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Collected reviews from decades of reading — organized by subject and written for clarity, context, and long-term reference.

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  • In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology, and British Naval Policy, 1889-1914 (1989) by Jon Tetsuro Sumida

    In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology, and British Naval Policy, 1889-1914 (1989) by Jon Tetsuro Sumida

    At the turn of the century, the cost of naval warship production was spiraling out of control. New technologies and sophistication had doubled the cost of battleships and first class cruisers. Moreover, the ships were growing in size, requiring more crew and substantial upgrades to port facilities. Navy estimates of 22 million pounds in 1898…

  • Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire (2015) by Roger Crowley

    Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire (2015) by Roger Crowley

    Everyone knows that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Less well known, but dramatically more important in the near term, Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and into the Indian Ocean in 1498. It was a triumph of seafaring and endurance that had the effect of a hydrogen bomb being dropped on the vibrant…

  • The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (2005) by Steven Watts

    The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (2005) by Steven Watts

    Henry Ford may very well be greatest entrepreneur in American history. Few have had a greater impact on their time and culture the way Ford did in early twentieth century America. There are many biographies available on Ford, but “The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century” by Steven Watts may be the very…

  • All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (2008) by by Stephen Kinzer

    All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (2008) by by Stephen Kinzer

    In August 1953, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh, was overthrown in a clumsy coup d’état orchestrated by the infant Central Intelligence Agency. Veteran journalist Stephen Kinzer expertly tells this outrageous story of subterfuge in “All the Shah’s Men.” For Kinzer the episode is a cautionary tale of western meddling in Middle…

  • Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (2017) by Kenneth Whyte

    Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (2017) by Kenneth Whyte

    Herbert Hoover is mainly remembered today for his disastrous single term as president at the start of the Great Depression. That is unfortunate, as he is undoubtedly one of the most talented men of his generation and led a life jam-packed with memorable feats and achievements. In “Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times” Kenneth…

  • The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam (2018) by Max Boot

    The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam (2018) by Max Boot

    When the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Edward Lansdale was a 38-year-old advertising executive in San Francisco with a wife and two young children with no background or education in national security or defense policy. Amazingly, within twenty years he would emerge as the country’s leading expert on counter-insurgency. Author Max Boot…

  • The Russian Revolution (1990) by Richard Pipes

    The Russian Revolution (1990) by Richard Pipes

    Richard Pipes was a prominent scholar of Russian history at Harvard for nearly half a century. Born in Poland in 1923, he was a virulent anti-communist and served in the Reagan administration National Security Council in the early 1980s. The fact that he dedicates “The Russian Revolution” to “the victims” tells you all you need…

  • War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (2013) by Carter Malkasian

    War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (2013) by Carter Malkasian

    I deployed to southern Afghanistan in late 2009, roughly the same time that Carter Malkasian arrived as the lead political officer in Garmser in Helmand Province. It was just the beginning of the so-called “Obama Surge” into Afghanistan and the situation in many areas in southern Afghanistan – Helmand Province in particular – was bleak.…

  • Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East (2013) by Scott Anderson

    Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East (2013) by Scott Anderson

    The story of T.E. Lawrence and the Sykes-Picot agreement has been told many times before. Nowhere perhaps better than David Fromkin’s award-winning “A Peace to End All Peace.” Scott Anderson tackles the topic from an interesting angle. He tells the story in narrative form following four inter-related characters: T.E. Lawrence; the Jewish spy-leader, Aaron Aaronsohn;…