Books Received

Books Received

General

The Army After Next: The First Post-Industrial Army. By Thomas K. Adams. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006. ISBN 0-275-98107-X. Glossary. Appendix. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. Pp. 327. $49.95. The author analyzes the Revolution in Military Affairs and its impact on current military events and concludes that many problems with the campaigns in the Middle East stem from a dogmatic application of RMA concepts to inappropriate circumstances.

Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History . Edited by Richard Holmes and Martin Marix Evans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-280653-X. Maps. Photographs. Index. Pp. 376. $30.00. The editors have collected battle entries from The Oxford Companion to Military History and present them here in a chronological and regional organization; included are significant battles from wars in the West from ancient times through World War II as well as conflicts, almost exclusively from the 18th century on, in the Americas, Asia and the Middle East, and Africa.

Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity Through the Twenty-first Century. Vols. 1–3. By Tony Jacques. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. Set ISBN 0-313-33536-2. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. Pp. lvi, 1354. $299.95. The entries are necessarily and frustratingly brief, and they are in strict alphabetical order without regard for geography or chronology; but the coverage is vast and global and, fortunately, the entries are cross referenced and placed in historical context in a Chronological Reference Guide in the first volume.

The Endurance of Nationalism . By Aviel Roshwald. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-521-60364-1. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xii, 349. Paper. $29.99. Nationalism is not new; its roots and expression are ancient and endemic. The world is ill-served by international policies which fail to recognize this fact and attempt to rise above a supposedly transient phenomenon.

God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad . By Charles Allen. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006. ISBN 0-306-81522-2. Maps. Illustrations. Glossary. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 349. $26.95. The author traces the history of the extremist and puritanical Wahhabi cult from its creation in Saudi Arabia by Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century to its pervasive influence in the Islamic world of today.

Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence . By Robert W. Pringle. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8108-4942-9. Appendixes. Bibliography. Pp. xxxv, 364. $85.00. Number 5 in Scarecrow's series of Historical Dictionaries offers a reference guide to civilian and military intelligence organizations and operations of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991.

Infantry Tactics . By Erwin Rommel. St. Paul, Minn.: MBI Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-85367-707-8. Illustrations. Pp. xv, 265. Paper. $19.95. A reissue of the German general's famous 1935 manual based on his experiences in World War I and his analysis of three phases of that conflict: "war of movement" through Belgium, "trench warfare" in the West and "open warfare" in the East.

Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea, and the Stars . Edited by Steven J. Dick and Keith L. Cowing. Washington: NASA Administrator's Symposium Proceedings, September 26–29, 2004. NASA SP-2005-4701. Photographs. Illustrations. Pp. ix, 294. Several participants offer discussions of issues related to exploration, both terrestrial and in space, but with little military application.

Soldier's Lives Through History: The Ancient World . By Richard A. Gabriel. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. ISBN 0-313-33348-3. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xviii, 305. $65.00. This fifth volume in the Soldiers' Lives through History series offers short analyses of various aspects of military life, organization, and activity in the ancient world with 18 additional descriptive essays of particular army organizations and campaigns, from Sumer and Akkad to Imperial Rome.

Striking First: Preemptive and Preventive Attack in U...