Gershom Gorenberg, "War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East" (PublicAffairs: 2021)
The Second Battle of El-Alamein, alongside Stalingrad and Midway, is taught in schools the world over as one of the turning points of the Second World War—or, depending on who you talk to, the turning...
11 Nov 202141min
Samuel Moyn, "Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War" (FSG, 2021)
Geographic and temporal limits have typically contained modern wars—rulers can ask their populace to risk lives and treasure for so long before losing legitimacy. But wars have also been horrifyingly ...
10 Nov 20211h
Yuri Kostenko, "Ukraine's Nuclear Disarmament: A History" (HURI, 2020)
Yuri Kostenko’s Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2020) is a meticulous account of how the Ukrainian government made a decision in the 1990s to give up th...
9 Nov 202129min
War Stories: The Military Tactics of Ancient Egyptian Rulers As Illustrated by War Records
The lives of ancient Egyptians were truly colorful, and of them, the royals led the most vivid lives. The military pharaohs have left behind many records that give us a glimpse into their warfare styl...
3 Nov 202114min
Gil Hahn, "Campaign for the Confederate Coast" (West 88th Street Press, 2021)
Aubrey L. Glazer's Mystical Vertigo: Contemporary Kabbalistic Hebrew Poetry Dancing Over the Divide (Academic Studies Press, 2013) immerses readers in the experience of the contemporary kabbalistic He...
3 Nov 202149min
John D. Gazzelli. "Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan, KCB: The Planner Who Saved Europe" (Palmetto, 2021)
Today I spoke to John D. Gazzelli about his book Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan, KCB: The Planner Who Saved Europe (Palmetto, 2021). History has forgotten Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Mor...
2 Nov 202146min
Tobias Hof, "Galeazzo Ciano: The Fascist Pretender" (U Toronto Press, 2021)
He was the son of a prominent politician, Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law, and viewed by many as the Duce’s likely successor, only to die before a fascist firing squad near the end of the Second World W...
2 Nov 20211h 4min
Joseph Tachovsky, "40 Thieves on Saipan: The Elite Marine Scout-Snipers in One of WWII's Bloodiest Battles" (Regnery History, 2020)
An elite platoon of Marine Scout-Snipers, Lieutenant Frank Tachovsky's "40 Thieves" were chosen for their willingness to defy rules and beat all-comers. When two Marines got into a fight, the loser en...
29 Okt 202140min
