Books Received

General

American Military Aviation: The Indispensable Arm. By Charles J. Gross. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58544-255-0. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xv, 375. Paper. $19.95. In this reprint of the well-received 2002 study of U.S. airpower, the author covers events from the Wright brothers to operations over Kosovo and focuses on "the roles of politics, economics and technology in shaping U.S. air power."

Battle: A History of Combat and Culture: From Ancient Greece to Modern America. Revised ed. By John A. Lynn. Boulder, Colo.: Perseus Books, 2004. ISBN 0-8133-3372-5. Photographs. Illustrations. Appendix. Notes. Index. Pp. xxvi, 431. Paper. $16.95. This study first appeared in 2003; it seeks to expand on technological explanations and notions of a particular "western way" of war to examine the bonds between cultural factors and warfare in different historical eras and geographical venues and includes an epilogue on contemporary terrorism.

Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750– 1850. Selected Papers 2002. Edited by Bernard Cook, Susan V. Nicassio, Michael F. Pavkovic, and Karl A. Roider, Jr. Tallahassee: Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution, Florida State University, 2004. Illustrations. Notes. Author index. Pp. xx, 428. Thirty-eight papers presented at the consortium's 2002 conference at Louisiana State University cover various and diverse cultural, economic, and military topics from the focus period.

Defense Strategy for the Post-Saddam Era. By Michael E. O'Hanlon. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8157-6467-7. Tables. Notes. Index. Pp. x, 148. Paper. $18.95. In this concise critique of contemporary U.S. military budgetary and operational practice, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution argues that maintaining operational strength requires reducing some weapons programs in order to add 40,000 personnel to the volunteer armed forces.

Engineering Peace: The Military Role in Post-conflict Reconstruction. By Garland H. Williams. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2005. ISBN 1-929223-57-9. Maps. Photographs. Tables. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxiv, 317. Paper. $19.95. The author uses examples from three case studies—Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan—to argue for a new and expanded role for engineering brigades in postconflict reconstruction.

Footprints of Heroes: From the American Revolution to the War in Iraq. By Robert Skimin. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2005. ISBN 1-59102-281-9. Illustrations. Pp. 328. $26.00. In this tribute to U.S. armed forces personnel, the author offers a series of vignettes of heroic behavior of Americans in (or close to) combat from George Washington and Paul Revere to Pat Tillman and Bob Hope.

The Future of War: The Re-Enchantment of War in the Twenty-First Century. By Christopher Coker. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-4051-2043-6. Notes. Index. Pp. xiv, 162. Paper. £12.99. "Re-enchantment" means making war more humane in its impact on humans and human in its application by and upon real human beings rather than material targets; this, rather than a robotic Armageddon, is the promise of the modern technological revolution in military affairs; or, at least, so argues the author.

The Geography of War and Peace: From Death Camps to Diplomats. Edited by Colin Flint. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-516209-9. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Index. Pp. xvi, 462. Paper. $35.00. Twenty scholars offer essays demonstrating that spatial considerations—geography and geographically influenced factors such as resource distribution—still influence, can even dominate, military decisions regardless of the technological revolution in military affairs.

Medics at War: Military Medicine from Colonial Times to the 21st Century. By John T. Greenwood and F. Clifton Berry, Jr. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. ISBN 1-59114-344-6. Photographs. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Pp. ix, 214. $34.95. This large-format, illustrated volume sponsored by the Association of the United States Army tells the story of front-line medical personnel in...