Books Received

General

Achilles and Yossarian: Clarity and Confusion in the Interpretation of The Iliad and Catch-22. By Leon Golden. Bloomington, Ind.: Author House, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4389-4357-2. Pp. xii, 161. Paper. $22.49. Apparently there is some serious debate on the nature of Yossarian's character in the famous anti-war novel. Golden argues that Yossarian is not a cowardly anti-hero; he is openly modeled on the classically heroic Achilles.

At the Nuclear Precipice: Catastrophe or Transformation? Edited by Richard Falk and David Krieger. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 978-0-230-60904-4. Notes. Appendixes. Pp. xx, 293. Paper. $28.95. The sixteen essays presented here originated in a 2006 conference on nuclear weapons sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The authors take as their premise that nuclear weapons are immoral and illegal per se and the focus is on their elimination; but there are also informative, empirical essays on specific nuclear programs, especially Iran's.

Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared. Edited by Michael Geyer and Sheila Fitzpatrick. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-521-72397-8. Notes. Works cited. Index. Pp. 552. Paper. $27.99. This is a densely theoretical, historiographical collection of essays which tackles a large problem: established descriptions of totalitarianism no longer work. A whole new comparative approach is needed to get at the puzzle of how two regimes that look so similar can be so different.

Black Soldiers of New York State: A Proud Legacy. By Anthony F. Gero. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4384-2616-7. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 174. Paper. $14.95. Beginning with the French and Indian War, African Americans have served with distinction in the New York militia (and, during national emergencies, in the federal armed forces) in every major conflict, but not without obstacles. Tellingly, the period of worst discrimination occurred between Reconstruction and the First World War.

Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Early America: From the Colonial Era to the Civil War. Edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-313-33526-6. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Pp. xxix, 248. $65.00. Six historians offer descriptive essays of life on the home front during the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and from both sides of the Civil War.

English/British Naval History to 1815: A Guide to the Literature. By Eugene L. Rasor. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004. ISBN 0-313-30547-1. Appendixes. Indexes. Pp. 900. $119.95. The well-known bibliographer offers a massive, comprehensive, and exceedingly useful annotated reference guide to sources by category (general references, major collection centers, specific historians) as well as topics (officers, warships, piracy, etc.) and chronological periods.

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947. By Christopher Clark. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-03196-8. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Pp. 776. Paper. $19.95. In 1600, Brandenburg was a small, non-descript Hohenzollern electorate; by 1848 it had become what Adolf Hitler called the "germ cell of the German Empire." That germ would grow to be the Kaiserreich and then would be coopted by and die in the Third Reich. This volume first appeared in hardback in 2006.

Italy and Its Invaders. By Girolamo Arnaldi. Translated by Antony Shugaar. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-03033-6. Notes. Index. Pp. 229. Paper. $15.95. From Alaric the Visigoth in 410 to the Americans in 1943, Italian identity has been incessantly and dramatically shaped by foreign invaders (first published in 2002).

The Naval Miscellany. Volume VII. Edited by Susan Rose. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate for Navy Records Society, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7546-6431-4. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Pp. xvii, 714. $124.95. This is the seventh in a series of collected essays on British naval history from the authoritative Naval Records Society. Miscellany is indeed the key theme; the essays range from provisioning Edward I's ships in the 14th century to a Bosun's diary...