Journal of Military History
Vol. 88, No. 1
January 2024
Articles
The Jagiellonian Trail: The Organization of the Units of the Kingdom of Poland during the Prussian War (1519–1521), by Aleksander Bołdyrew and Karol Łopatecki, 9–37
This paper discusses the transformation of the Polish medieval army into a modern one based on the war with the Teutonic Order from 1519–1521. The Kingdom of Poland was ill-prepared for this conflict, and achieved no spectacular victories in battle. Comparing data from treasury materials with documents calling the units to service, we argue that the Teutonic Order was defeated thanks to Poland’s much more efficient system of rebuilding military potential; the Order did not have such a system. The Polish could also recruit men from the monarchies ruled by the Jagiellons at the time—Poland, Lithuania, Czechia, and Hungary. The waterway on and along the Vistula River enabled efficient replenishment of military manpower and supplies. We call this internal transportation route of the Jagiellonian states the “Jagiellonian Trail.”
Learning From Foreigners: U.S. Army Medical Experiences in WWI, by Sanders Marble, 38–57
The historiography of the American effort in World War I describes an American unwillingness to learn from the Allies. However true that may be for the combat arms, it was untrue for the Army Medical Department (AMEDD). The AMEDD sought a wide range of information from the beginning of the war, and through multiple channels that expand substantially and systematically once the U.S. entered the war. The information was also disseminated through multiple channels and made significant impacts on medical care in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during the Great War. Historians should be more cautious about assuming that all parts of the AEF were resistant to foreign information.
The Rhineland Catalyst: British Colonialism and the Development of U.S. Strategies for Military Occupation after World War I, by Thomas J. Kehoe and Paul Bleakley, 58–82
The cross-Atlantic tensions between the British and American militaries throughout the nineteenth century resulted in their cultures being defined in opposition to each other. For the United States, it was the American experiences of frontier conflict, the Civil War, and republican-style imperialism that inspired the nation’s military strategy, including the principles of foreign occupation. This article asserts that, on the contrary, the U.S. approach to occupation governance was greatly informed by a British model from the early twentieth century on. We contend that American failures in the occupation of the Rhineland after World War I prompted the interwar development of new strategies based on the British example. While this strategy may have been borrowed from the British, it was also subject to a retrospective myth-building that selected examples from American history that conformed to the new model, affording it a greater degree of subcultural legitimacy.
The Infantry’s “Problem of Quality”: Classification and Assignment to MOS 745, Rifleman, 1942–1945, by John S. Reed, 83–116
This article examines the classification and assignment of U.S. Army inductees to military occupational specialty (MOS) 745, rifleman, between 1942 and 1945. Before fall 1944, “high-quality” inductees were primarily sent into the Army Service Forces or Army Air Forces, while “low-quality” men were channeled into the ground combat arms, in particular the infantry. This was a utilitarian error that led to poor combat performance in early deploying divisions and a social inequity that imposed a higher burden of lethal risk on less-privileged men. Only out of dire necessity, late in the war, did high-quality inductees become riflemen in significant numbers.
“An Island of Integration in a Sea of Segregation”: Maxwell Air Force Base and Civil Rights from the 1940s to the 1960s, by Robert B. Kane and Jerome Ennels, 117–38
On 26 July 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, directing the integration of U.S. military forces. Earlier publications on this topic generally covered the origins, proclamation, and implementation of the executive order, and the actions of senior military officers in the Pentagon down to commanders of military installations from mid-1948 to the early 1960s. While these works use specific events at specific installations in specific time frames, none tell the complete story of integration at a specific military installation over time. This article details the actions of installation commanders at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama, a central focus of the civil rights movement, from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Sweden, the Palme government, and American Prisoners of War in North Vietnam, by Lubna Z. Qureshi, 139–76
Under Prime Minister Olof Palme, Sweden worked as a neutral country to bring American prisoners-of-war home from North Vietnam in September 1972. Though the group was small, their release was significant at a time when formal Paris peace talks were stalled. For Sweden, it was a paradoxical success, as Stockholm sought to balance its relationship with the Nixon administration while pursuing a humanitarian effort and supporting the American antiwar movement. Palme’s strong antiwar stand earned the lasting rancor of the Nixon White House and led to a diplomatic break between the two nations from December 1972 until the spring of 1974.
Book Reviews:
Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, From Barack Obama to
Donald Trump, by Michael R. Gordon, reviewed by Patrick Sullivan and by Joseph Stieb, 177–81
Warfare in the Age of the Crusades: The Latin East, by Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, and John Cairns, reviewed by Michael S. Fulton, 181–83
Women and the Crusades, by Helen J. Nicholson, reviewed by Charlotte Cartwright, 185–85
Edward’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, the Man behind England’s Greatest King, by Michael Ray, reviewed by Lorraine Attreed, 185–87
Writing Battles: New Perspectives on Warfare and Memory in Medieval Europe, edited by Rory Naismith, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, and Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, reviewed by David Stewart Bachrach, 187–90
Hotspur: Sir Henry Percy & the Myth of Chivalry, by John Sadler, reviewed by Katherine Allocco, 190–92
Dying for France: Experiencing and Representing the Soldier’s Death, 1500–2000, by Ian Germani, reviewed by Joshua Meeks, 192–94
Political Culture, the State, & the Problem of Religious War in Britain & Ireland, 1578–1625, by R. Malcolm Smuts, reviewed by Scott Sowerby, 194–95
Natives, Iberians, and Imperial Loyalties in the South American Borderlands, 1750–1800, by Francismar Alex Lopes de Carvalho, reviewed by Liz Elizondo, 196–97
The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution, by Benjamin L. Carp, reviewed by T. Cole Jones, 198–200
Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Disease, War, and Society during the Revolutionary War, by Ann M. Becker, reviewed by Mary Shuman, 200–2
Taking Sides in Revolutionary New Jersey: Caught in the Crossroads, by Maxine N. Lurie, reviewed by Matthew J. Vajda, 202–4
The Horrible Peace: British Veterans and the End of the Napoleonic Wars, by Evan Wilson, reviewed by Michael A. Bonura, 204–6
The Mormon Military Experience: 1838 to the Cold War, by Sherman L. Fleek and Robert C. Freeman, reviewed by Brian Sears, 206–8
A Wilderness of Destruction: Confederate Guerrillas in East and South Florida, 1861–1865, by Zack C. Waters, reviewed by Joseph M. Beilein Jr., 208–10
Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army, by Adam D. Mendelsohn, reviewed by Joseph S. Topek, 210–12
More Than Just Grit: Civil War Leadership, Logistics, and Teamwork in the West, 1862, by Richard J. Zimmerman, reviewed by Jeremy Knoll, 212–14
Przemyśl, Poland: A Multiethnic City During and After a Fortress, 1867–1939, by John E. Fahey, reviewed by Małgorzata Mazurek, 214–16
A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn: U.S. Army Surgeon George E. Lord, by Todd E. Harburn, reviewed by Ryan W. Booth, 216–18
The African Wars: Warriors and Soldiers of the Colonial Campaigns, by Chris Peers, reviewed by Robert Clemm, 218–19
A New Force at Sea: George Dewey and the Rise of the American Navy, by David A. Smith, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 220–22
The Mud and the Mirth: Marine Cartoonists in World War I, by Cord Scott, reviewed by Robert H. Butts, 222–23
The British Home Front and the First World War, edited by Hew Strachan, reviewed by Mark Klobas, 223–25
Occupied: European & Asian Responses to Axis Conquest, 1937–1945, by Aviel Roshwald, reviewed by Jadwiga Biskupska, 225–27
The One Ship Fleet: USS Boise—WWII Naval Legend, 1938–1945, by Phillip T. Parkerson, reviewed by Jessica Strazzella, 227–29
The Foreign Office’s War, 1939–41: British Strategic Foreign Policy and the Major Neutral Powers, by Keith Neilson, reviewed by Nicholas Sambaluk, 229–31
Winning French Minds: Radio Propaganda in Occupied France, 1940–42, by Denis Courtois; and Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, by Mark G. Pomar, reviewed by Evan Spritzer, 231–34
Doctors at War: The Clandestine Battle against the Nazi Occupation of France, by Ellen Hampton, reviewed by Cameron Zinsou, 234–36
The Peoples’ War? The Second World War in Sociopolitical Perspective, edited by Alexander Wilson, Richard Hammond, and Jonathan Fennell, reviewed by Matthew Oyos, 237–38
The Media Offensive: How the Press and Public Opinion Shaped Allied Strategy during World War II, by Alexander G. Lovelace, reviewed by Philip Woods, 239–41
Hitler’s Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded, by David Stahel, reviewed by Cody Carlson, 241–42
The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest Armoured Defeat, by Ben Wheatley, reviewed by Grant T. Weller, 243–44
Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II, by Beverly Driver Eddy, reviewed by Kara Irvin, 244–47
In the Maelstrom: The Waffen-SS “Galicia” Division and Its Legacy, by Myroslav Shkandrij, reviewed by John Ashbrook, 247–49
All Souls Day: The World War II Battle and the Search for a Lost U.S. Battalion, by Joseph M. Pereira and John L. Wilson, reviewed by Darrell Reader, 249–50
The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King and the Untold Friendship that Won WWII, by Neville Thompson, reviewed by Mary Laurents, 251–52
The Soldier-Statesman in the Secret World: George C. Marshall and Intelligence in War and Peace, by David Robarge, reviewed by Nicholas Reynolds, 253–55
Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership: Volume 2: August–December 1944, by Kevin M. Hymel, reviewed by Arnold Blumberg, 255–57
Nagasaki: The Forgotten Prisoners, by John Willis, reviewed by John Moremon, 257–59
A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945–1955, by Ronald H. Spector, reviewed by Zach Fredman, 259–61
Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire, by Erik Linstrum, reviewed by Dane Kennedy, 261–63
The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology: German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War, by James Mills, reviewed by Daniel R. LeClair, 263–65
Between War and the State: Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954–1975, by Van Nguyen-Marshall, reviewed by Cody J. Billock, 265–67
Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia, by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg, reviewed by Robert K. Brigham, 267–69
Competitive Arms Control: Nixon, Kissinger, & SALT, 1969–1972, by John D. Maurer, reviewed by Matthew Jones, 269–71
The Quiet Violence of Empire: How USAID Waged Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, by Wesley Attewell, reviewed by William A. Taylor, 272–73
The High Ground: Leading in Peace and War, By R. D. Hooker Jr., reviewed by John Emmert, 273–75
Quantifying Counterfactual Military History, by Brennen Fagan, Ian Horwood, Niall MacKay, Christopher Price, and A. Jamie Wood, reviewed by Jeremy Black, 275–77
On Wars, by Michael Mann, reviewed by Stephen Morillo, 277–78
The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers, by Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., reviewed by Ian Boley, 279–80
BOOKS RECEIVED: 281–83
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES: 284–90
Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, From Barack Obama to
Donald Trump, by Michael R. Gordon, reviewed by Patrick Sullivan and by Joseph Stieb, 177–81
Warfare in the Age of the Crusades: The Latin East, by Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, and John Cairns, reviewed by Michael S. Fulton, 181–83
Women and the Crusades, by Helen J. Nicholson, reviewed by Charlotte Cartwright, 185–85
Edward’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, the Man behind England’s Greatest King, by Michael Ray, reviewed by Lorraine Attreed, 185–87
Writing Battles: New Perspectives on Warfare and Memory in Medieval Europe, edited by Rory Naismith, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, and Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, reviewed by David Stewart Bachrach, 187–90
Hotspur: Sir Henry Percy & the Myth of Chivalry, by John Sadler, reviewed by Katherine Allocco, 190–92
Dying for France: Experiencing and Representing the Soldier’s Death, 1500–2000, by Ian Germani, reviewed by Joshua Meeks, 192–94
Political Culture, the State, & the Problem of Religious War in Britain & Ireland, 1578–1625, by R. Malcolm Smuts, reviewed by Scott Sowerby, 194–95
Natives, Iberians, and Imperial Loyalties in the South American Borderlands, 1750–1800, by Francismar Alex Lopes de Carvalho, reviewed by Liz Elizondo, 196–97
The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution, by Benjamin L. Carp, reviewed by T. Cole Jones, 198–200
Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Disease, War, and Society during the Revolutionary War, by Ann M. Becker, reviewed by Mary Shuman, 200–2
Taking Sides in Revolutionary New Jersey: Caught in the Crossroads, by Maxine N. Lurie, reviewed by Matthew J. Vajda, 202–4
The Horrible Peace: British Veterans and the End of the Napoleonic Wars, by Evan Wilson, reviewed by Michael A. Bonura, 204–6
The Mormon Military Experience: 1838 to the Cold War, by Sherman L. Fleek and Robert C. Freeman, reviewed by Brian Sears, 206–8
A Wilderness of Destruction: Confederate Guerrillas in East and South Florida, 1861–1865, by Zack C. Waters, reviewed by Joseph M. Beilein Jr., 208–10
Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army, by Adam D. Mendelsohn, reviewed by Joseph S. Topek, 210–12
More Than Just Grit: Civil War Leadership, Logistics, and Teamwork in the West, 1862, by Richard J. Zimmerman, reviewed by Jeremy Knoll, 212–14
Przemyśl, Poland: A Multiethnic City During and After a Fortress, 1867–1939, by John E. Fahey, reviewed by Małgorzata Mazurek, 214–16
A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn: U.S. Army Surgeon George E. Lord, by Todd E. Harburn, reviewed by Ryan W. Booth, 216–18
The African Wars: Warriors and Soldiers of the Colonial Campaigns, by Chris Peers, reviewed by Robert Clemm, 218–19
A New Force at Sea: George Dewey and the Rise of the American Navy, by David A. Smith, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 220–22
The Mud and the Mirth: Marine Cartoonists in World War I, by Cord Scott, reviewed by Robert H. Butts, 222–23
The British Home Front and the First World War, edited by Hew Strachan, reviewed by Mark Klobas, 223–25
Occupied: European & Asian Responses to Axis Conquest, 1937–1945, by Aviel Roshwald, reviewed by Jadwiga Biskupska, 225–27
The One Ship Fleet: USS Boise—WWII Naval Legend, 1938–1945, by Phillip T. Parkerson, reviewed by Jessica Strazzella, 227–29
The Foreign Office’s War, 1939–41: British Strategic Foreign Policy and the Major Neutral Powers, by Keith Neilson, reviewed by Nicholas Sambaluk, 229–31
Winning French Minds: Radio Propaganda in Occupied France, 1940–42, by Denis Courtois; and Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, by Mark G. Pomar, reviewed by Evan Spritzer, 231–34
Doctors at War: The Clandestine Battle against the Nazi Occupation of France, by Ellen Hampton, reviewed by Cameron Zinsou, 234–36
The Peoples’ War? The Second World War in Sociopolitical Perspective, edited by Alexander Wilson, Richard Hammond, and Jonathan Fennell, reviewed by Matthew Oyos, 237–38
The Media Offensive: How the Press and Public Opinion Shaped Allied Strategy during World War II, by Alexander G. Lovelace, reviewed by Philip Woods, 239–41
Hitler’s Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded, by David Stahel, reviewed by Cody Carlson, 241–42
The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest Armoured Defeat, by Ben Wheatley, reviewed by Grant T. Weller, 243–44
Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II, by Beverly Driver Eddy, reviewed by Kara Irvin, 244–47
In the Maelstrom: The Waffen-SS “Galicia” Division and Its Legacy, by Myroslav Shkandrij, reviewed by John Ashbrook, 247–49
All Souls Day: The World War II Battle and the Search for a Lost U.S. Battalion, by Joseph M. Pereira and John L. Wilson, reviewed by Darrell Reader, 249–50
The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King and the Untold Friendship that Won WWII, by Neville Thompson, reviewed by Mary Laurents, 251–52
The Soldier-Statesman in the Secret World: George C. Marshall and Intelligence in War and Peace, by David Robarge, reviewed by Nicholas Reynolds, 253–55
Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership: Volume 2: August–December 1944, by Kevin M. Hymel, reviewed by Arnold Blumberg, 255–57
Nagasaki: The Forgotten Prisoners, by John Willis, reviewed by John Moremon, 257–59
A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945–1955, by Ronald H. Spector, reviewed by Zach Fredman, 259–61
Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire, by Erik Linstrum, reviewed by Dane Kennedy, 261–63
The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology: German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War, by James Mills, reviewed by Daniel R. LeClair, 263–65
Between War and the State: Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954–1975, by Van Nguyen-Marshall, reviewed by Cody J. Billock, 265–67
Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia, by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg, reviewed by Robert K. Brigham, 267–69
Competitive Arms Control: Nixon, Kissinger, & SALT, 1969–1972, by John D. Maurer, reviewed by Matthew Jones, 269–71
The Quiet Violence of Empire: How USAID Waged Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, by Wesley Attewell, reviewed by William A. Taylor, 272–73
The High Ground: Leading in Peace and War, By R. D. Hooker Jr., reviewed by John Emmert, 273–75
Quantifying Counterfactual Military History, by Brennen Fagan, Ian Horwood, Niall MacKay, Christopher Price, and A. Jamie Wood, reviewed by Jeremy Black, 275–77
On Wars, by Michael Mann, reviewed by Stephen Morillo, 277–78
The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers, by Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., reviewed by Ian Boley, 279–80
BOOKS RECEIVED: 281–83
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES: 284–90
