How to Obtain a Review Copy
Please submit review copy requests along with a preferred mailing address to Joshua Cline at josh.cline@armyhistory.org
All reviewers are limited to one book per request. Book reviews for On Point must be submitted within the three-month review period. All reviews must be submitted in Microsoft Word and must not exceed 700 words. Please download the submission template and sample files provided and follow the format accordingly. If you are quoting from the text, please provide the page number as well.
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Books Currently Available
All Roads Lead to Rome: Searching for the End of my Father’s War. By Bill Thorness, Potomac Books, 2024. Journalist and travel writer Bill Thorness retraces his father’s war in Italy during the Second World War. The youngest son of a First Special Service Force commando, this book depicts Thorness’ journey and musing while following his father’s footsteps to Rome.
Arming the World: American Gun-Makers in the Gilded Age. By Geoffrey S. Stewart, Lyons Press, 2024. A focused view on American small arms industry, more specifically, the manufacturers who supplied the world’s revolution in breech-loading rifles that followed the Civil War. Particular focus is on the names that did not survive to the 20th Century, who had their heyday and downfall alike in the Gilded Age.
The Army That Never Was: George S. Patton and the Deception of Operation Fortitude. By Taylor Downing, Pegasus Books, 2024. The largest deception operation of World War II was Operation FORTITUDE, the plan to mislead the Third Reich into believing the Allies would land at Pas-de-Calais, instead of Normandy. Written by a prominent British historian, this presents General George S. Patton’s faked army that contributed to the successful deception.
The Army Under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era. By Cecily N. Zander, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. Scrutinizes the extent that antimilitarism had during and after the Civil War, particularly during Reconstruction, and how such attitudes were affected or utilized for political goals.
Backcountry War: The Rise of Francis Maron, Banastre Tarleton, and Thomas Sumter. By Andrew Waters, Westholme Publishing, 2024. During the Revolutionary War, the “backcountry” was the Georgia Border to the North Carolina Piedmont. It was a region of intense and continuous fighting throughout the war. This frames two famous partisans and a British Legion cavalryman within the region’s events of 1780.
By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy. By Michael G. Vickers, Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. A memoir by a former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Vickers served as a Green Beret for ten years before joining the Central Intelligence Agency in 1983, and was a key figure in arming the Mujahideen opposing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
A Centennial Perspective on Texas in the Civil War. By Stephen S. Cure, Texas A&M University Press, 2024. The culminating work of the Texas Historical Commission to mark the centennial of American entry into the Great War, A Centennial Perspective offers the background importance of the conflict to Texas and the U.S., as well as providing a record of memorialization of World War I in Texas up to 2017.
The Confederate Resurgence of 1864. By William Marvel, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. The Spring of 1864 revitalized white southerner’s hopes of successful secession during the Civil War. William Marvel examines a dozen military operations and battles which seemed to signal a change in the fortunes of war; stiffening the Confederate cause for a tough final year.
The Devil’s Playground: The Story of Two Charlie and the Arghandab River Valley. By Andrew Bragg, Casemate Publishers, 2024. Charlie Company, 2d Platoon, 2-508th PIR deployed to the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan in 2009-10. ‘The Devil’s Playground’ was everything south of the second canal. “There was never a dull moment in the Arghandab.” Over the course of the deployment, 2d Platoon’s numbers dwindled and the fighting only got harder. “In the end, the valley always wins.”
Duty To Serve, Duty To Conscience: The Story of Two Conscientious Objector Combat Medics during the Vietnam War. By James C. Kearney and William H. Clamurro. University of North Texas Press, 2023. Part of the North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series, a joint memoir of two 1-A-0 conscientious objectors that provides perception on ethical questions as well as witness to the Vietnam War.
Dying Hard: Company B, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th US Infantry Division in WWII. By COL. French L. MacLean (USA-Ret.), Schiffer Publishing, 2024. “In the mold of the classic Band of Brothers,” Dying Hard focuses on a single Army company infantry unit through the Second World War via highly personal vignettes. Only 7% of the unit’s enlisted men when it formed in 1941 were still there in May 1945. MacLean’s personal connection is through his father, who fought with Company B in the Battle of the Bulge.
Epidemics And The American Military: Five Times Disease Changed the Course of War. By Jack E. McCallum, Naval Institute Press, 2023. Focuses on how common wartime epidemics are, how easily disease is propagated by military presence and how it’s affected the course of military strategy. Key focus points include Washington’s immunization of the Continental Army against smallpox, the devastation of typhoid and the triumph over yellow fever in the Spanish-American War, and more.
Expectation of Valor: Planning for the Iraq War. By Colonel Kevin C. M. Benson, USA-Ret., Casemate Publishers, 2024. Written by the Director of Plans for United States Third Army, this book details how the invasion plan was developed and its execution from D-Day in March 2003 to Third Army’s departure in June 2003. It combats the belief that the Army did not plan for what came after, portraying the disinterest on Capitol Hill in the extensive plans that were proposed.
The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939. By Shae Smith Cox, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. Shae Smith Cox argues that the material items of the Civil War has more importance than previous scholarship has depicted; logistically and financially, politically and meaning, and tracing their change from practicalities of warfare to sentimental symbols of remembrance.
The Fevered Fight: Medical History of the American Revolution 1775-1783. By Martin R. Howard, Pen & Sword, 2023. A study of military medicine during the Revolutionary War from Lexington to Yorktown, with views from both sides of the war, including the impact of disease on black soldiers and Native Americans.
Garden of Ruins: Occupied Louisiana in the Civil War. By J. Matthew Ward, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. A social and military history of the first Confederate state to be partially occupied by the Union in Spring 1862, during the early Civil War. Ward examines the use, tempered or abusive alike, of power in both Union occupied and Confederate held territory within Louisiana. “The work to preserve democracy,” viewed by both blue and gray.
Great American World War II Stories. Edited by Tom McCarthy, Lyons Press, 2024. Ten true stories of the Second World War on air, land, and sea; from Omaha Beach to Mount Suribachi, the air over Tokyo to stalking enemy ships from below the ocean surface.
The Greatest Military Mission Stories Ever Told. Edited by Tom McCarthy, Lyons Press, 2023. A collection of essays that capture the essence of military bravery, courage and discipline in the face of overwhelming danger.
The Gulf War: George H.W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era. By Spencer D. Bakich, University Press of Kansas, 2024. Part of the Landmark Presidential Decisions series, this work focuses on the role of military force in George H.W. Bush’s administration, with particular focus on Operation DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM.
Hamburger Hill 1969: Operation Apache Snow in the A Shau Valley. By James H. Willbanks, Osprey Publishing, 2024. Featuring spread illustrations of events by Ramiro Bujeiro, this overview of Operation APACHE SNOW during the Vietnam War features the campaign in detail, from commanders and forces involved, plans on both sides, and the battles fought from day to day.
High-Bounty Men in the Army of the Potomac: Reclaiming Their Honor. By Edwin P. Rutan II, Kent State University Press, 2024. Focuses on the recruits to the Union Army after the draft was adopted and higher bounties for service were offered. Historically portrayed as mercenary, greedy, and an inferior soldier to those who volunteered earlier in the war, as Rutan puts it, “a reappraisal–based on data–is in order.”
Hollywood’s Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity. By Armando José Prats, University of Oklahoma Press, 2024. Describing the ‘American Myth of Heroic Continuity’ as a belief that there is heroism in victory, and victory was inevitable, Hollywood’s Imperial Wars explores how this culturally significant myth was propagated by Hollywood film, and how the Vietnam War resulted in a drastic change away from the previously mythic heroism.
How To Lose A War: the Story of America’s Intervention in Afghanistan. By Amin Saikal, Yale University Press, 2024. Emeritus professor and founding director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at Australian National University depicts a “compelling and meticulously documented” analysis of how the US failed to achieve its aims in the war in Afghanistan.
Immigrant Warrior: A Challenging Life in War and Peace. By Henrik O. Lunde. Casemate Publishers, 2023. A detailed memoir providing a unique look into a highly decorated soldier who served three tours in Vietnam and beyond.
Instrument of War: Music and the Making of America’s Soldiers. By David Suisman, University of Chicago Press, 2024. A study of music in the lives of American soldiers, tracing how music has been used to train and regulate the military life, how it helps to soothe the high tensions and emotions of war, and how music has been used in every aspect of military maneuver.
Kansas and Kansans in World War I: Service at Home and Abroad. By Blake A. Watson, University Press of Kansas, 2024. Depicts the Kansas home front and Kansans abroad in the First World War – National Guard, Regular Army, National Army, including African Americans in and from Kansas.
The Korean War Remembered: Contested Memories of an Unended Conflict. By Michael J. Devine, University of Nebraska Press, 2023. A chronological overview which focuses on American memory of the Korean War in an international context, examining the events via subjects ranging from popular culture to monuments and museums, comparing and contrasting with how it’s remembered in China and both Koreas.
The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam. By George Black, Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the last American soldier departing Vietnam, The Long Reckoning depicts the years since the Vietnam War ended, particularly the ongoing struggle with Agent Orange and explosive remnants of war.
MacArthur’s Bloody Butchers: Company G, 163rd Infantry Regiment, in the Pacific War. By Brian Bruce, Casemate Publishers, 2024. Follows the men of Company G in the Second World War, from training to the occupation of Japan. The unit fought in the Papuan Campaign, New Guinea Campaign, and Southern Philippines Campaign, in particular playing a key role in the Battle of Sanananda in Papua.
Memory Wars: Settlers and Natives Remember Washington’s Sullivan Expedition of 1779. By A. Lynn Smith, University of Nebraska Press, 2023. A historical and ethnographic exploration of how interpretive sites – museums, memorials, monuments, etc – shape the historical understanding of General John Sullivan’s expedition against the Iroquois Confederacy during the Revolutionary War.
The Mexican-American War Experiences of Twelve Civil War Generals. Edited by Timothy D. Johnson, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. Twelve essays depicting twelve American officers in the Mexican-American War who went on to fight in the Civil War; six Union, six Confederate. For most of them it was their first combat experience, a laboratory and crucible of combat action that defined who they were before the Civil War.
Miserable Little Conglomeration: A Social History of the Port Hudson Campaign. By Christopher Thrasher, University of Tennessee Press, 2023. Drawing from archival sources, this book depicts the longest-running siege of the Civil War through the eyes of the common soldier and civilian.
My Dearest Lilla: Letters Home from Civil War General Jacob D. Cox. Edited by Gene Schmiel, University of Tennessee Press, 2023. Part of the Voices of the Civil War Series, these letters depict the love of an officer and the wife who supported him, both the Eastern and Western Theaters, and General Cox’s exploits.
My Toughest Battle: A Soldier’s Lifelong Struggle with Polio. By Major General William M. Matz, Jr. (USA-Ret.), Casemate Publishers, 2024. The memoir of Major General Matz, who had polio as a child and overcame paralysis to become a ranger tabbed paratrooper. Wounded in the Tet Offensive, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, leader of troops in Panama, Matz’ accomplishments all happened while wearing a specially fitted combat boot on an atrophied leg. He retired from the Army in 1995 and had a final retirement in 2021.
Never A Dull Moment: The 80th Airborne Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion in World War II. By LTC Arthur ‘Ben’ Powers (USA-Ret.), Casemate Publishers, 2024. Gliderborne anti-aircraft and anti-tank support to the 82d Airborne Division in the Second World War, the 80th Airborne AAA Battalion were Coast Artillery troops that fought beside the Airborne with 57mm cannons. They faced the enemy side by side with the infantry through Italy, Operation Neptune, Market Garden, Normandy, Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge.
No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944. By Rona Simmons, University of Missouri Press, 2024. A seemingly normal day during the Second World War saw 2600 Americans perish across the world in military action, nine times the average per day. Rona Simmons tells the stories of three dozen of October 24’s fallen – soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen all, depicting through them one uncommon day of the world at war.
On Warriors’ Wings: Army Vietnam War Helicopters and the Native Americans they were Named to Honor. By David Napoliello, Global Collective Publishers, 2023. Focuses on the Vietnam-era helicopters named for Native American tribes through development, mission, real-world use, and the history of the tribe for which the helicopter is named.
One More War To Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality Through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Lost Cause. By Stephen A. Goldman, Rowman & Littlefield, 2023. Psychiatrist Stephen Goldman uses his field of expertise to examine Union veterans of the Civil War, who in civil life fought an unseen war to create equality for all Americans. He asserts that in the process they crafted a model for civil responsibility based on military service which has been emulated ever since. Much is derived from the William Oland Bourne Papers, a collection at the Library of Congress including many narratives written by disabled Northern servicemen.
Pacific Fortress: A History of the Seacoast Defenses of Hawaii. By Glen M. Williford. Redoubt Press, 2023. A revealing account of the U.S. Army’s coastal defenses of Oahu, Hawaii, spanning the Interwar Period, World War II and expanding throughout the Cold War.
Playing At War: Identity and Memory in Civil War Video Games. Edited by Patrick A. Lewis and James Hill Welborn III, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. An anthology work of fifteen essays about how the Civil War has been depicted digitally in commercial videogames. Discusses with an analytical eye to how they educate – or don’t educate – those who play them, and how videogames influence the collective perception of the Civil War.
The “Rape” of Japan: The Myth of Mass Sexual Violence During the Allied Occupation. By Brian P. Walsh, P.hD, Naval Institute Press, 2024. Written by a scholar of Japanese national identity post-Second World War, this looks deep into the little-scrutinized history of sexual violence during the Occupation of Japan. It contests the popular narrative through looking at the sources, as well as examining how and why the narrative became widespread.
Reporting the Nuremberg Trials: How Journalists Covered Live Nazi Trials & Executions. By Noël-Marie Fletcher, Pen & Sword, 2024. Presenting the Nuremberg Trials following the Second World War by depicting the men and women who wrote about them as they happened. Fletcher depicts the Army as the facilitators of justice and fermenter of Democratic ideals, albeit in a backseat role to the stars of the book – the free press that the Army shepherded and encouraged.
Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon. By Martin Klotz, Westholme, 2024. A new look into the man who gained popular fame as the commander of Rogers’ Rangers during the French and Indian War. He was a loyalist in the Revolutionary War. Alienating his fellow colonials by fighting against them, he became anathema to the British when they were defeated. Rogers died in obscurity far from his birth.
The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army. By Dean Calbreath, Pegasus Books, 2023. Written by a Pulitzer and Polk Award winning journalist; a biography of Sergeant Nicholas Said, who served in the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
Sharpen Your Bayonets!: A Biography of Lieutenant General John Wilson “Iron Mike” O’Daniel, Commander, 3rd Infantry Division in World War II. By Lt. Col. (Ret.) Timothy R. Stoy, Casemate Publishers, 2022. The first full-length biography of ‘Iron Mike’ O’Daniel, who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, and the early days of Vietnam; he commanded the 3d Infantry Division from Anzio to V-E Day.
Sign Here for Sacrifice: The Untold Story of the Third Battalion, 506th Airborne, Vietnam 1968. By Ian Gardner, Osprey Publishing, 2023. The third book by Ian Gardner chronicling the history of 3/506, focusing on the unit’s reactivation and deployment to the Vietnam War.
Spark of Independence: The American Revolution in the Northern Colonies, 1775-1776. By Michael Cecere, Westholme Publishing, 2024. Part of the Independence Trilogy, the question this book in part tries to answer is, “what happened in the Thirteen Colonies after bloodshed erupted at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 until independence was declared in July 1776?” This one focuses that question specifically on the colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Staying In The Fight: How War on Terror Veterans in Congress Are Shaping US Defense Policy. By Jeffrey S. Lantis, University Press of Kentucky, 2024. Speaks of how War on Terror veterans are an influential generation of policy activists in Congress, one of the first in-depth studies of the new cohort on Capitol Hill. Sixty-one of ninety-five military veteran members of Congress in the 118th Congress served during the Global War on Terror.
The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves: The Battle of the Wabash, The United States’ Greatest Defeat in the Wars Against Indigenous Peoples. By Rick M. Schoenfield, Westholme Publishing, 2024. Presents the 4 November 1791 defeat of the American Army under General Arthur St. Clair by the Maumee Confederation, known as the worst disaster of the Indian Wars. It triggered the first Congressional investigation and first use of executive privilege. This places the event into cultural, economic, and political context and its impact, including ecological, using primary sources even including archaeology.
Son Tay 1970: The Operation Ivory Coast POW rescue mission. By Justin Williamson, Osprey Publishing, 2024. Depicts the attempts to rescue prisoners of war during the Vietnam War in Operation KINGPIN. In the attempt, 56 members of 6th and 7th Special Forces Groups attacked a known POW camp nearly flawlessly; if it weren’t for the complete absence of any prisoners.
Surviving Three Shermans: With The 3rd Armored Division Into The Battle of the Bulge. By Walter Boston Stitt, Jr., Edited by Dr. Jessica L. George, Casemate Publishers, 2024. A memoir of a tank loader and gunner in the Second World War. The book is built around the censored letters sent home to his mother, who saved and treasured them until her death, and telling the real tale that Stitt couldn’t tell then.
Tanks in the Philippines 1944-45: The biggest armored clashes of the Pacific War. By Steven J. Zaloga, Osprey Publishing, 2024. With illustrations of vehicles and one spread illustration by Felipe Rodriguez, this short book discusses doctrine and organization of the Imperial Japanese Army and the US Army’s armor; the tanks and AFVs used by both sides; and their use within the Philippines when Macarthur returned to the nation’s shores in World War II.
Task Force Hogan: The World War II Tank Battalion that Spearheaded the Liberation of Europe. By William R. Hogan. William Morrow, 2023. This book depicts 3d Battalion, 33d Armored Regiment, 3d Armored Division leading the charge across Europe in the Second World War, especially their daring escape from a trap during the Battle of the Bulge. Written by the son of Task Force Hogan’s commanding officer, it is a tribute to his father and the men he led.
A Tempest of Iron and Lead: Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864. By Chris Mackowski, Savas Beattie, 2024. A former historian of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park uses his meticulous knowledge of the landscape and primary sources to make this new study of the Civil War campaign.
Three Cold Wars: A Vermont Citizen-Soldier’s Life in the Infantry. By R. V. Little, Jr., LTC (USA-Ret.), Self-Published, 2024. The biography of Major R. V. Little, Sr., written by his son. Beginning as a private in the Vermont National Guard in 1936, Major Little, Sr. served with quiet distinction in formerly under-reported battles of the Second World War and Korean War. As well, he served in three different post-WWII Occupations, and engaged in Troop Information and intelligence missions against nascent Cold War Communist threats.
‘Tis Not Our War: Avoiding Military Service in the Civil War North. By Paul Taylor, Stackpole Books, 2024. Why men fought the Civil War is well known, not so much is the reasons not to fight. Sixty percent of service-eligible Northern men did not fight; Taylor asks why, and digs through a number of primary sources to answer it.
Tubby: Raymond O. Barton and the US Army, 1889-1963. By Stephen A. Bourque, University of North Texas Press, 2024. Raymond “Tubby” O. Barton – named for his football and wrestling prowess at West Point – had a thirty-seven year Army career culminating in commanding the 4th Infantry Division in France during World War II. The first American general to enter Nazi Germany, he was physically unable to command after the Battle of the Bulge. Released in recognition of the 80th Anniversary of that battle, Bourque tells an inside picture with the extensive use of Tubby’s wartime diary.
Unraveling the Myth of Sgt. Alvin York: The Other Sixteen. By James P. Gregory, Jr., Texas A&M University Press, 2023. Tells the story of the men who were with Sergeant Alvin York, contesting the popular narrative that York single-handedly accomplished his deeds to create a more balanced look into a legendary Army event.
US Battle Tanks 1917-1945. By Steven J. Zaloga, Osprey Publishing, 2024. The first of a two-volume illustrated set of the complete history of American armored tanks, from the first experiments to the end of the Second World War.
US Battle Tanks 1946-2025. By Steven J. Zaloga, Osprey Publishing, 2024. The second of a two-volume illustrated set of the complete history of American armored tanks, from the end of the Second World War to the modern day.
War in the Western Theater: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. Edited by Sarah Kay Bierle and Chris Mackowski, Savas Beatie, 2024. Commemorating Emerging Civil War’s tenth anniversary is this compendium of Civil War tales and perspectives, putting to paper a number of blog posts, podcast transcripts, transcripts of talks at ECW symposiums, and more. ECW’s mission is to promote new scholars entering the professional field, and their works make up this book.
We Dared to Fly: Dangerous Secret Missions During the Vietnam War. By COL William Reeder, Jr., Ph.D. (USA-Ret.), Lyons Press, 2024. A memoir depicting the 131st Surveillance Airplane Company’s secretive reconnaissance flights over Laos and North Vietnam, extremely lethal yet vital information gathering missions during the Vietnam War. COL Reeder was the last soldier taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese Army; having previously written on those experiences in his second tour, this book presents his first tour.
A Wilderness of Destruction: Confederate Guerrillas in East and South Florida, 1861-1865. By Zack C. Waters, Mercer University Press, 2023. Focused on the Confederate guerrillas in the Civil War who defended Florida against Union incursions, after the Confederate government abandoned Florida’s coastal regions.
With My Shield: An Army Ranger in Somalia. By James Lechner, Osprey Publishing, 2023. A memoir by an officer of the 3d Ranger Battalion during Operation GOTHIC SERPENT, depicting his personal experience and much of the surrounding events as well, thirty years later.
Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons. By Jill L. Newmark, Southern Illinois University Press, 2023. The first book about black military surgeons during the Civil War, it depicts the lives of fourteen men who wore the Union blue and made American medical history.
The World War One Diary & Art of Doughboy Cpl. Harold W. Pierce: Duty, Terror and Survival. Edited by William J. Welch, Pen & Sword Books, 2024. The diary of a young National Guard enlisted man, a small book he filled with 79,000 words while fighting in the 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division. This is accompanied by six paintings Pierce put to canvas later in his life.
You’re A Good Man, Sergeant: The World War II Combat Memoir of an Armored Infantry in Patton’s Third Army. By Paul S. Porter, edited by Colleen C. Porter, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2024. A memoir written by an armored infantryman in Company B, 53d Armored Infantry Battalion, during the Second World War, edited by his daughter after his passing forty years ago. (PDF copy only)
Zouave Theaters: Transnational Military Fashion and Performance. By Carole E. Harrison & Thomas J. Brown, Louisiana State University Press, 2024. A military fashion fad of the 19th Century that brought with it a sub-culture of its own, Zouave uniforms were as much costume as uniform, coinciding with a rise of an imperial liberalism. Harrison and Brown give a global perspective of the Zouave uniform, fitting its presence in the Civil War to a worldwide narrative.
