Roger R. Reese, "Russia's Army: A History from the Napoleonic Wars to the War in Ukraine" (U Oklahoma Press, 2023)
Czar Alexander III (1845-1894) is reported to have stated that "Russia only has two allies: the army and the navy." Military power has always been important to Russia in establishing itself as a great...
5 Nov 20231h 44min
Peter Layton, "Grand Strategy" (2018)
With the revival of great power competition in international relations, the term "grand strategy" has also encountered a considerable revival from its Cold War era heights of prestige. What exactly is...
4 Nov 20231h 23min
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale, "Why Men?: A Human History of Violence and Inequality" (Hurst, 2023)
How did humans, a species that evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, develop societies of enforced inequality? Why did our ancestors create patriarchal power and warfare? Did it have to be this w...
3 Nov 20231h 14min
Michael Custodis, "Music and Resistance: Cultural Defense During the German Occupation of Norway 1940-45" (Waxmann Verlag, 2021)
The role of music during the German occupation of Norway (1940-45) proves to be an exceptional case for cultural opposition in a dictatorship. Few famous musicians, some local celebrities and innumero...
2 Nov 20231h 25min
Richard Carrier, "Mussolini's Army Against Greece: October 1940-April 1941" (Routledge, 2021)
Richard Carrier's book Mussolini's Army Against Greece: October 1940-April 1941 (Routledge, 2021) analyses why the Italian army failed to defeat its Greek opponent between October 1940 and April 1941....
1 Nov 20231h 12min
On Wars: A Discussion with Michael Mann
“Irrationality rules” in war, Michael Mann writes in his magisterial 2023 book, On Wars (Yale UP, 2023), a history that begins with the Roman Republic and ancient China and works its way through the w...
31 Okt 202355min
Tom Burbage et al., "F-35: The Inside Story of the Lightning II" (Skyhorse, 2023)
The inside story of the most expensive and controversial military program in history, as told by those who lived it. The F-35 has changed allied combat warfare. But by the time it’s completed, it wil...
29 Okt 20231h 13min
Norman Solomon, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine" (New Press, 2023)
More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America’s foreign policy: a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the ...
28 Okt 20231h 5min
