By Kevin Seabrooke

Full Reviews

Hammer of the Gods: King Olaf’s Viking Conquest (Don Hollway, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 400 pp., glossary, maps, illustrations, May 5, 2026 $40 HC), a compendium of all the main sources pertaining to the life one of the world’s most famous Vikings, is in itself a saga–and a highly readable one.

The Free and the Dead: The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, the Indigenous Rebel, and America’s Forgotten War (Jamie Holmes, Atria/One Signal Publishers/dist. Simon & Schuster, 384pp., Feb. 3, 2026 $30 HC)

American MiG Pilot: Inside the Top Secret USAF “Red Eagles” MiG Squadron (Rob Zettel, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 368 pp., 16-page color section, February 10, 2026 $30 HC)

The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home (Wil Haygood, Knopf, New York, NY, 384 pp., Feb. 10, 2026 $35 HC)

Kennedy’s Coup: How America Descended into Vietnam (Jack Cheevers, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 704 pp., Feb. 17, 2026 $35 HC)

A Fate Worse than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War (W. Fitzhugh Brundage, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 464pp., February 24, 2026 $38.99 HC)

DOOM 34: A Firsthand Account of the Top-Secret Mission that Launched Operation Desert Storm (Trey Morriss, Foreword by Thomas A. Bussiere, Lyons Press/dist. Simon & Schuster, 256pp., March 3, 2026 $29.95 HC)

World War II Day by Day, September 1 to September 6, 1939 (David H. Lippman, 305 pp., 2025 $4.99 Kindle e-book)

U.S. Mercenaries and the Condor Legion: Airpower in the Spanish Civil War (Major Christopher G. Marquis, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 336 pp., 5 Maps, 7 b/w Photos, 5 Tables / Graphs / Charts, 2025 $39.95 HC)

Short Bursts

Midway: The Pacific War’s Most Famous Battle (Mark Stille, Osprey Publishers, Oxford, UK, 2024, 400 pp., maps, photographs, index, Feb. 17, 2026, $22, SC) A former naval intelligence officer and recognized authority on the Pacific War, Stille’s comprehensive unbiased analysis of the pivotal Pacific battle is now available in paperback.

Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen (Cheryl W. Thompson, Dafina Books (Kensington Publishing Corp)-Dist. by Penguin Random House, 240 pp., Jan. 27, 2026 $30 HC) An NPR journalist and daughter of one of the Tuskegee Airmen—Black pilots who mostly flew fighters in WWII—follows the legacy of the 27 men who never came back.

Sentinels by the Sea: Coastal Fortifications of Colonial New England and Nova Scotia (Michael G. Laramie, Westholme Publishing, Yardley, PA, 240 pp., 65 illustrations, Jan. 16, 2026 $29.95 HC) Compiled from period documents, this book examines the design, construction, and armaments of the forts and battles in the epic struggle between France and England for control of North America from 1689 to 1763.

The Stamp Act and the American Revolution (Ken Shumate, Westholme Publishing, Yardley, PA, 224 pp., illustrations, Jan. 14, 2026, $29.95 HC) A thorough examination from both British and American perspectives of the first direct tax on American colonists and the catalyst for a decade of protest and resistance that lead to the American Revolution.

Blood and Treasure The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to the Modern Era (Duncan Weldon, Pegasus Books, distributed by Simon & Schuster, 320pp., January 6, 2026 $32 HC) An economist and journalist examines the greatest single factor shaping the institutions, and therefore the economics, of human civilizations—the violence of war.

Tom Paine’s War: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time (Jack Kelly, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 352 pp., Jan. 6, 2026 $31 HC) Written in retreat with Washington’s army in December 1776, the opening line of Paine’s The American Crisis, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” inspired what would become a nation.

Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe (Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry, Harper Perennial, New York, NY, 304 pp,. December 2025 $18.99 SC) A highly readable narrative of Game of Thrones in real life as the heirs of Charlemagne fight for his empire, by the authors of The Bright Ages.

George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Vol. 2: Valley Forge to Monmouth, January to July 1778 (Gary Ecelbarger, Westholme Publishing, Yardley, PA, 296 pp., 34 illustrations, 2025, $34.95 HC) In weekly narrative form, with extensive maps, footnotes, and excerpts from period documents for diehard fans of Washington or the Revolutionary War.

The American Revolution (Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, Knopf, New York, NY, 608 pp., with prints, drawings, paintings, texts, pamphlets & maps, index, Nov. 11, 2025 $80 HC) From the team that produced The Civil War, Baseball, The West, Jazz and others comes the official companion book for the six-part, 12-hour PBS documentary, The American Revolution.

Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation (Tim McGrath, Dutton Caliber, New York, NY, 528 pp., Nov. 18, 2025 $39 HC) Fascinating narrative that follows the lives of Lincoln, Lee, and Meade, from their beginnings until their appointment with destiny at a place called Gettysburg and what it meant for the nation.

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