Books about Peacetime from Amazon.com

One of the most important works of military history published in the last decade, The Old Army is the only comprehensive study of the people who made up the "garrison world" in the peacetime intervals between the War for Independence and the Spanish-American War. Drawing on diaries, letters, and other primary documents, Edward M. Coffman vividly recreates the harsh, often lonely life of men, collected mostly from the streets of Northern cities, for whom enlistment was "a leap in the dark...a choice of evils." He pays special attention to the roles of women and children, as well as black Americans, and to the development of military professionalism. From the testimony of those who lived it, Coffman traces the evolution of the American Army from "the days of small things"--of limited resources and downright hardship--to the modern military age that began at the turn of the century..
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With its distinctive design, the PBY Catalina flying boats soared through World War II and into history as one of the most resourceful aircraft ever flown. Other books concentrate on the Catalina's wartime feats, but this is the first full account of the PBY's colorful operational history outside of the war. Catalina expert David Legg offers an exhaustive country-by-country survey of both the military and commercial uses of this adaptable aircraft with detailed listings of their registration, type, place of manufacture, and construction numbers. Intriguing historical notes on an individual aircraft's adventures while fighting fires, performing survey work, and flying in support of Cold War communications networks, round out the volume. Everyone interested in flying boats will find the details of this work not only informative, but entertaining as well..
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Gontran de Poncins, a solitary traveler recording with pen and brush the genius of cultures hidden away in remote corners of the world, wrote this journal almost fifty years ago in his walk-up room in the Sun Wah Hotel in Cholon. He chose Cholon, the Chinese riverbank community snuggled up to Saigon, because he suspected the ancient customs of a national culture endure longer in remote colonies than in the motherland. In effect, he was studying a bit of ancient China, using the same intimate process he had used his best-selling Arctic account, Kabloona, reissued recently by Graywolf Press.

Everything he saw intrigued him-Chinese eating habits, their medical practices, their elaborate theater, their aesthetic talents, their varied physiognomies, their rich philosophy- indeed everything. All this is laid out for the reader, written with a light and humorous hand, just as it was lived by the author. As a writer and an artist, de Poncins also shows us the beauty in commonplace things: the street vendor's display of lettuce; the water-lily leaf folded into a sack to carry a live fish; the artistry of motion of the sampans on the river, poled by bent figures with supple reeds. He glories in the same texture caught in the film Indochine.

De Poncins' 42 sketches offers short-clad truck drivers, water-carriers, the simple lines of Chinese shears, and a bicycle-mounted night fritter stand lit by lantern light. Lewis Galantire writes "he had the rare gift of infusing with excitement the very meaning- spiritual or social-of what he described.".
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In this cultural history of the origins of the Cold War, John Fousek argues boldly that American nationalism provided the ideological glue for the broad public consensus that supported U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era. From the late 1940s through the late 1980s, the United States waged cold war against the Soviet Union not primarily in the name of capitalism or Western civilization—neither of which would have united the American people behind the cause—but in the name of America.

Through close readings of sources that range from presidential speeches and popular magazines to labor union debates and the African American press, Fousek shows how traditional nationalist ideas about national greatness, providential mission, and manifest destiny influenced postwar public culture and shaped U.S. foreign policy discourse during the crucial period from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Korean War. Ultimately, he says, in the atmosphere created by apparently unceasing international crises, Americans rallied around the flag, eventually coming to equate national loyalty with global anticommunism and an interventionist foreign policy..
Price: $19.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the first book to focus on civil-military tensions after American wars, Thomas Langston challenges conventional theory by arguing that neither civilian nor military elites deserve victory in this perennial struggle. What is needed instead, he concludes, is balance.

In America's worst postwar episodes, those that followed the Civil War and the Vietnam War, balance was conspicuously absent. In the late 1860s and into the 1870s, the military became the tool of a divisive partisan program. As a result, when Reconstruction ended, so did popular support of the military. After the Vietnam War, military leaders were too successful in defending their institution against civilian commanders, leading some observers to declare a crisis in civil-military relations even before Bill Clinton became commander-in-chief.

Is American military policy balanced today? No, but it may well be headed in that direction. At the end of the 1990s there was still no clear direction in military policy. The officer corps stubbornly clung to a Cold War force structure. A civilian-minded commander-in-chief, meanwhile, stretched a shrinking force across the globe. With the shocking events of September 11, 2001, clarifying the seriousness of the post-Cold War military policy, we may at last be moving toward a true realignment of civilian and military imperatives.

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A fresh approach to the study of Military Geography!

Palka and Galgano truly understand the impact of geographic information on the conduct of military operations! Moreover, they clearly appreciate the changing nature of conflict and as a result have addressed the effect of geographic conditions across the full spectrum of military operations. From peacekeeping to small scale contingencies to all out war, they precisely address the range of geographic challenges encountered by military commanders in the past and the anticipated challenges of the future. The vignettes address key issues that the military leader must understand to make timely and accurate decisions.

Overall, this book is essential reading for the military leader and a must add to his professional library. Although this is a great military book, the geographic community and public in general would most certainly enjoy looking at classic military operations through a geographic lens. Additionally, all will benefit from the information presented as the traditional lines between peace and war continue to blur..
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