Brook Allen

Book Review by Lindsay Gudridge: Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East by David Stahel

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David Stahel has conclusively demonstrated that there is more to learn from the history of World War II. His first published work, a revised version of his doctoral dissertation entitled Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.  This work is not another single volume “comprehensive” work describing the entire campaign conducted by Germany and its allies and their invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. Instead, the author restricts his narrative to describing the planning and preparation of the offensive and the crucial first six weeks of the campaign, roughly the period from 22 June 1941 to the … More after the Jump…

Book Review by Lindsay Gudridge: George Marshall Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll

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George C. Marshall, Jr. would graduate from the Virginia Military Institute in two months and he had decided that he wanted to be an officer in the U.S. Army. So in April of 1901, Marshall took it upon himself to travel to Washington, D.C. and meet with the U.S. Attorney General who was an acquaintance of his father. This gentleman was impressed by the interview and arranged for Marshall to meet that same day with the Chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee who received him favorably. However, Marshall wanted to be certain that he would achieve his goal. That same day he walked into the White House and joined … More after the Jump…

Book Review: Yank and Rebel Rangers: Special Operations in the American Civil War, by Robert W. Black

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The literature on elite military forces typically involves spectacular and legendary stories of specialized units performing extraordinary battlefield operations. Special operations forces consist of highly skilled and trained soldiers who can work in austere and asymmetric environments. From the Biblical account of King David’s “mighty men”[1] to the modern-day SEAL Team Six, specialized forces have played a pivotal role throughout military history. Of the myriad of special operations forces, the units known as Rangers have a celebrated history and lineage that has evolved in today’s US Army, 75th Ranger Regiment. Their past includes well-known units such as Rogers’ Rangers of American Revolution fame; Mosby’s Rangers, the Confederate cavalry shock troops … More after the Jump…

Book Review: The Templars, The Rise and the Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors by Dan Jones

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British historian and journalist, Dan Jones, dives deep and wide in examining one of the most famous Catholic knight orders – the Knights Templar – in The Templars, The Rise and the Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors. Published in 2017, this book complements Jones’ earlier works, The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England and The War of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors. The Templar epoch reflected a rags to riches, and back to rags, and eventually to the systematic eradication of a significant contributor to virtually all of the campaigns to secure Christianity’s most holy sites in the … More after the Jump…