.
The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges
By David Alan Johnson
Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2018. Pp. 384. ISBN 978-1-63388-397-0.
Michigan’s War: The Civil War in Documents
By John W. Quist
Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 2019. Pp. xix, 247. ISBN 978-0-8214-2312-7.
Radical Sacrifice: The Rise and Ruin of Fitz John Porter
By William Marvel
Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina, 2021. Pp. xv, 472. ISBN 978-1-4696-6185-8.
A Short History of the American Civil War
By Paul Christopher Anderson
New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. Pp. xxxi, 270. ISBN 978-1-78076-598-3.
The Siege of Vicksburg: Climax of the Campaign to Open the Mississippi River, May 23-July 4, 1863
By Timothy B. Smith
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2021. Pp. xxvii, 724. ISBN 978-0-7006-3225-1.
* The Union Blockade in the American Civil War: A Reassessment
By Michael Bonner and Peter McCord
Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2021. Pp. viii, 217. ISBN 978-1-62190-670-4.
The War for the Common Soldier: How Men Thought, Fought, and Survived in Civil War Armies
By Peter S. Carmichael
Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina, 2018. Pp. 392. ISBN 978-1-4696-4309-0.

19th-Century - Other

Word of Honor: A Peter Wake Novel
By Robert N. Macomber
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2020. Pp. xiv, 328. ISBN 978-1-68247-538-6.

World War I

American Women Report World War I: An Anthology of Their Journalism
Ed. Chris Dubbs
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2021. Pp. xviii, 310. ISBN 978-1-57441-825-5.
The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History
By Margalit Fox
New York: Random House, 2021. Pp. xvi, 329. ISBN 978-1-9848-5384-4.
Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front
By Irene Guenther
Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. xi, 245. ISBN 978-1-5017-5845-4.
Postcards from the Trenches: A German Soldier’s Testimony of the Great War
By Irene Guenther
New York: Bloomsbury, 2018. Pp. xiii, 232. ISBN 978-1-350-01575-3.
Reluctant Partner: The Complete Story of the French Participation in the Dardanelles Expedition of 1915
By George H. Cassar
Warwick, UK: Helion, 2019. Pp. xiii, 238. ISBN 978-1-911628-92-7.
Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett
By Joy Porter
New York: Bloomsbury, 2021. Pp. xii, 289. ISBN 978-1-350-19972-9.

World War II

The Battle of Leyte Gulf at 75: A Retrospective
Ed. Thomas J. Cutler
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2019. Pp. vii, 338. ISBN 978-1-68247-461-7.
Bluebottle Goes to War: Peter Sellers and the RAF Gang Shows
By P.J. Brownsword
London: Unicorn, 2020. Pp. 128. ISBN 978-1-91349101-7.
Churchill's Hellraisers: The Secret Mission to Storm a Forbidden Nazi Fortress
By Damien Lewis
New York: Citadel Press, 2020. Pp. xvi, 398. ISBN 978-0-8065-4074-0.
The Collapse of British Rule in Burma: The Civilian Evacuation and Independence
By Michael D. Leigh
New York: Bloomsbury, 2018. Pp. xx, 279. ISBN 978-1-4725-8973-6.
Drawing Fire: A Pawnee, Artist, and Thunderbird in World War II
By Brummett Echohawk and Mark R. Ellenbarger
Ed. Trent Riley. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2018. Pp. xvi, 231. ISBN 978-0-7006-2703-5.
The Exit Visa: A Family's Flight from Nazi Europe
By Sheila Rosenberg
New York: I.B. Tauris, 2019. Pp. xiv, 289. ISBN 978-1-78831-495-4.
* The Flight: A Father’s War, a Son’s Search
By Tyler Bridges
Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2021. Pp. 225. ISBN 978-0-8071-7537-8.
From Broken Glass: My Story of Finding Hope in Hitler's Death Camps to Inspire a New Generation
By Steve Ross, Glenn Frank, and Brian Wallace
New York: Hachette, 2018. Pp. xix, 266. ISBN 978-o-316-51304-3.
From Texas to Tinian and Tokyo Bay: The Memoirs of Captain J. R. Ritter, Seabee Commander during the Pacific War, 1942-1945
By Jonathan Templin Ritter
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2019. Pp. xi, 176. ISBN 978-1-57441-771-5.
German Ground Forces of World War II: Complete Orders of Battle for Army Groups, Armies, Army Corps, and Other Commands of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, September 1, 1939, to May 8, 1945
By William McCroden, Thomas Nutter
El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2019. Pp. xxii, 519. ISBN 978-1-61121-109-2.
The Liberation of Paris: How Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and von Choltitz Saved the City of Light
By Jean Edward Smith
New York: Simon and Schester, 2019. Pp. 242. ISBN 978-1-5011-6492-7.
Living in the Shadow of a Hell Ship: The Survival Story of U.S. Marine George Burlage, a WWII Prisoner-of-War of the Japanese
By Georgianne Burlage
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2020. Pp. xii, 229. ISBN 978-1-57441-808-8.
Major General James A. Ulio: How the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army Enabled Allied Victory
By Alan E. Mesches
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2020. Pp. xiv, 202. ISBN 978-1-61200-826-4.
Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker
By Elena Rzhevskaya
Barnsley, UK: Greenhill, 2018. Pp. xxi, 329. ISBN 978-1-78438-281-0.
Men of Air: The Courage and Sacrifice of Bomber Command in World War II
By Kevin Wilson
New York: Pegasus, 2019. Pp. x, 435. ISBN 978-1-64313-006-4.
* Men of Armor: The History of B Company, 756th Tank Battalion in World War II: Part One: Beginnings, North Africa, and Italy
By Jeff Danby
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xviii, 369. ISBN 978-1-63624-013-8.
Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front: The Memoir of Dr Hans Rehfeldt Vol. 1: From the Moscow Winter Offensive to Operation Zitadelle
By Hans Heinz Rehfeld
Barnsley, UK: Greenhill Books, 2019. Pp. x, 341. ISBN 978-1-78438-361-9.
Narvik: The Struggle of Battle Group Dietl in the Spring of 1940 Vol. 1: From the Moscow Winter Offensive to Operation Zitadelle
By Alex Buchner
Trans. Janice W. Ancker. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2020. Pp. xxi, 218. ISBN 978-1-61200-917-9.
The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany
By Gwen Strauss
New York: St. Martin's, 2021. Pp. xii, 317. ISBN 978-1-250-23929-7.
Panzer Tactics: Tank Operations in the East, 1941-42
By Oskar Munzel
[Orig. German ed. 1959] Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xxxix, 167. ISBN 978-1-250-23929-7.
Pearl: December 7, 1941
By Daniel Allen Butler
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2020. Pp. vi, 354. ISBN 978-1-61200-938-4.
Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II
By Roger Moorhouse
New York: Basic Books, 2020. Pp. xxi, 408. ISBN 978-0-465-09538-4.
Secret Alliances: Special Operations And Intelligence in Norway 1940-1945
By Tony Insall
London: Biteback Publ., 2019. Pp. viii, 422. ISBN 978-1-785-90477-6.
Sent by the Iron Sky: The Legacy of an American Parachute Battalion in World War II
By Ian Gardner
New York: Osprey Publ., 2019. Pp. 260. ISBN 978-1-4728-3738-7.
Strick: Tank Hero of Arras
By Tim Strickland
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. 22, 490. ISBN 978-1-61200-985-8.
Taking Flight: The Nadine Ramsey Story
By Raquel Ramsey and Tricia Aurand
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2020. Pp. xxiv, 288. ISBN 978-0-7006-2980-0.
Vanguard: The True Stories of the Reconnaissance and Intelligence Missions behind D-Day
By David Abrutat
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2019. Pp. 400. ISBN 978-1-68247-454-9.
Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands: A Legitimate Heritage?
By Gilly Carr
New York: Bloomsbury, 2019. Pp. xii, 242. ISBN 978-1-4742-4565-4.
Women of the Third Reich: From Camp Guards to Combatants
By Tim Heath
Philadelphia: Pen and Sword, 2019. Pp. viii, 250. ISBN 978-1-5267-3945-2.

Cold War

Undersea Warriors: The Untold History of the Royal Navy's Secret Service
By Iain Ballantyne
New York: Pegasus, 2019. Pp. ix, 482. ISBN 978-1-64313-213-6.

Korean War

Baker Bandits: Korea's Band of Brothers
By Emmett Shelton Jr.
Ed. Cynthia Shelton. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2020. Pp. xxv, 350. ISBN 978-1-61200-898-1.

Vietnam War

Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam War
Ed. Geoffrey W Jensen and Matthew M. Smith
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2019. Pp. xii, 425. ISBN 978-1-57441-748-7.
Combat at Close Quarters: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War
Ed. Edward J. Marolda
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2018. Pp. xi, 346. ISBN 978-1-68247-195-1.
Phantom in the Sky: A Marine's Back Seat View of the Vietnam War
By Terry L. Thorsen
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2019. Pp. x, 329. ISBN 978-1-57441-75.
The Phantom Vietnam War: An F-4 Pilot's Combat over Laos
By David R. Honodel
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2018. Pp. xvi, 306. ISBN 978-1-57441-732-6.
A Quiet Cadence: A Novel
By Mark Treanor
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2020. Pp. vii, 379. ISBN 978-1-68247-506-5.
Uncommon Valor: The Recon Company that Earned Five Medals of Honor and Included America's Most Decorated Green Beret
By Stephen L. Moore
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2018. Pp. x, 412. ISBN 978-1-59114-574-5.
Unforgotten in the Gulf of Tonkin: A Story of the U.S. Military's Commitment to Leave No One Behind
By Eileen A. Bjorkman
Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2020. Pp. xi, 238. ISBN 978-1-64012-191-1.
War in the Villages: The U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons in the Vietnam War
By Ted N. Easterling
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2021. Pp. ix, 242. ISBN 978-1-57441-826-2.

20th Century - Other

The Fall and Rise of French Sea Power: France’s Quest for an Independent Naval Policy 1940–1963
By Hugues Canuel
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2021. Pp. xiv, 344. ISBN 978-1-68247-616-1.
The Macabresque: Human Violation and Hate in Genocide, Mass Atrocity and Enemy-Making
By Edward Weisband
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018. Pp. xv, 462. ISBN 978-0-19-067788-6.
Nature's Army: When Soldiers Fought for Yosemite
By Harvey Meyerson
2nd ed. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2020. Pp. xlii, 322. ISBN 978-0-7006-2950-3.
* A Navy Admiral's Bronze Rules: Managing Risk and Leadership
By Dave Oliver
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2021. Pp. xv, 214. ISBN 978-1-68247-721-2.
Red Crew: Fighting the War on Drugs with Reagan’s Coast Guard
By Jim Howe
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2018. Pp. xi, 288. ISBN 978-1-68247-301-6.
Soldiers of a Different Cloth: Notre Dame Chaplains in World War II
By John F. Wukovits
Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2018. Pp. xxv, 381. ISBN 978-0-268-10393-4.

21st Century

21st Century Power: Strategic Superiority for the Modern Era
Ed. Brent D. Ziarnick
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 192. ISBN 978-1-68247-313-9.
After the Wars: International Lessons From the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Ed. John A. Gentry and William M. Nolte
Washington: National Intelligence Press, 2018. Pp. viii, 344. ISBN 978-1-932946-12-3.
Beyond the Call: Three Women on the Front Lines in Afghanistan
By Eileen Rivers
New York: Da Capo Press, 2018. Pp. xxix, 254. ISBN 978-0-306-90307-6.
Cashing In on Cyberpower: How Interdependent Actors Seek Economic Outcomes in a Digital World
By Mark T. Peters II
Lincoln, NB: Potomac Books, 2018. Pp. xii, 268. ISBN 978-1-64012-013-6.
Grey Wars: A Contemporary History of U.S. Special Operations
By N.W. Collins
New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. 304. ISBN 978-0-300-19841-6.
Future War and the Defence of Europe
By John R. Allen, Frederick Ben Hodges, and Julian Lindley-French
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. xix, 326. ISBN 978-0-19-885583-5.
* High Risk: A True Story of the SAS, Drugs, and Other Bad Behaviour
By Ben Timberlake
London: Hurst, 2021. Pp. xii, 313. ISBN 978-1-78738-463-7.
Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars
By Jessica Trisko Darden, Alexis Henshaw, and Ora Szekely
Washington: Georgetown Univ. Press, 2019. Pp. x, 102. ISBN 978-1-62616-666-0.
The Sacking of Fallujah: A People's History
ByRoss Caputi, Richard Hil, and Donna Mulhearn
Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 2019. Pp. viii, 209. ISBN 978-1-62534-438-0.
Shattered Minds: How the Pentagon Fails Our Troops with Faulty Helmets
By Robert H. Bauman and Dina Rasor
Lincoln, NW: Potomac Books, 2019. Pp. xxv, 304. ISBN 978-1-64012-036-5.
Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley
By Paul Darling
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2019. Pp. xii, 168. ISBN 978-0-7006-2784-4.
War Flower: My Life after Iraq
By Brooke King
Lincoln, NB: Potomac Books, 2019. Pp. xv, 255. ISBN 978-1-64012-118-8.

Multiple time periods

9 Rules of Engagement: A Military Brat's Guide to Life and Success
By Harris Faulkner
New York: HarperCollins, 2018. Pp. xiv, 233. ISBN 978-0-06-269752-3.
Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
By Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang
New York: Norton, 2018. Pp. xiv, 576. ISBN 978-0-393-06444-5.
Across Cultures and Empires: An Immigrant's Odyssey from the Soviet Army to the US War in Iraq and American Citizenship
By Mahir Ibrahimov
New York: Norton, 2018. Pp. xiv, 576. ISBN 978-0-393-06444-5.
Ambitious Honor: George Armstrong Custer's Life of Service and Lust for Fame
By James E. Mueller
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2012. Pp. vi, 170. ISBN 978-0-7006-3223-7.
Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness
By Kenneth M. Pollack
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2019. Pp. xvi, 676. ISBN 978-0-19-090696-2.
Before Intelligence Failed: British Secret Intelligence on Chemical and Biological Weapons in the Soviet Union, South Africa and Libya
By Mark Wilkinson
London: Hurst, 2018. Pp. v, 229. ISBN 978-1-84904-300-7.
Brotherhood in Combat: How African Americans Found Equality in Korea and Vietnam
By Jeremy P. Maxwell
Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2018. Pp. xv, 207. ISBN 978-0-8061-6006-1.
The Civilianization of War: The Changing Civil-Military Divide, 1914-2014
Ed. Andrew Barros and Martin Thomas
New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018. Pp. x, 334. ISBN 978-1-108-42965-8.
Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity
By Walter Scheidel
Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2019. Pp. xviii, 670. ISBN 978-0-691-17218-7.
A Global History of Relocation in Counterinsurgency Warfare
By Edward J. Erickson
New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. Pp. xii, 286. ISBN 978-1-350-06259-7.
The Global Spread of Islamism and the Consequences for Terrorism
By Michael Freeman, with Katherine Ellena, and Amina Kator-Mubarez
Lincoln, NB: Potomac Books, 2021. Pp. vii, 250. ISBN 978-1-64012-370-0.
The Harmon Memorial Lectures in Military History, 1988–2017: A Collection of the Second Thirty (31–60) Harmon Lectures Given at the United States Air Force Academy
Ed. Mark E. Grotelueschen
Maxwell AFB: Air Univ. Press, 2020. Pp. xxvii, 626. ISBN 978-0-912799-58-2.
How the Army Made Britain a Global Power: 1688–1815
By Jeremy Black
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xv, 239. ISBN 978-1-95271-508-2.
How the Few Became the Proud: Crafting the Marine Corps Mystique 1874-1918
By Heather P. Venable
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2019. Pp. x, 334. ISBN 978-1-68247-468-6.
* Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War
By Samuel Moyn
New York: FSG, 2021. Pp. 400. ISBN 978-0-374-17370-8.
Israel’s Military Doctrine
By Ehud Eilam
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. Pp. xiii, 158. ISBN 978-1-4985-7563-8.
The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe
By Gábor Ágoston
Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. xv, 664. ISBN 978-0-691-15932-4.
Lessons in Leadership: My Life in the US Army from World War II to Vietnam
By John R. Deane Jr.
Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2018. Pp. xiv, 261. ISBN 978-0-8131-7494-5.
Minding the Helm: An Unlikely Career in the U.S. Coast Guard
By Kevin P. Gilheany
Denton: Univ. of North Texas Press, 2019. Pp. viii, 269. ISBN 978-1-57441-750-0.
New Principles of War: Enduring Truths with Timeless Examples
By Marvin Pokrant
Lincoln, NB: Potomac Books, 2021. Pp. xvii, 347. ISBN 978-1-64012-222-2.
Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Afghan Islamists Who Changed the World
By Chris Sands and Fazelminallah Qazizai
London: Hurst, 2019. Pp. xvi, 507. ISBN 978-1-78738-196-4.
Scripts of Terror: The Stories Terrorists Tell Themselves
By Benedict Wilkinson
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2020. Pp. xv, 236. ISBN 978-0-19-752189-2.
The Sniper Encyclopaedia: An A–Z Guide to World Sniping
By John Walter Hill
Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2019. Pp. xiv, 306. ISBN 978-1-61200-721-2.
Spymaster's Prism: The Fight against Russian Aggression
By Jack Devine
Lincoln, NB: Potomac Books, 2021. Pp. xxv, 266. ISBN 978-1-64012-378-6.
* Streets Without Joy: A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959-2009
By Michael A.K.G. Innes
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. xxii, 389. ISBN 978-0-19-756712-8.
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race
By Nicole Perlroth
New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. Pp. xxvii, 491. ISBN 978-1-63557-605-4.
The Top 100 Military Sites in America
By L. Douglas Keeney
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. Pp. xv, 267. ISBN 978-1-4930-3228-0.
Useful Captives: The Role of POWs in American Military Conflicts
Ed. Daniel Krebs and Lorien Foote
Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2021. Pp. xii, 330. ISBN 978-0-7006-3051-6.
War Narratives: Shaping Beliefs, Blurring Truths in the Middle East
By Caleb S. Cage
College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2019. Pp. xvi, 129. ISBN 978-1-62349-760-6.
War Stories: From the Charge of the Light Brigade to the Battle of the Bulge and Beyond
By Ann MacMillan and Peter Snow
New York: Pegasus Books, 2018. Pp. 344. ISBN 978-1-68177-852-5.
* Why War?
By Christopher Coker
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. vi, 256. ISBN 978-0-19-760273-7.
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Books Available for Review
15 Sept. 2021
For an updated list of books available for review, see Submissions.
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