In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Books Received*
  • Blair P. Turner

General

Arms and Influence. By Thomas C. Schelling. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008. Notes. Index. Pp. xvi, 312. $20.00.

The Nobel Laureate published this influential treatise on how military capabilities are used for power and influence in 1966; this edition contains a new preface in which the author ponders the paradox that one source of considerable military power—atomic weapons—has not been used since 1945.

The Army After Next: The First Postindustrial Army. By Thomas K. Adams. Palo Alto, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-08047-5968-7. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 327. Paper. $29.95.

This work first appeared in 2006 and has proven to be somewhat prophetic; the technologically driven "Revolution in Military Affairs" has transformed the U.S. military regardless of context or reality, causing problems in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Base Politics: Democratic Change and the U.S. Military Overseas. By Alexander Cooley. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8014-4605-4. Maps. Tables. Figures. Notes. References. Index. Pp. xv, 309. $29.00.

The shift in overseas military presence from a few large-scale bases to many small installations means that local political realities have a greater influence on U.S. policy options.

Conquest: How Societies Overwhelm Others. By David Day. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-534011-2. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. Pp. xiii, 288. $24.95.

The process of conquest—whether Norman in England, Spanish in the Americas, or Chinese in Tibet—involves similar processes of exploitation, displacement, and post-hoc justification.

Great Military Leaders and Their Campaigns. Edited by Jeremy Black. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2008. ISBN 978-0-500-25145-4. Photographs. Illustrations. Sources. Index. Pp. 304. $65.00.

This elegant and lavish large-format volume boasts an impressive list of contributors; covers four, essentially Western, historical periods (ancient, medieval, age of expansion and empire, and modern) and offers brief synopses of the careers of great commanders from Cyrus the Great to Vo Nguyen Giap.

A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. By Michael Axworthy. New York: Basic Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-465-00999-9. Maps. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. Pp. xvii, 341. $27.50.

Iran is venerable and unique in the Middle East and needs to be treated as such; it is a complex and vibrant culture which deserves to escape the grip of its current repressive regime.

The Politics of Space Security: Strategic Restraint and the Pursuit of National Interests. By James Clay Moltz. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8047-6010-2. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. Pp. xi, 367. Paper. $35.00.

The author examines the 50-year history of space exploration and U.S. [End Page 337] USSR competition to make an argument for a cooperative, interdependent security policy.

Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics. By Jennifer Lind. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8014-4625-2. Photographs. Notes. Index. Pp. x, 242. $39.95.

In case studies of post-World War II relations between Germany and France and South Korea and Japan the author finds evidence that contrition for past atrocities can be helpful, but shared and non-recriminatory remembrance is more effective in achieving reconciliation.

World History of Warfare. By Christon I. Archer, John R. Ferris, Holger H. Herwig and Timothy H. E. Travers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8032-1941-0. Maps. Illustrations. Index. Pp. xii, 626. Paper. $23.95.

In 2002, four historians from the University of Calgary compiled this college text in a her-culean attempt to cover the sweep of military history by focusing on themes common to all historical eras: among them the idea and experience of war, technological impact and the nature of armed forces.

Before 1800

TThe Army of the Roman Republic: The Second Century BC, Polybius and the Camps at Numantia, Spain. By Michael Dobson. Oakville, Conn.: The David Brown Book Co., 2008. ISBN 978-1-84217-241-4. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xii, 436. $80.00.

Archaeology and history combine to present an extremely detailed picture of this site of Iberian resistance...

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