Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/December 2021/Review essay
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Military History Wikiproject coordinators' reading list - 2021 |
The study of military history involves reading books. Unlike some other fields, military history books are widely available and accessible to the general public. The purpose of this list, chosen by the project coordinators in September and October 2021, is to offer entry points into the study of military history that will sharpen and broaden the reader's knowledge of the field. Each coordinator has selected a small number of books or journal articles that they consider are worthy of consideration, contemplation, and discussion.
Selections by Hawkeye7
Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army - John Engels |
My area of expertise is logistics, and I have chosen this book as a primer. A friend of mine - not a military history buff - saw this book on the shelf, read it in a night, and pronounced it brilliant. The campaigns of history's most brilliant general are described with reference to the logistics that enabled them.
- Engels, Donald W. (1978). Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04272-8. OCLC 439858832.
The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece - Victor Davis Hansen |
Warfare from the bottom up. It may seem strange that I have chosen two books on ancient history, but when you seek to understand something, it is generally best to start at the beginning.
- Hanson, Victor Davis (2009). The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece. Berkeley ; Los Angeles ; London: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26009-2. OCLC 800790483.
Monty's Men - John Buckley |
State of the art in military history writing. Covers the generally neglected British campaign in North Western Europe in 1944-1945. Clearly explains why it unfolded the way it did, with details from both the top and the front line.
- Buckley, John (2013). Monty's Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe. new Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-20534-3. OCLC 1026765168.
Selections by Nick-D
One Day in a Very Long War - John Ellis |
This astonishing book provides a well researched snapshot of World War II on 25th October 1944. Dissecting a single day towards the end of the war allows Ellis to provide a very convincing explanation of why the Allies won, while also explaining the nature of the conflict and its effects on civilians and military personnel. A particular strength is that it illustrates the vast scale of the war. Some of the scholarship is a little dated now, but this doesn't effect Ellis' conclusions.
- Ellis, John (1999). One Day in a Very Long War: Wednesday 25th October 1944. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-7465-2.
The Taste of War - Lizzie Collingham |
Casts an important new light on World War II by detailing the critical role food played in the war. In a less food-secure time than today, securing adequate supplies of food had an important influence on the war strategies of most of the combatantants. The war also greatly disrupted the global supply of food, leading to mass famines in many countries - including some that were deliberately engineered by the Axis powers and the Bengal Famine that arose from neglect and incompetence by the British.
- Collingham, E. M. (2012). The Taste of War : World War Two and the Battle for Food. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-141-02897-2.
To Long Tan - Ian McNeill |
This volume in The Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1975 provides an excellent description of battalion and brigade level army operations and analysis of military tactics during a key period in the Cold War. McNeill covers the clash of cultures that confronted the first Australian Army units that were sent to Vietnam and the mixed success the Army had in adapting to the war. The analysis is much sharper than is common for an official history, to good effect.
- McNeill, Ian (1993). To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966. The Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1975. St Leonards, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86373-282-6.
The Secret State - Peter Hennessy |
This important work is focused on the British Government's plans for responding to a nuclear attack on the UK. An attack using a small number of hydrogen bombs would destroy the British state and economy, and the war plans are focused on preserving the remnants of the military and population following the end of the modern UK. The book makes for chilling reading, not least as the plans are largely unrealistic, and reinforces the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.
- Hennessy, Peter (2010). The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010 (2nd ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-141-04469-9.
Telling Lies About Hitler - Richard J. Evans |
While not a military history book per-se, it's an important and very accessible work on what goes into researching, writing about and debating history. Evans dissects the work of the Holocaust denying history writer David Irving to illustrate how he manipulated historical evidence, and contrasts this with the approach taken by actual historians. The book also covers Evans' experiences as a witness in the libel trial Irving initiated, with interesting observations of how the media and legal system treats history.
- Evans, Richard J. (2002). Telling Lies About Hitler: The Holocaust, History and the David Irving Trial. London: Verso. ISBN 9781859844175.
Selections by Gog the Mild
The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme - John Keegan |
The classic study of what happens at the pointy end of the spear. Required reading for those who would write of people (I was going to write "men", but remembered this) at war. Unless, of course, they have actually been out at the nasty end; even then it's interesting.
- Keegan, John (1976). The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. Penguin Classics Reprint. Viking Adult. ISBN 978-0-14-004897-1.
The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265–146 BC - Adrian Goldsworthy |
An education in how to write history. Rarely has so much explication been crammed into so little prose (412 pages) and still been page-turningly readable.
- Goldsworthy, Adrian (2006). The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265–146 BC. London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-304-36642-2.
"The Mechanics of Battle in the Second Punic War" - Philip Sabin |
I am being greedy and adding three short papers instead of a third book. This one does just what it says on the label in 21 pages.
- Sabin, Philip (1996). "The Mechanics of Battle in the Second Punic War". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement. 67: 59–79. JSTOR 43767903.
"The Battle of Ecnomus" - G K Tipps |
How to overthrow an established historiographical orthodoxy so effectively that it never rises again in 34 pages.
- Tipps, G.K. (1985). "The Battle of Ecnomus". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 34 (4): 432–465. JSTOR 4435938.
" 'Then a Great Misfortune Befell Them': the Laws of War on Surrender and the Killing of Prisoners on the Battlefield in the Hundred Years War" - Andy King |
12 pages on what it says it's about. Chilling.
- King, Andy (2017). "'Then a Great Misfortune Befell Them': the Laws of War on Surrender and the Killing of Prisoners on the Battlefield in the Hundred Years War" (PDF). Journal of Medieval History. 43 (1): 106–117. doi:10.1080/03044181.2016.1236502. S2CID 159619516. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 October 2019.
Selections by Iazyges
In true fashion, only one of my recommendations relates to the work I do on-wiki.
The Politics of Usurpation in the Seventh Century: The Reign of Phocas - David Olster |
A monumental Ph.D. thesis essentially tearing down thirteen centuries of political propaganda against an emperor, in less than 500 pages. Incredible work.
- Olster, David (1993). The Politics of Usurpation in the Seventh Century. Amsterdam: A.M. Hakkert. ISBN 978-90-256-1010-4.
Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World - Peter Zeihan |
The third part of a series of books relating to geopolitics from the beginning of man, and especially the 20th century forward. What makes a nation last, and how many nations aren't going to.
- Zeihan, Peter (2020). Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-291369-2.
The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire - Brian Crozier |
A very insightful and interesting look into the Soviet menace, in its ideological birth, how it leveraged its influence to many nations across the world, and its ultimate downfall.
- Crozier, Brian (1999). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire. National Review. ISBN 978-0-7615-2057-3.
Selections by Hog Farm
An excellent single-volume treatment of a military disaster. Also an interesting case of the effects of politics on the tactics of a campaign.
- Sinisi, Kyle S. (2015). The Last Hurrah: Sterling Price's Missouri Expedition of 1864 (paperback ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-4151-9.
The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth - Peter Cozzens |
Another academic study of a largely-forgotten campaign. An excellent and thorough analysis of two battles marred by disagreements among commanders and in one case an acoustic shadow, leading to a terrible cost to the men who actually did the fighting.
- Cozzens, Peter (1997). The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2320-0.
Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Various |
A bit of a different one from me. This one isn't so much a military work, but more an archaeological postmortem of a fight about which much has been said that ain't necessarily so. The descriptions of the human and physical debris found on the battlefield by a metal detecting study in the 1980s are a stark reminder of the human cost of war and demonstrate that some of the tales handed down in this famous battle have little-to-no basis in reality.
- Scott, Douglas D.; Fox, Richard A. Jr.; Conner, Melissa A.; Harmon, Dick (1989). Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3292-1.
Selections by Vami_IV
I am not nor have I ever been a military man. My picks may reflect that, but also that I am not a hobbyist. I like to pay particular attention to the effect, not the stuff, of war. These picks will get dark and heavy.
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien |
233 pages. A prose-fiction classic about Vietnam. This is a collection of short stories ranging in subject from the mundane to the fantastical by Vietnam vet Tim O'Brien, famous for a tone best summarized with these words: "A true war story is never moral. [...] There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil."
- O'Brien, Tim (1990). The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin. p. 233. ISBN 0767902890.
Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying - Sönke Neitzel & Harald Welzer |
448 pages. A psychological analysis of captured Wehrmacht personnel via recordings of their conversations in British internment, and by extension a psychological analysis of war itself. It answers quite well why, firstly, German soldiers continued to fight even though they knew the war was unwinnable, what they thought about, in particular war crimes, and why they participated in them. Neitzel and Welzer then compare all this with a modern frame of reference: the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike. They finish with an obvious but eye-opening observation, that soldiers kill because it is their job to, and so it is easy to rationalize what back home could never be rationalized.
- Neitzel, Sönke; Welzer, Harald (2012). Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying. ISBN 0307948331.
Barefoot in the Rubble - Elizabeth B. Walters |
266 pages. The refugee experience. This is an autobiography by a woman who, as a child, was held in detention and was then expelled from what became Yugoslavia during the general expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern European nations. This book is not Night, but I've found it a good look into the aftermath of war in human terms.
- Walter, Elizabeth B. (2000). Barefoot in the Rubble (Revised ed.). Pannonia Press. ISBN 0-9657793-1-9.
Selections by Peacemaker67
Very difficult to choose these.
War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–1945 - Vol 1. The Chetniks, and Vol 2. Occupation and Collaboration – Jozo Tomasevich |
Obviously given my speciality, this one – two published volumes of an intended series of three – had to be about Yugoslavia in World War II, and Jozo Tomasevich is a giant on this topic, not just on the military aspects, but on the political, social, religious and ethnic aspects of the complex internecine fighting. It was an absolute tragedy when Tomasevich died before he could complete the last volume on the Partisans. Despite the age of the first volume, it holds extremely well against recent scholarship, and continues to be widely cited in the academic literature.
- Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9.
- Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
The Oxford Companion to Military History – Richard Holmes (ed.) |
This one is a fantastic tertiary source to use to check whether something about an event or person is a legit or fringe view, and for general military history knowledge, even though it is quite Anglo-centric and doesn't go into a huge amount of detail.
- Holmes, Richard, ed. (2001). The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866209-9.
Germany and the Second World War – various editors and authors |
This projected thirteen-volume work is expected to be 12,000-pages long when finished and has taken academics from the military history centre of the German armed forces thirty years to get to this stage (eleven volumes published to date AFAIK). A definitive colossus of work, and my go-to on anything related to the German war effort at the strategic or operational level. Sadly I lack the budget to own the set (they are upwards of AU$125 each), so have to head into town to look at the one at the state library. The tactical-level information is necessarily quite limited. The historians that have worked on this since the late 1980s include Gerhard Schreiber, Rolf-Dieter Müller, Detlef Vogel and Karl-Heinz Frieser.
- Germany and the Second World War. Clarendon Press.
Selections by Indy beetle
War in Uganda: The Legacy of Idi Amin – Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey |
Few proper inter-state wars took place in Cold War Africa, and most of the literature on African conflict at that time, such as it existed, either tackled the issues from a stuffy political science analysis of state capacity or simply elevated local atrocities to international spectacle. When the Uganda–Tanzania War broke out in late 1978, American husband-wife journalistic team Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey begged the Tanzanian government for information. They eventually secured the permission of Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere in early 1979 to accompany his army as it invaded Uganda and toppled the murderous regime of Idi Amin. Their book recounts in satisfactory detail the thinking and choices of Tanzanian soldiers and their generals in a war zone while the leadership in Dar es Salaam tried to sort out the political future of Uganda and hash out the disagreements between various exile organizations and rebel groups clamoring to succeed Amin. It offers a refreshing, humanizing, and at times humorous view of African soldiers and the situations in which they found themselves in. Nearly all academic works that tackle the Uganda–Tanzania War, even the ones written today, cite this book as an authoritative source.
- Avirgan, Tony; Honey, Martha (1983). War in Uganda: The Legacy of Idi Amin. Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House. ISBN 978-9976-1-0056-3.
Air Power in UN Operations: Wings for Peace – Walter Dorn (ed.) |
When people think of international peacekeeping, particularly that sponsored by the United Nations, they rarely envision the role of air power. This book, a collection of various case studies, demonstrates the crucial yet little-known role aircraft have played in the successes (and shortcomings) of peacekeeping operations. Despite having the potential to be "a very blunt instrument of policy", the work makes the argument that air power, nowadays neglected by the international organisation, has great potential in modern operations. The book starts with probably the most exciting utilization of aircraft under a UN banner, the multinational air arm of the United Nations Operation in the Congo in the 1960s. This robust force included light transports, helicopters, surveillance aircraft, fighters, and bombers (the only UN use of bombers to date). It engaged in direct combat with Katangese rebel forces and proved decisive in crushing their resistance to UN presence. From there the book meanders through other examples, including intelligence gathering in Lebanon and the command and logistical challenges behind humanitarian efforts in Haiti. It also includes examples of air power employed by Western coalitions in Libya and Iraq, with some more hypothetical pieces, such as one chapter devoted to the benefits of using unmanned aerial vehicles for observation. The book concludes with a thought-provoking chapter which argues for the development of a permanent UN strategy for employing air power, including an overhaul of its current intelligence gathering system and the creation of a "Peace Jumper" rapid-response force.
- Dorn, A. Walter, ed. (2016). Air Power in UN Operations: Wings for Peace. Military Strategy and Operational Art. Routledge. ISBN 9781317183396.
Selections by Zawed
It was tough to narrow down my starting list to what is presented here.
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War – Robert K. Massie |
A great, readable account of the development of the "modern" battleship in the late 19th Century and the race between the powers of Great Britain and Germany to build up their maritime fleet.
- Massie, Robert K. (1991). Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War. New York, NY, United States: Random House. ISBN 0-394-52833-6.
The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict – James Belich |
This covers the conflict between Māori and the British and colonists that occurred in New Zealand between 1845 through to 1872. Groundbreaking when it was first published in 1986 for it portrayed Māori as skilled practitioners of trench and guerilla warfare that was difficult for the British and Colonial forces to counter. Not without some issues, it is nonetheless a worthy read and a good primer for the New Zealand Wars. The author went on to present a television documentary series on the topic in 1998, the episodes of which can be seen on Youtube.
- Belich, James (1998) [1986]. The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-027504-5.
Infantry Brigadier – Howard Kippenberger |
Howard Kippenberger was one of the most preeminent soldiers of the Second World War from New Zealand. He was a battalion commander for the first three years of the war, then led an infantry brigade. The pinnacle of his career was when he briefly commanded the 2nd New Zealand Division in Italy before being wounded. Infantry Brigadier was published a few years after the war and is insightful for its unit level description of the planning and preparation for the various battles in which he fought. It is apparently recommended reading on infantry tactics in many military schools.
- Kippenberger, Howard (1949). Infantry Brigadier. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 1047844805.
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