Books to Review

Book Review Guidelines

An analytical book review is not simply a summary of the book’s contents. It should give the reader a critical, informative and interesting discussion of the work. It comments on and evaluates the book on certain criteria, including the following:

  • the main ideas and major objectives of the book and how effectively these are accomplished;
  • what, if anything, does it contribute to the literature and how well does it do this;
  • the readership for which it is written;
  • constructive comments on the book’s strengths and weaknesses;
  • the soundness of the theoretical assumptions, the methodology, if any, and the sources used;
  • your own reactions and opinions on the book.

Length: 1000-3000 words. Please look at already-published JMSS reviews to coordinate formatting prior to submission.

Deadline: Please plan to have your completed review submitted within 2 months of receiving the review copy. 

Your review should include:

  • Author(s)/Editor(s) first and last name(s) – please indicate if it is an edited book
  • title
  • year of publication
  • publisher
  • your first and last name
  • institution affiliation
  • a brief biographical note

To review a book listed below, please send an email with the citation to njmackie@ucalgary.ca or lmhallad@hotmail.com. Include your mailing address if requesting a book be sent to you.

Send completed reviews to Dr. Laurel Halladay, Book Review Editor, at lmhallad@hotmail.com

Books Available for Review 

  1. Aboul-Enein, Youssef and Joseph T. Stanik. Middle East 101: A Beginner's Guide for Deployers, Travelers, and Concerned Citizens. Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2019.
  2. Addleton, Jonathan S. The Dust of Kandahar: A Diplomat Among Warriors in Afghanistan. Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2016.
  3. Albertson, Trevor. Winning Armageddon: Curtis LeMay and Strategic Air Command, 1948-1957. Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2019.
  4. Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale, Moses Dunbar, and the American Revolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  5. August, Arnold. Cuba-US Relations: Obama and Beyond. Toronto, ON: Fernwood Publishing, 2017.
  6. Bergen, Bob. Scattering Chaff: Canadian Air Power and Censorship During the Kosovo War. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2019.
  7. Bessner, Ellin. Double Threat: Canadian Jews, The Military and World War II. Toronto, ON: New Jewish Press, 2018.
  8. Bhuta, Nehal, Susanne Beck, Robin Geiss, Hin-Yan Liu, and Claus Kress, eds. Autonomous Weapons Systems: Law, Ethics, Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
  9. Braithwaite, Rodric. Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation Since 1945. London, GB: Profile Books, 2017.
  10. Byman, Daniel. Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019.
  11. Campbell, David. It Can't Last Forever: The 19th Battalion and the Canadian Corps in the First World War. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017.
  12. Chambers, Paul and Waitoolkiat, Napisa, eds. Khaki Capital: The Political Economy of the Military in Southeast Asia. Copenhagen, DK: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2017.
  13. Charney, Michael W. and Wellen, Kathryn, eds. Warring Societies of Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia: Local Cultures of Conflict Within a Regional Context. Copenhagen, DK: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2017.
  14. Coleman, Bradley Lynn and Longley, Kyle, eds. Reagan and the World: Leadership and National Security, 1981-1989. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2017.
  15. Conrad, John. Among the Walking Wounded: Soldiers, Survival and PTSD. Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press, 2017.
  16. Daxner, Michael, Marion Naser-Lather, and Silvia Nicola, eds. Conflict Veterans: Discourses and Living Contexts of an Emerging Social Group. Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.
  17. Echevarria, Antulio J. Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  18. Fridman, Ofer. Enemy Civilian Casualties: Politics, Culture, and Technology. London, UK: Lexington Books, 2019.
  19. Fox, Aimee. Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914-1918. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  20. Gat, Azar. The Causes of War and the Spread of Peace. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  21. Glatthaar, Joseph T. The American Military: A Concise History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  22. Granatstein, J.L. The Weight of Command: Voices of Canada's Second World War Generals and Those Who Knew Them. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2016.
  23. Greener, B.K., ed. Army Fundamentals: From Making Soldiers to the Limits of the Military Instrument. Auckland, NZ: Massey University Press, 2017.
  24. Groh, Tyrone L. Proxy War: The Least Bad Option. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.
  25. Hart, Peter. The Last Battle: Victory, Defeat, and the End of World War I. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  26. Harvey, Frank P. and John Milton. Fighting for Credibility: US Reputation and International Politics. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2016.
  27. Hill, Alexander. The Red Army and the Second World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  28. Huff, Greg and Shinobu Majirmqa, eds. and trans. World War II Singapore: The Chosabu Reports on Syonan. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2018.
  29. Jones, Howard. My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  30. Kaempf, Sebastian. Saving Soldiers or Civilians? Casualty-Aversion versus Civilian Protection in Asymmetric Conflicts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
  31. Lackenbauer, P. Whitney, Adam Lajeunesse, James Manicom, and Frederic Lasserre. China's Arctic Ambitions and What They Mean For Canada. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2018.
  32. Lambert, Andrew, ed. 21st Century Corbett: Maritime Strategy and Naval Policy for the Modern Age. Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2017.
  33. Ledwidge, Frank. Aerial Warfare: The Battle for the Skies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  34. Leuprecht, Christian, Joel J. Sokolsky, and Thomas Hughes, eds. North American Strategic Defense in the 21st Century: Security and Sovereignty in an Uncertain World. New York, NY: Springer International, 2018.
  35. Lovell, David M. and Deane-Peter Baker, eds. The Strategic Corporal Revisited: Challenges Facing Combatants in 21st Century Warfare. Cape Town, SA: University of Cape Town Press, 2018.
  36. McGeer, Eric. Varsity's Soldiers: The University of Toronto Contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps, 1914-1968. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
  37. Mhango, Nkwazi Nkuzi. 'Is it Global War on Terrorism' or Global War Over Terra Africana? The Ruse Imperial Powers Use to Occupy Africa Militarily for Economic Gains. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
  38. Miller, Seumas. Shooting to Kill: The Ethics of Police and Military Use of Lethal Force. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  39. Moon, Zachary. Warriors Between Worlds: Moral Injury and Identities in Crisis. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019.
  40. Mulligan, William. The Origins of the First World War, 2nd edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  41. Munoz, Antonio J. The German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2018.
  42. Nester, William. America's War Against Global Jihad: Past, Present and Future. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
  43. Priemel, Kim Christian. The Betrayal: The Nuremberg Trials and German Divergence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  44. Ransom, Roger L. Gambling on War: Confidence, Fear, and the Tragedy of the First World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
  45. Raymond, Gregory Vincent. Thai Military Power: A Culture of Strategic Accomodation. Copenhagen, DK: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2018.
  46. Remmelink, Willem, ed. and trans. The Invasion of the Dutch East Indies. Compiled by the War History Office of the National Defence College of Japan. Leiden, NL: Leiden University Press, 2015.
  47. Ridley, Yvonne. Torture: Does it Work? Interrogation Issues and Effectiveness in the Global War on Terror. Essex, UK: Military Studies Press, 2016.
  48. Riedel, Bruce. Beirut 1958: How America's Wars in the Middle East Began. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2020.  
  49. Ruffa, Chiara. Military Cultures in Peace and Stability Operations: Afghanistan and Lebanon. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
  50. Simpson, Adam. Energy, Governance and Security in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma): A Critical Approach to Environmental Politics in the South. Copenhagen, DK: Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, 2017.
  51. Spohr, Kristina and David Reynolds, eds. Transcending the Cold War: Summits, Statecraft, and the Dissolution of Bipolarity in Europe, 1970-1990. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  52. Stavridis, James and R. Manning Ancell, eds. The Leader's Bookshelf. Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2017.
  53. Stewart, Timothy J. Toronto's Fighting 75th in the Great War, 1915-1919. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017.
  54. Stoker, Donald. Why American Loses Wars: Limited War and US Strategy from the Korean War to the Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
  55. Struthers, Joel Adam. Appel: A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2019.
  56. Symonds, Craig L. World War II at Sea: A Global History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  57. Walker, Philip. Behind the Lawrence Legend: The Forgotten Few Who Shaped the Arab Revolt. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  58. Willard-Foster, Melissa. Toppling Foreign Governments: The Logic of Regime Change. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.
  59. Williams, Bryan Glyn. Counter Jihad: America's Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.