-
Book Review: The World: A Family History of Humanity
Zachary Griffiths
Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Griffiths (US Army), Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Army
The Harding Project’s Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Griffiths reviews this best-selling, epic in scope history of the world framed by powerful families and gives an honest evaluation of the book’s potential value (and shortcomings) for soldiers. Griffiths notes that the book provides insight into the “richness of the human experience” with “vignettes to give color to historical military campaigns and humanize those campaigns’ participants.”
-
Book Review: Info Ops: From World War I to the Twitter Era
José de Arimatéia da Cruz
Editors: Ofer Fridman, Vitaly Kabernik, and Francesca Granelli
Reviewed by Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz, Department of Homeland Defense and Security Issues, Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College
Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz calls Info Ops a “must-read for any future combatant commander concerned about how our enemies use information and communication technologies within a contested environment to advance their causes and wreak havoc within an increasingly polarized society.” He overviews the book’s topics, including World War I and World War II, social media, Soviet Union propaganda, and even Israel and Hamas, and discusses their immediate relevance, “highly recommend[ing] Info Ops to US Army War College students.”
-
Book Review: Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission over the Roof of the World
Heather Venable
Author: Caroline Alexander
Reviewed by Dr. Heather Venable, course director, Airpower Strategy and Operations, Air Command and Staff College
Dr. Heather Venable, course director, Airpower Strategy and Operations, at the Air Command and Staff College, insightfully analyzes multifaceted author and translator Caroline Alexander’s latest history of the China-Burma-India Theater. Venable overviews the book’s four main elements and the two structural topics—the “ ‘Hump’ of the Himalayas” and the land bridge. She praises the author’s “beguiling human and geographical detail” that “brings the CBI Theater to life while casting a critical eye on the human frailties of her research subjects.”
-
Book Review: The Decline and Fall of Republican Afghanistan
Whitney Grespin
Authors: Ahmad Shuja Jamal and William Maley
Reviewed by Dr. Whitney Grespin, visiting research fellow, King's College London, UK Defence Academy; non-resident fellow, Joint Special Operations University; and Africa Regional Program Lead, DSCA/DSCU Institute for Security Governance
Foreign-policy expert Dr. Whitney Grespin reviews a “deservedly cutting reflection on mistakes made and lessons not learned during the Afghanistan War.” She notes the book’s “valuable perspective,” as one of the authors was in Kabul when it fell. Distilling the book’s contents into a detailed, useful overview, Grespin provides a helpful roadmap for readers interested in these topics and concludes the book is “[a] necessary read for practitioners engaged in security assistance.”
Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.
