Books Received

General

Armies in Exile: The Polish Struggle for Nation and Nationalism. By David R. Stefancic. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-88033-565-3. Notes. Pp. 231. $50.00. The editor and six other authors offer essays describing the military exploits of Poles in other armies after the partition of 1795, from the Napoleonic period through World Wars I and II, in an effort to show how the nation of Poland survived without a state. From the East European Monographs series.

Britain at War: Famous British Battles from Hastings to Normandy, 1066–1944. By Richard Holmes. Irvington, N.Y.: Hylas Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-59258-063-7. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Index. Pp. 447. $34.95. A British historian offers analyses and battlefield tour guides to Britain's most significant battles—some victories and some otherwise—from dynastic struggles as at Hastings, Agincourt and Bosworth, through the Boyne in Ireland and Waterloo on the continent, culminating with 20th-century epics such as the Somme of 1916 and Operation Goodwood in 1944.

The Future of War: Organizations as Weapons. By Mark D. Mandeles. Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2005. ISBN 1-57488-630-4. Tables. Notes. Index. Pp. ix, 212. $48.00. The author argues that organizational adaptations and sophisticated management strategies are just as important as technological developments to the contemporary "Revolution in Military Affairs."

Light on the Path: The Anthropology and History of the Southeastern Indians. Edited by Thomas J. Pluckhahn and Robbie Ethridge. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8173-5287-2. Figures. References. Index. Pp. xi, 283. $34.95. Fifteen anthropologists and historians combine to offer ten essays which seek to produce a more coherent social history of Indian cultures in the Southeastern United States from the 16th through the 18th centuries.

Nuclear First Strike: Consequences of a Broken Taboo. By George H. Quester. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins, 2006. ISBN 0-8018-8285-0. Notes. Index. Pp. 159. $22.95. In the post–Cold War, asymmetrical world, we must carefully analyze all the potential scenarios and consider our likely responses to WMD—especially nuclear—use in order to be better prepared; this may give us a chance to preserve the sixty-year-long taboo against nuclear first strike.

Our Hallowed Ground: World War II Veterans of Fort Snelling National Cemetery. By Stephen Chicoine. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8166-4674-0. Photographs. Sources. Pp. xxii, 262. Paper. $19.95. The Fort Snelling National Cemetery was established in 1939 and contains the remains of some 17,000 service man and women, a few from as early as the Civil War. The vast majority are World War II veterans; one hundred of whom have their stories told in this volume.

Preventive Attack and Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Comparative Analysis. By Lyle J. Goldstein. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8047-5026-2. Tables. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xi, 268. $50.00. In a world where asymmetric power relationships predominate and weapons of mass destruction are becoming more widely available, the United States will be forced to conduct more "counterproliferation wars."

Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda-Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction. By Charles E. Gannon. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. ISBN 0-7425-4035-9. Photographs. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. Pp. 311. Paper. $24.95. In this paper edition of the 2003 study, the author demonstrates how "speculative fiction" (sci-fi and techno-thrillers) has influenced real-world military decision making and research and development in Britain and the U.S. since the Victorian era.

Secret Gadgets and Strange Gizmos: High-Tech (and Low-Tech) Innovations of the U.S. Military. By Bill Yenne. St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7603-2115-9. Photographs. Illustrations. Index. Pp. 127. $24.95. This large-format, illustrated volume describes a smorgasbord of U.S. military hardware, ranging from the loony to the practical and deployed, including plans...