Books
Book Discussion on The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History
Below is a synopsis and discussion of The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History by Tonio Andrade. The author is a military historian interested in China and its divergence from the West, who first made his mark a book on the
Book Discussion on Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare
Below are my notes on Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman, who served in the Departments of State, Treasury, and Defense under the Obama administration, and witnessed firsthand many of the policy debates behind American economic warfare in the past two decades.
Book Discussion: The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500-1800
The Cutting-Off Way by Wayne Lee presents a new model for looking at Indian warfare, looking at how their hit-and-run tactics were shaped by the broader context of social organization, logistics, and strategy.
Book Discussion: The Road to Dien Bien Phu
Christopher Goscha's The Road to Dien Bien Phu shows how the Vietnamese communists under Ho Chi Minh used what the author calls “Vietnamese War Communism” to win independence from the French. War was waged not only against the colonial administration, but also against rivals within the independence movement, and entailed the total mobilization of society against its enemies.