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, Medieval

At the Gates of Rome: The Fall of the Eternal City, AD 410
By Don Hollway
New York: Osprey, 2022. Pp. 368. ISBN 978-1-4728-4998-4.
The Harvest of War: Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis: The Epic Battles that Saved Democracy
By Stephen P. Kershaw
New York: Pegasus, 2022. Pp. xii, 458. ISBN 978-1-63936-234-9.
* Spare No One: Mass Violence in Roman Warfare
By Gabriel Baker
New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021. Pp. x, 279. ISBN 978-1-5381-1220-5.

Early Modern

Revolutionary War

French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars/War of 1812

US West/Indian Wars

US Civil War

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.
[DeCredico]
Leaving Gettysburg
By Curtis Crockett
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. 218. ISBN 978-1-63624-170-8.
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.
* Soldiers from Experience: The Forging of Sherman's Fifteenth Army Corps, 1862–1863
By Eric Michael Burke
Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2023. Pp. xii, 338. ISBN 978-0-8071-7809-6.
Voices of the Army of the Potomac: Personal Reminiscences of Union Veterans
By Vincent L. Burns
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xx, 359. ISBN 978-1-63624-072-5.

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

General Jan Smuts and his First World War in Africa, 1914–1917: Incorporating His German South West and East Africa Campaigns
By David Brock Katz
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xxvi, 382. ISBN 978-1-62624-017-6.
Photography in the Great War: The Ethics of Emerging Medical Collections from the Great War
By Jason Bate
New York: Bloomsbury, 2022. Pp. xi, 222. ISBN 978-1-350-12204-8.
Trauma, Religion and Spirituality in Germany during the First World War
By Jason Crouthamel
New York: Bloomsbury, 2021. Pp. xi, 258. ISBN 978-1-350-08370-7.

World War II

Ace in a Day: The Memoir of an Eighth Air Force Fighter Pilot in World War II
By Wayne K Blickenstaff
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xi, 340. ISBN 978-1-63624-209-5.
Among the Firsts: Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard L. Bolland's Unconventional War: D-Day 82nd Airborne Paratrooper, OSS Special Forces Commander of Operation Rype
By Matthew T. Bolland
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xii, 366. ISBN 978-1-63624-121-0.
* Awaiting MacArthur's Return: World War II Guerrilla Resistance against the Japanese in the Philippines
By James Villanueva
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2022. Pp. xi, 214. ISBN 978-0-7006-3357-9.
Bloody Verrieres: The I. SS-Panzerkorps Defence of the Verrieres-Bourguebus Ridges: Volume I: Operations Goodwood and Atlantic, 18–22 July 1944
By Arthur W. Gullachsen
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xi, 284. ISBN 978-1-63624-002-2.
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.
Blue Water War: Maritime Struggle in the Mediterranean and Middle East, 1940–1945
By Brian E. Walter
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xxvii, 324. ISBN 978-1-63624-108-1.
Britain's Secret Defences: Civilian Saboteurs, Spies and Assassins during the Second World War
By Andrew Chatterton
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xvi, 205. ISBN 978-1-63624-100-5.
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.
Counter-Strike Operations: Combat Examples and Leadership Principles of Mobile Defence
By F. M. von Senger und Etterlin
Trans. Linden Lyons. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xviii, 137. ISBN 978-1-63624-080-0.
* Darkest Christmas: December 1942 and a World at War
By Peter Harmsen
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. x, 230. ISBN 978-1-63624-189-0.
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.
Family Histories of World War II: Survivors and Descendants
Ed. Róisín Healy and Gearóid Barry
New York: Bloomsbury, 2021. Pp. xiii, 204. ISBN 978-1-350-20195-8.
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 the Realm of a Dying Sun: The IV. SS-Panzerkorps in the Budapest Relief Efforts, December 1944–February 1945
By Douglas E Nash Sr.
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xiii, 333. ISBN 978-1-61200-956-8.
* Gavin at War: The World War II Diary of Lieutenant General James M. Gavin
Ed. Lewis Sorley
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xxiv, 208. ISBN 978-1-63624-024-4.
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.
Jewish Child Soldiers in the Bloodlands of Europe
By David M. Rosen
New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. ii, 125. ISBN 978-1-032-04497-2.
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.
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.
Nations in the Balance: The India-Burma Campaigns, December 1943–August 1944
By Christopher L Kolakowski
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xix, 219. ISBN 978-1-63624-096-1.
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.
Normandy: From Cotentin to Falaise, June–July 1944
By Friedrich Hayn
Trans. Linden Lyons. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. ix, 175. ISBN 978-1-63624-156-2.
On to Stalingrad: Operation Winter Thunderstorm and the attempt to relieve Sixth Army, December 1942
By Horst Scheibert
Trans. Janice W. Ancker. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2021. Pp. xxviii, 164. ISBN 978-1-61200-806-6.
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.
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.
* Red Bull: A History of the 34th Infantry Division in World War II, from Mobilization to Victory in Tunisia
By Robert Noel Stokes Jr
New York: Basic Books, 2022. Pp. xviii, 508. ISBN 978-1-63624-046-6.
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. xxii, 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.
The Time Left between Us
By Alicia DeFonzo
Lincoln: Potomac Books, 2022. Pp. xi, 209. ISBN 978-1-64012-513-1.
The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949
By Zach Fredman
Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2022. Pp. xxiv, 305. ISBN 978-1-4696-6958-8.
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.
War of Supply: World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean
By David D. Dworak
Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2022. Pp. xiii, 267. ISBN 978-0-8131-8377-0.
Women Defying Hitler: Rescue and Resistance under the Nazis
Ed. Nathan Stoltzfus, et al.
New York: Bloomsbury, 2021. Pp. ix, 221. ISBN 978-1-350-20154-5.
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.
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

Logistics in the Vietnam Wars, 1945–1975
By N.S. Nash
Philadelphia: Pen and Sword, 2022. Pp. x, 302. ISBN 978-1-52679-814-5.
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.
A Quiet Cadence: A Novel
By Mark Treanor
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2020. Pp. vii, 379. ISBN 978-1-68247-506-5.
SOG: A Photo History of the Secret Wars
By John L. Plaster
Rev. ed. Philadelphia: Casemate: 2022. Pp. 407. ISBN 978-1-63624-084-8.
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.

20th Century - Other

The Chinese Civil War: 1945–49
By Michael Lynch
New York: Osprey, 2022. Pp. 144. ISBN 978-1-4728-5314-1.
Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917–1945
By Allison S. Finkelstein
Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press, 2021. Pp. xiv, 265. ISBN 978-1-8173-2101-7.
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.
* The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology: German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War
By James Mills
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xvi, 247. ISBN 978-1-63624-277-4.
Portugal's Bush War in Mozambique
By Al J. Venter
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xxvii, 236. ISBN 978-1-63624-110-4.
A Short History of the Russian Revolution
By Geoffrey Swain
Rev. ed. New York: Bloomsbury, 2022. Pp. viii, 240. ISBN 978-1-350-15383-7.
Stabilizing Fragile States: Why It Matters and What to Do about It
By Rufus C. Phillips III
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2022. Pp. xxxii, 320. ISBN 978-0-7006-3304-3.
The Turtle and the Dreamboat: The Cold War Flights That Forever Changed the Course of Global Aviation
By Jim Leeke
Lincoln, NB: Potomac Books, 2022. Pp. 248. ISBN 978-1-64012-413-4.
The Years of Great Silence: The Deportation, Special Settlement, and Mobilization into the Labor Army of Ethnic Germans in the USSR, 1941–1955
By Jonathan Otto Pohl
Stuttgard: Ibidem-Verlag, 2022. Pp. 286. ISBN 978-3-8382-1630-0.

21st Century

Maritime Strike: The Untold Story of the Royal Navy Task Group off Libya in 2011
By John Kingwell
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. viii, 184. ISBN 978-1-63624-113-5.
Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump
By Michael R. Gordon
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022. Pp. vii, 475. ISBN 978-0-374-27989-9.
* Elite Souls: Portraits of Valor in Iraq and Afghanistan
By Raymond James Raymond
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2022. Pp. xi, 378. ISBN 978-1-68247-713-7.
Hell in the Streets of Husaybah: The April 2004 Fights of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines in Husaybah, Iraq
By David E Kelly
Philadelphia: Casemate, 2022. Pp. xvi, 168. ISBN 978-1-63624-150-0.
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.
Russian Cyber Operations: Coding the Boundaries of Conflict
By Scott Jasper
Washington: Georgetown Univ. Press, 2022. Pp. xxviii, 214. ISBN 978-1-64712-296-6.
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.
* Service above Self: Women Veterans in American Politics
By Erika Cornelius Smith
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2022. Pp. viii, 234. ISBN 978-0-7006-3322-7.
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.
The Taliban at War: 2001-2018
By Antonio Giustozzi
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2022. Pp. viii, 388. ISBN 978-0-19-764968-8.
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-Torn: The Unmaking of Syria, 2011-2021
By Leïla Vignal
New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2021. Pp. x, 312. ISBN 978-0-19-761998-8.

Multiple time periods

Afghanistan: A Military History from the Ancient Empires to the Great Game
By Ali Ahmad Jalali
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2021. Pp. xii, 391. ISBN 978-0-7006-3263-3.
Building a Multiethnic Military in Post-Yugoslav Bosnia and Herzegovina
By Elliot Short
New York: Bloomsbury, 2022. Pp. xvi, 255. ISBN 978-1-350-19093-1.
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 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.
Intelligence and the State: Analysts and Decision Makers
By Jonathan M. House
Annapolis: Naval Inst. Press, 2022. Pp. Pp. xiii, 232. ISBN 978-1-68247-772-4.
Korea: A History
By Eugene Y. Park
Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 2022. Pp. xiv, 414. ISBN 978-1-5036-2984-4.
Liberating Libya: British Diplomacy and War in the Desert
By Rupert Wieloch
Philadelphia: Casemate 2021. Pp. xiv, 273. ISBN 978-1-63624-082-4.
The Life and Times of Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart: Soldier and Diplomat
By Alan Ogden
New York: Bloomsbury, 2022. Pp. xi, 328. ISBN 978-1-350-23312-6.
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.
Old and New Battlespaces: Society, Military Power, and War
By Jahara Matisek and Buddhika Jayamaha
Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2022. Pp. viii, 197. ISBN 978-1-6263-7996-1.
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 Shape of Battle: The Art of War from the Battle of Hastings to D-Day and Beyond
By Allan Mallinson
New York: Pegasus Books, 2022. Pp. xii, 387. ISBN 978-1-63936-193-9.
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.
War and American Life: Reflections on Those Who Serve and Sacrifice
By James Wright
Waltham: Brandeis Univ. Press, 2022. Pp. xiv, 241. ISBN 978-1-68458-099-6.
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.
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