New Books in Military History

By Marshall Poe

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently publ... more

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How many episodes does New Books in Military History have?

The podcast currently has 1,701 episodes available.

New Books in Military History episodes:

August 23, 2026 Travis Bruce, "Constructing the Medieval Maritime State: Identity, Violence, and Connection in the Mediterranean" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Constructing the Medieval Maritime State: Identity, Violence, and Connection in the Mediterranean (Oxford
University Press, 2026) by Professor Travis Bruce explores how the
small medieval kingdom of Denia in Spain became a powerful maritime
state after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate. Its rulers built
authority, not only through war and seafaring raids but also by
connecting Denia to wider Mediterranean trade, diplomacy, and culture.
The rise and evolution of the taifa
of Denia is a powerful case study for understanding the construction of
medieval maritime states in the Mediterranean. Dr. Bruce situates Denia
within the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate and explores how its rulers
forged legitimacy through identity formation, maritime violence, and
regional connectivity. Denia's identity was negotiated through
rulership, unfreedom, and cultural hybridity, and violence —
particularly predatory warfare and maritime jihad — functioned as both
statecraft and economic extraction. At the same time, Denia's
entanglement in commercial, diplomatic, and intellectual networks
positioned it as a key node linking the Islamic Mediterranean and the
Latin West. The state's trajectory cannot be reduced to narratives of
decline or simple religious conflict but instead reveals a process of
negotiation shaped by mobility, interdependence, and the fluid
boundaries between public and private power. This narrative reframes
Mediterranean history beyond Eurocentric paradigms and underscores the
significance of Islamic maritime states within the wider medieval world.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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43min
August 23, 2026 Steve Feldstein, "Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare" (St. Martin's Press, 2026)
Steve Feldstein's Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare (St. Martin's Press,
2026) opens with a juxtaposition: China spending vast sums to reach the
far side of the moon, and Ukraine using cheap drones to blunt a far
larger military. Both are stories about technology and power, but they
point in opposite directions.
In our conversation, Feldstein
argues that the outcome of technological competition is not
predetermined. Small states, non-state actors, and private companies
with the right engineers can now challenge much stronger adversaries. We
discuss Iran, whose military innovation grew out of decades of
sanctions rather than in spite of them, and why Western analysts
dismissed what was in plain sight. We then turn to China and Feldstein's
concern that the United States is making unforced errors, hollowing out
the basic research on which its edge depends.
Bytes and Bullets
resists both technological determinism and the claim that nothing has
changed. But this book is also candid about what cannot be predicted: as
machines take on decisions humans once made, who, if anyone, will set
the limits?
Our guest is Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.
Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of "Volatile States in International Politics" (Oxford University Press, 2023).

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46min
August 21, 2026 A. J. Murphy, "Pentagon Capitalism: How the Cold War US Military Modeled Itself on Private Business" (Harvard UP, 2026)
The strategic landscape of the Cold War generated political support for a permanent US military force of unprecedented scale. Faced with the problem of managing this behemoth, leaders of the defense bureaucracy looked to private industry for inspiration: since the military now resembled a huge industrial conglomerate, they reasoned, it should be run like a business. In Pentagon Capitalism: How the Cold War US Military Modeled Itself on Private Business (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. A. J. Murphy explores the profound consequences of translating military structures of command, logistics, and warfare into capitalist terms.
In the realm of budgeting and finance, defense reformers refashioned the supply process as a buy-and-sell transaction between units, requiring officers to express their need for equipment and labor in dollar terms. Bureaucrats embraced Taylorist work measurement to supervise everything from clerical filing to the production of massive weapons systems. The services even engaged management consultants to establish officer-training academies modeled on the Harvard Business School.
After the Vietnam War, many military leaders pushed back, questioning “managerialism” and calling for a return to traditional concepts of command. Civilian critics also chimed in, protesting the callousness of the business-minded secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, who famously measured success and failure in body counts. By this time, however, the language and values of management had thoroughly infiltrated the military’s institutional structure and daily operations. As Pentagon Capitalism makes clear, the reorganization of the defense bureaucracy along the lines of a for-profit firm durably altered the experience of military work and facilitated the lasting privatization of US national security.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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39min
August 19, 2026 Amy Blakeway, "War and Governance in Scotland, 1543-1559: Destruction, Reconstruction and Reform" (Edinburgh UP, 2026)
Drawing from local archives alongside national and international records, War and Governance in Scotland, 1543-1559: Destruction, Reconstruction and Reform (Edinburgh UP, 2026) by Dr. Amy Blakeway argues that warfare was the defining feature of government and politics in Scotland for the two decades following the death of James V. It demonstrates that beyond the direct effects of invasion, the need to raise unprecedented taxation, as well as warfare’s secondary consequences, such as plague and price inflation, disrupted communities throughout Scotland, engendering enhanced social control. These effects endured for many years after the peace of 1550: new laws were passed to manage those who had collaborated with the invaders and taxation remained high.
The post-war decade was one of reconstruction, and it was this which drove religious reformation in 1559-60. The book shows that appreciating the scale of the crown’s ambition places the Scottish state’s development closer to that of its European counterparts.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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1h 1min
August 18, 2026 Jacob Hagstrom, "Asymmetric Warfare: Politics and Cultures of Violence in the Modern Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Asymmetric Warfare: Politics and Cultures of Violence in the Modern Era (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
The forces that fight asymmetric wars are so distinct that one side
avoids direct military confrontation in favor of political, social, or
otherwise unorthodox means of resistance. These conflicts have been a
mainstay of modern times, though scholars have often separated them into
various designations by era. Observers have referred, in chronological
order, to Indian warfare, petite guerre (small war), guerrilla warfare,
irregular or revolutionary war, and terrorism. The proliferation of
labels over time has obscured the continuity of asymmetric wars
throughout modernity. Stark distinctions in resources and capabilities
have shaped the reasons why states and societies have decided to fight,
and the manner in which they have fought. Across the modern era,
mismatches arose in the domains of technology, intelligence production,
and law. But in recent decades, so-called weak powers have neutralized
many of the typical advantages of strong military states.
Jacob Hagstrom is an army veteran and historian. He earned a PhD in
history from Indiana University, Bloomington, and taught courses at the
Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.
Chris Millington is Professor of Modern European History and lead of the Histories and Cultures of Conflict research group at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is the author of eight books including Murder in Marseille: Right-Wing Terrorism in 1930s Europe ((Manchester University Press, 2025), The Invention of Terrorism in France, 1904-1939 (Stanford University press, 2023), and France in the Second World War Collaboration, Resistance, Holocaust, Empire (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).

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24min
August 16, 2026 Elizabeth Tynan, "Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia" (NewSouth, 2026)
Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia
(NewSouth, 2026) tells the shocking story of the two British atomic
weapons test series held at Western Australia's Monte Bello Islands in
1952 and 1956. Operation Hurricane and Operation Mosaic took place at a
rugged archipelago 100 kilometres off the Pilbara coast, and each of the
three bombs sent fallout over vast distances across the country. One of
the tests, Mosaic G2 in June 1956, the largest nuclear weapon test ever
held in Australia, sparked panic at the time that it had been a nuclear
accident. In both the Mosaic tests, the crew of a British ship was
deliberately positioned in the path of fallout. The biodiverse natural
environment of the islands was left contaminated and has never been
cleaned up.
The book explores the politics, the secrecy and the controversies,
including the true nature of Mosaic G2 and its role in the clandestine
development of the British hydrogen bomb.
Elizabeth Tynan
is professor in the Graduate Research School at James Cook University,
Townsville. She is a prominent writer and researcher of the era of
British atomic testing in Australia. Her book Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story (NewSouth,
2016) won the Prime Minister's Literary Award (Australian History) and
the CHASS Australia Book Prize in 2017. Her follow-up book The Secret of Emu Field: Britain's Forgotten Atomic Tests in Australia was published by NewSouth in 2022.
Morteza Hajizadeh
is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New
Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory;
Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies;
18th
and 19th Century British Literature.

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1h 3min
August 16, 2026 Mithi Mukherjee, "Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom" (U California Press, 2026)
Offering a new global perspective on modern Indian history, Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom (University
of California Press, 2026) by Mithi Mukherjee identifies the rise of
Asianism in the early twentieth century as the origin and primary
driving force of resistance movements that brought down the British
Empire. Mithi Mukherjee ties together into a single sweeping narrative
two contrasting, conflicting forms of anticolonialism: the emergence of
the nonviolent resistance movement under Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa
and the militant movement culminating in the war on British India by the
Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose in alliance with the
Japanese army. Asia emerges in this breakthrough retelling not as an
inert geographical category, but instead as a singular agent of change
in modern world history.
Mithi Mukherjee is a Professor of
History at the University of Colorado Boulder. She specializes in the
legal, political, and cultural history of modern India.
Shatrunjay
Mall is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. His work in modern Japanese history, South Asian
history, and transnational Asian history explores ideas of Pan-Asianism
and its legacies, as well as intellectual, political, and cultural
intersections and affinities between colonial India and imperial Japan
in the twentieth century.

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1h 10min
August 14, 2026 Hossam el-Hamalawy, "Counterrevolution in Egypt: Sisi's New Republic (Verso Books, 2026)
Counterrevolution in Egypt: Sisi's New Republic (Verso Books, 2026) is a rare and comprehensive examination of the structures, hierarchies, and methods of the military, police, and intelligence agencies. Drawing on meticulous research, it reveals the strategies deployed to suppress the revolutionary wave, from propaganda and surveillance to mass arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings. El-Hamalawy traces the power dynamics within these institutions to show how their uneasy unity was both a response to the revolution and a determinant of its eventual fate.
Hossam el-Hamalawy is a journalist and socialist from Cairo, who was among the organisers of the 2011 uprising. He has been involved in the labour movement and the fight against police brutality in Egypt. He holds a PhD in political science from Freie Universität Berlin and is the recipient of the 2011 Anna Politkovskaya Journalism Award. He publishes a weekly newsletter on Egyptian politics at 3arabawy.substack.com.
Alec Fiorini is a PhD student at Queen Mary University London's Centre for Labour, Sustainability and Global Production (CLaSP) researching the political economy of nitrogen fertilizer supply chains.

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1h 38min
August 08, 2026 Hiroshima's Last Witnesses and Japan's Nuclear Future
M. G. Sheftall has lived in Japan since 1987. He has a PhD in international relations and modern Japanese history from Waseda University in Tokyo. Since 2001, he has been a professor of modern Japanese cultural history and communication at the Faculty of Informatics of Shizuoka University. He lives in Hamamatsu, Japan.
Amy Chavez talks about Sheftall's books on the Asia Pacific War, in particular Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses and Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses both oral histories featuring interviews with survivors of the atomic bombs.
Has Japan's 80 years of peace education been all for naught? The book serves as a prescient warning given the current political climate and Japan's complex relationships with the US, Taiwan, China, and the broader world. Recent developments—including Nihon Hidankyo's 2024 Nobel Peace Prize and the ongoing protests against revising Article 9—bring this subject into sharp focus. Against this backdrop, the author offers his own perspective on Japan's nuclear future.
The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.
Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island, and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.
Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service.

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34min
August 07, 2026 Gianluca Fantoni, "Soldiers, Angels, and Avengers: A History of the Jewish Brigade" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2026)
Soldiers, Angels, and Avengers: A History of the Jewish Brigade (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2026) tells
the compelling story of the Jewish Brigade Infantry Group (JBG), a
five-thousand-strong military unit, recruited primarily from the Jewish
population of Palestine, and the only exclusively Jewish military unit
to fight under the British flag during the Second World War. Gianluca
Fantoni reconstructs the military and human experience of the brigade in
Italy and investigates its enduring and controversial place in memory
and public debate.
Formed in 1944, the JBG saw combat in the
final stages of the Italian campaign, where its soldiers fought with
distinction against German forces. After the war, many of its members –
who often had little or no military training, and included artists,
scientists, and farmers – engaged in clandestine efforts to smuggle
Holocaust survivors and weapons into Palestine, laying the groundwork
for the future Israeli state. Others sought retribution against Nazis
and collaborators in acts that revealed both the trauma of genocide and
the desire for justice.
Far more than a conventional military history, Soldiers, Angels, and
Avengers is both a critical study of the political uses of history and a
vivid, passionate narrative that brings to life the men and women of
the brigade. Accessible and engaging, this book offers readers a rare
lens through which to understand the intersections of war, memory, and
politics in twentieth-century Europe.
Roberto Mazza is currently a visiting scholar at the Buffett
Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He is the host
of the Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast and to discuss and propose a book for interview can be reached at [email protected]. Blusky and IG: @robbyref

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1h 6min

FAQs about New Books in Military History:

How many episodes does New Books in Military History have?

The podcast currently has 1,701 episodes available.

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