Books Received
- Books Received
General
American National Security Policy: Essays in Honor of William R. Van Cleave. Edited by Bradley A. Thayer. Fairfax, Va.: National Institute for Public Policy, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9776221-1-5. Photographs. Tables. Figures. Notes. Index. Pp. xiv, 263. $35.00. Twentyfour scholars offers essays on national security policy in honor of the professor emeritus and former Reagan administration advisor.
Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History. Edited by Richard Holmes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-01-9-923394-6. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 429. Paper. $18.95. This reissue of last year’s book offers synopses of hundreds of battles from ancient times to the present Gulf War; almost all those covered are western except for two chapters on Asia and the Middle East and Africa, and even those almost always involve western powers.
Bunker Hill to Bastogne: Elite Forces and American Society. By Briton Cooper Busch. Washington: Potomac Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1-57488-776-1. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 304. Paper. $18.95. In this book originally published last year, the author argues that, in spite of America’s supposed aversion to a professional military, elite forces have always captured our imagination and have now become indispensable to our military mission.
Charge! History’s Greatest Military Speeches. Edited by Steve Israel. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59114-399-4. Photographs. Illustrations. Index. Pp. xii, 300. $32.95. The Congressman from New York offers a selection of perorations historical and fictional, from Moses and Pericles, Henry V’s “band of brothers” soliloquy, from Frederick the Great, through Churchill to Patton and President Bush on September 20, 2001.
Foreign Affairs Strategy: Logic for American Statecraft. By Terry L. Deibel. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-69277-9. Figures. Notes. Index. Pp. xiv, 435. Paper. $29.99. A long-time senior member of the faculty of the National War College offers the fruits of 30 years of teaching and writing about strategic thinking.
Friends Indeed? The United Nations, Groups of Friends, and the Resolution of Conflict. By Teresa Whitfield. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007. ISBN 1-60127-005-4. Appendix. Notes. Index. Pp. 428. Paper. A series of case studies of peacekeeping operations around the world illustrates the advantages and difficulties of the newly-emerging strategy of forming ad hoc groups of friendly states working under UN authority.
Guide for Participants in Peace, Stability, and Relief Operations. Edited by Robert M. Perito. Washington.: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. ISBN 978-1-60127-000-9. Tables. Charts. Resources. Index. Pp. li, 379. [End Page 309] Paper. $17.50. This hefty pocket-guide serves as a resource for field officers in the Gulf region and Iraq by describing the organization, policy, and operation of governmental and NGO agencies.
In the Name of Necessity: Military Tribunals and the Loss of American Civil Liberties. By Marouf Hasian, Jr. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8173-1475-X. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. viii, 316. $42.50. Conflict between the need for security and the preservation of civil liberties is not a new phenomenon in America; the author offers several historical precedents with relevance to current issues.
Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice. Volume I. Edited by Vivienne O’Connor and Colette Raush. Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. ISBN 978-1-60127-011-5. Annexes. Sources. Index. Pp. xlii, 472. Paper. $28.00. Published under the auspices of the UN, this volume offers 17 sections of criminal codes to provide practical guidance for the implementation of emerging international legal norms.
Mud: A Military History. By C. E. Wood. Washington: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-003-7. Photographs. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 190. Paper. $15.95. Reissue of last year’s discourse on viscosity and warfare.
New Indians Old Wars. By Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-252-03166-3. Figures. Notes. Pp. xiii, 226. $32.95. From the indigenous point of view, American expansionism—either in the “old west” or on the contemporary global stage—is neither glorious nor liberating...
