Journal of Military History
Vol. 89, No. 4
October 2025
Articles
“Between Disruption, Violence, and Accommodation: The Quartering Process in Palermo (1580–1650),” by Aitor Aguilar Esteban, 833–57
In the modern era, it was common for military contingents defending a territory to be quartered among the local population, until authorities recognized the importance of keeping the military physically separated from civilians. In early seventeenth-century Palermo, the quartering of troops shared both similarities and differences with other Italian cities. The viceregal authorities’ aim to separate soldiers from the population unfolded within a complex historical, political, and economic context. Accustomed—and at times compelled—to live in private homes through a rental system that left both soldiers and civilians dissatisfied, the troops frequently clashed with the city’s inhabitants, leading to brawls and various forms of violence. The viceregal government, which spearheaded the quartering process in response to the impossibility of peaceful coexistence, faced institutional and social obstacles that curtailed its plans. These challenges were further compounded by the plague of 1624, which halted all efforts to establish proper garrisons. This article examines the entire process of garrisoning in Palermo, from the initial recognition of its necessity to the construction, reform, and formal establishment of barracks by 1650.
“‘Freedom of the Hills’: The Tenth Mountain Division and the Opening of the Vertical Frontier,” by Margaret Sutton Berry, 858–86
When Frederick Jackson Turner proclaimed that the American “frontier has gone” in 1893, he did more than impose an ethnocentric history on land that had never been “open” in the first place. He also forgot to look up. In the century following Robert P. Porter’s 1890 Census Bulletin and Turner’s seminal musings, middle- and upper-class Euro-Americans increasingly turned to vertical landscapes in response to the socioeconomic and cultural shifts of modernity, thereby claiming new frontier space for their discovery. This paper situates the U.S. Army’s Tenth Mountain Division at the center of that story, arguing that the narrative of America’s “ski troopers” captures the enduring potency of the frontier for modern Americans. By writing their pioneering narrative into the peaks they trained and fought in, the Tenth helped establish the mountains as purportedly open space into which Americans could expand and in which they could reimagine their freedom.
“When ‘Lives Were as Cheap as Chickens’: Dark Histories of the Barrio during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, 1942–1945,” by Greg Bankoff, Marie Beatriz D. Gulinao, David Lozada III, Camille Silva, 887–923
There are dark histories in every nation’s past, stories that for one reason or another are best left out of official narratives. World War II is full of such “uncomfortable” histories. The political context in Southeast Asia, however, was more complicated than in Europe, the only other major world region almost entirely under the control of an occupying power during the war. Here collaboration involved “defecting” from one colonial power to another. In the Philippines, there has been limited scholarship on the many individuals accused of “treason” during Japan’s occupation of that country between 1942 and 1945. Only the activities of the national and regional elites have received serious consideration, and scant attention has been given to what life was like in rural areas, to the people living in the thousands of villages or barrios across the archipelago. Their lost stories, however, can still be recovered from the previously inaccessible records of the Historical Data Papers, the village histories mandated by President Quirino in 1951. The more than forty thousand pages of this unique source offer a grassroots account of the Japanese occupation told from the viewpoint of the barrio residents that challenges the previous wartime historiography of the islands.
“The Invention of the Kamikaze: Dissent and Resistance in the Japanese Military,” by Nick Kapur, 924-52
Previous scholarship has focused on why kamikaze pilots accepted their one-way missions, typically drawing on notions of an essentialized Japanese culture or modern state-nationalism. This article brings the invention of kamikaze tactics into the 1940s by excavating examples of dissent and resistance in the Japanese military. It argues that since many people articulated opposition by citing their own understandings of Japanese culture, kamikaze tactics cannot be explained as pre-determined by traditional culture or modern ideological indoctrination. This article emphasizes the viewpoints of working-class soldiers who comprised the majority of kamikaze squadrons, as well mid-ranking career officers representing an earlier Japanese military tradition.
“Opening A New Cold War Front: Korean War POW/MIA Campaigns of the 1950s,” by Liu Zhaokun, 953–81
POW/MIA campaigns have motivated the U.S. military to repatriate servicemembers’ remains from overseas battlefields for decades. Although scholars tend to regard them as a product of the Vietnam War, this study argues their birth should be traced to the Korean War. The limitation of its military power during the Cold War prompted the United States to open a new front against the communist bloc. During and after the Korean War, China and North Korea accused the U.S. of preventing their prisoners from returning home under the pretext of voluntary repatriation; the U.S. countered that those states detained missing U.S. personnel in secret camps. U.S. officials used this to further an anti-communist agenda and mobilize a population upset by military setbacks and allegations of domestic subversion. The politicization of the missing prisoners after the Korean War was a harbinger of the post-Vietnam campaigns.
“Operation Sky Shield: NORAD’s Influence on SAC’s Tactics,” by Richard R. Johnson, 982–1005
Early in the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) used strategic bombing tactics from World War II, despite growing evidence that high-altitude formation bombing was vulnerable to Soviet air defenses. From 1960 through 1963, SAC took part in large-scale air defense exercises with the North American Airspace Defense Command (NORAD) called Operation Sky Shield. These exercises revealed weaknesses in SAC tactics, prompting SAC to make significant changes, such as adopting low-altitude single-sortie flights, passive radar jamming, structural modifications to existing bombers, and canceling planned high altitude bomber designs. These changes increased SAC bomber survivability.
“Imperium in Imperio: GI Joe’s Jurisdiction in Early Cold War Taiwan,” by Kuan-Jen Chen, 1006–26
The presence of American GIs in Cold War Taiwan was a double-edged sword for Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist government. He needed American military aid to sustain his regime, so he granted American GIs diplomatic immunity. This posed a challenge, however, as it evoked memories of extraterritoriality that contradicted the official historical narrative and thus undermined the regime’s attempt to transform Taiwan’s population into Chinese citizens. This embarrassing situation forced Chiang to initiate negotiations with the U.S. This paper demonstrates that the negotiations resulted in a win-win outcome. The U.S. maintained partial jurisdiction, while the KMT struck a balance between its relationship with the U.S. and its governance over Taiwan.
Book Reviews:
The Dark Path: The Structure of War and the Rise of the West, by Williamson Murray, reviewed by Eliot A. Cohen and by Clifford J. Rogers, 1027–30
Xiongnu: The World’s First Nomadic Empire, by Bryan K. Miller, reviewed by Joshua Wright, 1030–32
Infantry: A Global History, by Jeremy Black, reviewed by Jonathan Abel, 1032–34
War Underground: A History of Military Mining in Siege Warfare, by Earl J. Hess, reviewed by Simon Jones, 1034–36
Crusader Criminals: The Knights Who Went Rogue in the Holy Land, by Steve Tibble, reviewed by James Naus, 1036–37
Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, by Si Sheppard, reviewed by Casper D. Hileman, 1038–39
Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory, and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century, by Ian Atherton, reviewed by John M. Hinck, 1039–40
Camps: A Global History of Mass Confinement, by Aidan Forth, reviewed by Stephanie Hinnershitz, 1041–42
Near and Far Waters: The Geopolitics of Seapower, by Colin Flint, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 1042–44
Men of God, Men of War: Military Chaplains as Ministers, Warriors, and Prisoners, by Robert C. Doyle, reviewed by Michael J. Gruber, 1044–45
Till the Extinction of this Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779, by Eric Sterner, reviewed by Leonard A. Lederman, 1046–47
Purpose and Power: US Grand Strategy from the Revolutionary Era to the Present, by Donald Stoker, reviewed by Christopher McKnight Nichols, 1047–49
Wargaming Waterloo, by Charles J. Esdaile, reviewed by James R. Arnold, 1049–51
Cherokee Civil Warrior: Chief John Ross and the Struggle for Tribal Sovereignty, by W. Dale Weeks, reviewed by Ethan S. Rafuse, 1051–52
Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History, by Anthony E. Kaye with Gregory P. Downs, reviewed by Michael Frawley, 1053–54
Sedition: How America’s Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis, by Marcus Alexander Gadson, reviewed by Mark Boonshoft, 1054–56
Late to the Fight: Union Soldier Combat Performance from the Wilderness to the Fall of Petersburg, by Alexander F. Caillot, reviewed by Earl J. Hess, 1056–57
The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment, by James Marten, reviewed by Matthew C. Brand, 1057–59
Reckoning with the Devil, by Court Carney, reviewed by Paul J. Springer, 1059–60
Confederate Sympathies: Same-Sex Romance, Disunion and Reunion in the Civil War Era, by Andrew Donnelly, reviewed by Bradford Wineman, 1061–62
Five Flags: The Warship that Reshaped the World, by Stuart Buxton, reviewed by Stephen Chapin Kinnaman, 1063–64
The Pacific’s New Navies: An Ocean, its Wars, and the Making of US Sea Power, by Thomas M. Jamison, reviewed by Corbin Williamson, 1064–65
Defining the Mission: The Development of US Strategic Military Intelligence up to the Cold War, by Scott A. Moseman, reviewed by James Evan Schroeder, 1066–67
The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines, by Justin F. Jackson, reviewed by Robert H. Clemm, 1068–70
The Race With No Finish Line: Assessing the Strategy of Regional Great Power Competition, by Martin Skold, reviewed by Jeremy Black, 1070–71
All the World at War: People & Places, 1914–1918, by James Charles Roy, reviewed by Victoria Sotvedt, 1071–72
Soong Mayling and Wartime China, 1937–1945: Deploying Words as Weapons, by Esther T. Hu, reviewed by Helena F. S. Lopes, 1072–74
Manstein Kriegstagebücher und Briefe, 1939–1941, by Roman Töppel, reviewed by Craig Luther, 1074–76
The Making of Auschwitz: The Largest Killing Factory of All Time, by Ian Baxter, reviewed by Ben Heidenreich, 1076–78
Armies Afloat: How the Development of Amphibious Operations in Europe Helped Win World War II, by John M. Curatola, reviewed by Nicholas Sambaluk, 1078–79
Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger during WWII, by Becky Aikman, reviewed by Angela Jowers, 1080–81
The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War, by Tim Cook, reviewed by Asa McKercher, 1081–82
Operation Rype: A World War II OSS Railway Sabotage Mission in Norway, by Frode Lindgjerdet, reviewed by Rob Citino, 1083–84
Hitler’s Deserters: Breaking Ranks with the Wehrmacht, by Douglas Carl Peifer, reviewed by Paige N. Gulley, 1084–86
Josephine Baker’s Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom, by Hanna Diamond, reviewed by Nicholas Hurley, 1086–87
The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War, by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, reviewed by John C. Hanley, 1088–89
The Quislings: The Trials of Norwegian Wartime Collaborators 1941–1964, by Anika Seemann, reviewed by Fred L. Borch, 1089–91
Crisis and Crossfire: The United States and The Middle East Since 1945, by Peter L. Hahn, reviewed by Lisa M. Mundey, 1091–92
Bubbleheads, SEALs, and Wizards: America’s Scottish Bastion in the Cold War, by D. G. Mackay, reviewed by Christopher J. Bright, 1093–94
Spetsnaz: A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces, by Tor Bukkvoll, reviewed by Michael S. Coffey, 1094–96
The Farthest Valley: Escaping the Chinese Trap at Chosin Reservoir, by Joseph Wheelan, reviewed by Bruce Zellers, 1096–98
Militarization and Democracy in West Germany’s Border Police, 1951–2005, by David M. Livingstone, reviewed by Erika L. Briesacher, 1098–1100
Hollywood’s Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity, by Armando José Prats, reviewed by Delia Malia Konzett, 1100–1
Britain and the Dhofar War in Oman, 1963–1976: A Covert War in Arabia, by Geraint Hughes, reviewed by Zoltan Barany, 1102–3
The Vietnam War: A Military History, by Geoffrey Wawro, reviewed by Uyen H. “Carie” Nguyen, 1103–5
Why Vietnam? Reflections on the Effect of War, by Margaret Colbert Brown, reviewed by Neil Dimmitt, 1105–6
A Debt of Gratitude: How Jimmy Carter Put Vietnam Veterans' Issues on the National Agenda, by Glenn Robins, reviewed by Jonathan Cellon, 1106–8
Beautiful New Sky: Fabricating Bodies for Outer Space in East Germany’s Military Laboratories, by Ines Geipel, translated by Nick Somers, reviewed by Eli Rubin, 1108–9
The Struggle for Liberation: A History of the Rwandan Civil War, 1990–1994, by John Burton Kegel, reviewed by Susan Thomson, 1109–11
Beyond Black Hawk Down: Intervention, Nation-Building, and Insurgency in Somalia, 1992–1995, by Jonathan Carroll, reviewed by Lidwien Kapteijns, 1111–12
Books Received: 1113–15
Recent Journal Articles: 1116–21
Doctoral Dissertations in Military History: 1122–29
Letters to the Editor: 1130
The Dark Path: The Structure of War and the Rise of the West, by Williamson Murray, reviewed by Eliot A. Cohen and by Clifford J. Rogers, 1027–30
Xiongnu: The World’s First Nomadic Empire, by Bryan K. Miller, reviewed by Joshua Wright, 1030–32
Infantry: A Global History, by Jeremy Black, reviewed by Jonathan Abel, 1032–34
War Underground: A History of Military Mining in Siege Warfare, by Earl J. Hess, reviewed by Simon Jones, 1034–36
Crusader Criminals: The Knights Who Went Rogue in the Holy Land, by Steve Tibble, reviewed by James Naus, 1036–37
Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, by Si Sheppard, reviewed by Casper D. Hileman, 1038–39
Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory, and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century, by Ian Atherton, reviewed by John M. Hinck, 1039–40
Camps: A Global History of Mass Confinement, by Aidan Forth, reviewed by Stephanie Hinnershitz, 1041–42
Near and Far Waters: The Geopolitics of Seapower, by Colin Flint, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 1042–44
Men of God, Men of War: Military Chaplains as Ministers, Warriors, and Prisoners, by Robert C. Doyle, reviewed by Michael J. Gruber, 1044–45
Till the Extinction of this Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779, by Eric Sterner, reviewed by Leonard A. Lederman, 1046–47
Purpose and Power: US Grand Strategy from the Revolutionary Era to the Present, by Donald Stoker, reviewed by Christopher McKnight Nichols, 1047–49
Wargaming Waterloo, by Charles J. Esdaile, reviewed by James R. Arnold, 1049–51
Cherokee Civil Warrior: Chief John Ross and the Struggle for Tribal Sovereignty, by W. Dale Weeks, reviewed by Ethan S. Rafuse, 1051–52
Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History, by Anthony E. Kaye with Gregory P. Downs, reviewed by Michael Frawley, 1053–54
Sedition: How America’s Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis, by Marcus Alexander Gadson, reviewed by Mark Boonshoft, 1054–56
Late to the Fight: Union Soldier Combat Performance from the Wilderness to the Fall of Petersburg, by Alexander F. Caillot, reviewed by Earl J. Hess, 1056–57
The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment, by James Marten, reviewed by Matthew C. Brand, 1057–59
Reckoning with the Devil, by Court Carney, reviewed by Paul J. Springer, 1059–60
Confederate Sympathies: Same-Sex Romance, Disunion and Reunion in the Civil War Era, by Andrew Donnelly, reviewed by Bradford Wineman, 1061–62
Five Flags: The Warship that Reshaped the World, by Stuart Buxton, reviewed by Stephen Chapin Kinnaman, 1063–64
The Pacific’s New Navies: An Ocean, its Wars, and the Making of US Sea Power, by Thomas M. Jamison, reviewed by Corbin Williamson, 1064–65
Defining the Mission: The Development of US Strategic Military Intelligence up to the Cold War, by Scott A. Moseman, reviewed by James Evan Schroeder, 1066–67
The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines, by Justin F. Jackson, reviewed by Robert H. Clemm, 1068–70
The Race With No Finish Line: Assessing the Strategy of Regional Great Power Competition, by Martin Skold, reviewed by Jeremy Black, 1070–71
All the World at War: People & Places, 1914–1918, by James Charles Roy, reviewed by Victoria Sotvedt, 1071–72
Soong Mayling and Wartime China, 1937–1945: Deploying Words as Weapons, by Esther T. Hu, reviewed by Helena F. S. Lopes, 1072–74
Manstein Kriegstagebücher und Briefe, 1939–1941, by Roman Töppel, reviewed by Craig Luther, 1074–76
The Making of Auschwitz: The Largest Killing Factory of All Time, by Ian Baxter, reviewed by Ben Heidenreich, 1076–78
Armies Afloat: How the Development of Amphibious Operations in Europe Helped Win World War II, by John M. Curatola, reviewed by Nicholas Sambaluk, 1078–79
Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger during WWII, by Becky Aikman, reviewed by Angela Jowers, 1080–81
The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War, by Tim Cook, reviewed by Asa McKercher, 1081–82
Operation Rype: A World War II OSS Railway Sabotage Mission in Norway, by Frode Lindgjerdet, reviewed by Rob Citino, 1083–84
Hitler’s Deserters: Breaking Ranks with the Wehrmacht, by Douglas Carl Peifer, reviewed by Paige N. Gulley, 1084–86
Josephine Baker’s Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom, by Hanna Diamond, reviewed by Nicholas Hurley, 1086–87
The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War, by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, reviewed by John C. Hanley, 1088–89
The Quislings: The Trials of Norwegian Wartime Collaborators 1941–1964, by Anika Seemann, reviewed by Fred L. Borch, 1089–91
Crisis and Crossfire: The United States and The Middle East Since 1945, by Peter L. Hahn, reviewed by Lisa M. Mundey, 1091–92
Bubbleheads, SEALs, and Wizards: America’s Scottish Bastion in the Cold War, by D. G. Mackay, reviewed by Christopher J. Bright, 1093–94
Spetsnaz: A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces, by Tor Bukkvoll, reviewed by Michael S. Coffey, 1094–96
The Farthest Valley: Escaping the Chinese Trap at Chosin Reservoir, by Joseph Wheelan, reviewed by Bruce Zellers, 1096–98
Militarization and Democracy in West Germany’s Border Police, 1951–2005, by David M. Livingstone, reviewed by Erika L. Briesacher, 1098–1100
Hollywood’s Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity, by Armando José Prats, reviewed by Delia Malia Konzett, 1100–1
Britain and the Dhofar War in Oman, 1963–1976: A Covert War in Arabia, by Geraint Hughes, reviewed by Zoltan Barany, 1102–3
The Vietnam War: A Military History, by Geoffrey Wawro, reviewed by Uyen H. “Carie” Nguyen, 1103–5
Why Vietnam? Reflections on the Effect of War, by Margaret Colbert Brown, reviewed by Neil Dimmitt, 1105–6
A Debt of Gratitude: How Jimmy Carter Put Vietnam Veterans' Issues on the National Agenda, by Glenn Robins, reviewed by Jonathan Cellon, 1106–8
Beautiful New Sky: Fabricating Bodies for Outer Space in East Germany’s Military Laboratories, by Ines Geipel, translated by Nick Somers, reviewed by Eli Rubin, 1108–9
The Struggle for Liberation: A History of the Rwandan Civil War, 1990–1994, by John Burton Kegel, reviewed by Susan Thomson, 1109–11
Beyond Black Hawk Down: Intervention, Nation-Building, and Insurgency in Somalia, 1992–1995, by Jonathan Carroll, reviewed by Lidwien Kapteijns, 1111–12
Books Received: 1113–15
Recent Journal Articles: 1116–21
Doctoral Dissertations in Military History: 1122–29
Letters to the Editor: 1130
