Military History

Military History

Military History Book Reviews for Spring 2023

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine (Mark Galeotti, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2022, 384 pp., maps, photographs, bibliography, index, $35, hardcover)

The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962 (Max Hastings, Harper Collins Publishing, New York NY, 2022, 544 pp., Read more

Military History

Afghanistan: The Soviet Union’s War in Vietnam

By William Stroock

In late 1979, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was torn apart by a civil war pitting the weak Communist government of Hafizullah Amin against several moderate and fundamentalist Muslim rebel armies. Read more

Military History

The Short-range Shotgun

By Christopher Miskimon

Coming upon the enemy’s rear guard outside the western Kentucky village of Sacramento, four days after Christmas 1861, Confederate Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest ordered his cavalry to advance. Read more

Military History

The Praetorian Guard

By Arnold Blumberg

Its name has become synonymous with intrigue, conspiracy, betrayal, and assassination. It was responsible for the overthrow, abandonment, or murder of 15 out of the first 48 emperors who governed Rome between 27 bc and ad 305. Read more

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, directs the Allied attack against Malplaquet on France's northern frontier. At far left, a camp follower strips clothing from the dead. The bloody clash was known for its heavy casualties.

Military History

“A Very Murdering Battle”

By Eric Niderost

Peter Drake was a cavalryman, but at the moment he was standing near his horse’s head, holding his mount’s bridle and calming the beast when the animal grew restless after a night of inactivity. Read more

Military History

Morgan’s Northern Strike

By David A. Norris

Stepping off of two captured river steamboats, the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry and the 9th Tennessee Cavalry set foot in Indiana on July 8, 1863. Read more

Indian lancers overrun an Ottoman position in the Valley of Armageddon on the second day of the Battle of Megiddo.

Military History

Fatal Blow at the Battle of Megiddo

By Richard Willis

The six-day Battle of Megiddo fought in September 1918 was a decisive climax to the struggle in Palestine between the Ottoman Empire, backed by the Germans, and Great Britain and her allies. Read more

Mockern-1813.

Military History

Napoleon’s Last Victory

By Arnold Blumberg

At 2:30 am on June 15, 1815, tens of thousands of French soldiers around the town of Beaumont, France, were roused from their bivouacs. Read more

Military History

Killing Ground at Colenso

By Alex Zakrzewski

On the morning of December 15, 1899, the serene, windswept wilderness of northern Natal was punctuated by the sound of 18,000 British soldiers trudging north to relieve the besieged town of Ladysmith. Read more