Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II
By Sean McMeekin
WWII / Eastern Front / Russian Military

World War II is usually considered Hitler's war, but Sean McMeekin argues that Stalin wanted it at least as much and maneuvered the capitalist powers into a conflict that drained their strength while he claimed Eastern Europe and a stake in Manchuria. The book was shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal and the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History.

$2.99

The Longest Afternoon: The 400 Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo
By Brendan Simms
Napoleonic Wars / Waterloo

On the afternoon of June 18, 1815, a single battalion of the King's German Legion defended the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte at the center of Wellington's line against repeated French assaults. Simms argues that these 400-odd riflemen, though eventually forced to withdraw, delayed Napoleon long enough to decide the battle and the fate of Europe.

$1.99

Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad
By William Craig
WWII / Eastern Front / Stalingrad

A good companion read to Stalin’s War, William Craig’s classic was the first Western treatment of Stalingrad to draw heavily on Russian sources when it was published in 1973. Craig recounts the battle from both sides of the front line, following everyone from generals to frontline soldiers, including the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev.

$3.99

Vikings at War
By Kim Hjardar & Vegard Vike
Medieval / Vikings

A richly illustrated account of how the Vikings waged war, covering their weapons, tactics, fortifications, ships, and command structure, along with the raids and conquests that took them across Europe and even to America. More than 380 color illustrations include reconstruction drawings, maps, ship cross-sections, and photos of surviving artifacts. The original Norwegian edition won Norway's Saga Prize in 2012.

$2.99

Apache Over Libya
By Will Laidlaw
Modern Warfare / Aviation / Memoir

Will Laidlaw commanded 656 Squadron, Army Air Corps, when its Apache attack helicopters deployed aboard HMS Ocean in 2011 to prove the aircraft could operate from a ship. As the exercise ended, the Libyan civil war and the NATO air campaign pulled the squadron into real combat. Laidlaw recounts the nightly ultra low-level raids along the Libyan coast, within range of Gaddafi's air defenses, with firsthand accounts from eight Army and two Royal Navy pilots.

$2.99

Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World
By Richard Middleton
American Revolution / British Military

Cornwallis is best known to American readers as the general who surrendered at Yorktown, but his career extended across four decades and three continents. Middleton traces his service in the Seven Years War, his campaigns in the American Revolution, his controversial tenure as Governor-General of India, and his later command in Ireland during the 1798 rebellion, arguing that Yorktown was an anomaly in an otherwise distinguished military life.

$2.99

The Yom Kippur War: And the Airlift That Saved Israel
By Walter J. Boyne
Yom Kippur War / Middle East / Israel

On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel that drove the Jewish state to the brink of destruction. With Israel short of ammunition, planes, and tanks, the United States mounted a massive airlift that gave Israeli ground forces time to stabilize their lines in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, and to ultimately turn the tide.

$2.99

The Spartacus War
By Barry Strauss
Ancient / Roman Military

In 73 BC, the gladiator Spartacus led a revolt out of a gladiatorial school in Capua. His army eventually grew from fewer than 100 men to 60,000, defeated multiple Roman armies, and for a time controlled much of southern Italy before the general Crassus finally crushed it. Strauss builds the account from ancient documents, archaeological evidence, and his own travels through the Italian countryside Spartacus once conquered.

$1.99