Journal of Military History
Vol. 90, No. 3
July 2026
Articles
“Manning the First American Navy: The Military Mobilization of Maritime Labor in 1775,” by Chris Magra, 557–577
This essay challenges traditional naval histories of the American Revolution by examining the military mobilization of maritime labor in 1775. It argues that American sea power was not a reluctant, halfhearted effort but an improvised strategy predicated on a pool of highly motivated and experienced New England fishermen. The British Restraining Act of 1775 shut down the American fisheries and transformed thousands of unemployed mariners into a ready-made military asset. The mass mobilization of maritime laborers enabled successful seaborne interdiction. The resulting capture of British supply ships provided essential military stores and provisions. This essay demonstrates that victories on land were inextricably linked to sea power and that understanding American victory requires integrating labor and military history.
“From Head of Elk to Williamsburg: The Forgotten March to Victory in 1781,” by Christopher F. Minty, 578–601
This article reconstructs the march of the Franco-American armies from Head of Elk to Williamsburg in September 1781—one of the most ambitious and understudied troop movements of the American Revolution. Drawing on diaries, orderly books, correspondence, and French and American eyewitness accounts, it recovers the march as the operational center of the Yorktown campaign—a fragile experiment in coalition warfare, logistical improvisation, and coordination across cultural, linguistic, and infrastructural divides. Rather than treating Yorktown as the seamless culmination of strategic brilliance, this study reveals the campaign’s success as contingent on the uncertain, everyday labor of movement.
“Steaming Ahead and Astern: The Royal Yugoslav Navy in Exile, 1941–1945,” by Mark C. Jones, 602–626
This paper assesses the Royal Yugoslav Navy (RYN) during its period of exile and cooperation with the British Royal Navy during World War II. It argues that the RYN was hampered by matériel, personnel, and political problems of such magnitude that it was of little use to the Allied cause. Sections treat the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and the transition to exile, the period of turmoil and slow growth during 1942 and 1943, the dramatic changes between the surrender of Italy and the exile government’s dissolution, and the gradual abolishment of the RYN in the postwar period.
“‘So Few Got Through’: Battle Casualties in 154 Brigade During the North West Europe Campaign,” by Niall Barr, 627–656
This article utilizes previously unexploited sources to provide a more detailed account and analysis of the casualties sustained by 154 Brigade during the North West Europe campaign during the Second World War. New data contained in previously unpublished sources enables a full analysis of the officer casualties sustained by 51st Highland Division and day-by-day details of casualties suffered by the brigade. The article is thus able to present a much more detailed picture of the experience of the campaign in one brigade of the British Liberation Army. This tells us much about the nature of the campaign, the fighting experienced, and the methods of the British Liberation Army.
For additional data, go to https://www.smh-hq.org/docs/BarrJMHArticleSupplement.pdf.
For additional data, go to https://www.smh-hq.org/docs/BarrJMHArticleSupplement.pdf.
“Scars of the Past: American Manhood and Memory in World War II Conscientious Objection,” by Caleb Woodall, 657–681
This article explores how memories of World War I, both personal and culturally transmitted, shaped conscientious objection as both a legal construct and a personal, gendered experience during World War II. Debates around the formation of Civilian Public Service (CPS), the alternative service arrangement established in 1940 for conscientious objectors (COs) to the war, revolved around contested memories of manhood in the earlier war. Following CPS’s formation, the Great War remained a powerful framework for understanding one’s position as a pacifist man in wartime. Indeed, COs and their enemies used the products of pacifist memory, including Hollywood productions of All Quiet on the Western Front and Sergeant York, to stake diverging claims over what it meant to be a pacifist in the United States in the 1940s. At all points, gendered assumptions underscored both the memories of individual COs and the more capacious discourses of memory in which they participated.
“Making the West Point Woman: Women’s Integration, the Cadet Uniform, and Institutional Change at the United States Military Academy,” by Gina DeFabio, 682–701
This article examines the integration of women into the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1976, focusing on the intersection of femininity, institutional tradition, and military service. It argues that West Point’s leaders navigated a complex set of pressures to reconcile traditions with the female cadets’ presence. Central to this negotiation was the development and regulation of the women’s uniform, which both preserved institutional continuity and embodied army-imposed norms of femininity. The resulting policies institutionalized contradictory expectations and created social tensions that hindered women’s integration into the corps of cadets. Drawing on archival sources and interviews with early female cadets, this study highlights how West Point officials attempted to control both the physical and psychological expressions of femininity.
“Ending Neglect of the SecDef: Using Artificial Intelligence to Create Pathways into OSD Archival Records,” by Joel C. Christenson and Allen Mikaelian, 702–715
In summer 2026, VMI’s John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History & Strategic Analysis is launching a new research tool on its public website (www.vmi.edu/adamscenter) aimed at making the National Archives and Records Administration’s vast, largely untapped holdings of Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) archival records more navigable, accessible, and usable. Powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and utilizing semantic search and retrieval augmented generation, the tool moves far beyond the limited capabilities of traditional keyword search. It features a conversational research assistant that will connect researchers with OSD archival collections directly relevant to their particular interests, even though OSD records remain mostly unprocessed at NARA.
Book Reviews:
The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence, by Jeffrey P. Rogg, reviewed by Joshua Rovner and by Bart Talbert, 716–719
The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World, by Daisy Dunn, reviewed by Rosemary Moore, 720–721
Weapons, Warriors & Battles of Ancient Greece & Rome, by Fernando Quesada-Sanz, reviewed by Rose Mary Sheldon, 721–723
Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind, by Michael Scott, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 723–724
Leaving the Fight: Surrender, Prisoners of War, and Detainees in Western Warfare, by John A. Lynn II, reviewed by Lisa Beckenbaugh, 725–726
Winning the Ten Crucial Days: The Keys to Victory in George Washington’s Legendary Winter Campaign, by David Price, reviewed by Travis C. Perusich, 726–728
George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution, Volume II, by Gary Ecelbarger, reviewed by Kelsa Pellettiere, 728–729
The Battles of Spencer’s Ordinary and Green Spring, 1781, by John R. Maass, reviewed by Eugene A. Procknow, 729–731
Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster & the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America, by John C. Wendt, reviewed by Susan Brynne Long, 731–732
Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell, and the Birth of Modern Warfare, by Gregory Carleton, reviewed by Timothy C. Dowling, 733–734
From Ironclads to Admiral: John Lorimer Worden and Naval Leadership, by John V. Quarstein and Robert L. Worden, reviewed by John M. Hinck, 734–736
Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy, by Beau Cleland, reviewed by Brian Rouleau, 736–738
From Gray to Blue: Galvanized Yankees in the American Civil War, by Patrick H. Garrow, reviewed by Evan Kutzler, 738–739
A Fate Worse Than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War, by W. Fitzhugh Brundage, reviewed by Joan Waugh, 740–741
Richmond Views the West: Politics and Perceptions in the Confederate Capital, by Larry J. Daniel, reviewed by Andrew F. Lang, 741–743
The Surgeon’s Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the War, by Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, reviewed by Matthew M. Stith, 743–745
Two Counties in Crisis: Measuring Political Change in Reconstruction Texas, by Robert J. Dillard, reviewed by Charles David Grear, 745–746
Island & Empire: How Civil War in Crete Mobilized the Ottoman World, by Uğur Zekeriya Peçe, reviewed by Semih Gökatalay, 746–747
The Garza War in South Texas: A Military History, 1890–1893, by Thomas Ty Smith, reviewed by Samuel Watson, 748–749
Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination, by Simon Ball, reviewed by Kiril Avramov, 749–750
Democracy’s Foot Soldiers: World War I and the Politics of Empire in the Greater Caribbean, by Reena N. Goldthree, reviewed by Jana K. Lipman, 750–751
Churchill’s Enemies, 1927–1940: Part 2 of Churchill’s Challenges, by John Harte, reviewed by Richard Toye, 752–753
Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War, by Helena F. S. Lopes, reviewed by Yanqiu Zheng, 753–755
Why Barbarossa Failed: Germany and Russia in the Second World War, by Timothy Manion, reviewed by Yan Mann, 755–756
Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Most Controversial World War II General, by Peter Mauch, reviewed by Danny Orbach, 757–758
Defenders of the Reich: The Luftwaffe’s War against America’s Bombers, by Robert Forsyth, reviewed by Nicholas Michael Sambaluk, 759–760
Goering’s Ground Troops: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions of World War II, by Michael J. Stout, reviewed by Michael E. Weaver, 761–762
The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion: Destroyer of the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow, by Samuel De Korte, reviewed by Westin Robeson, 762–764
Hitler’s Muslim Allies: German Army and Waffen-SS Islamic Volunteers, 1941–1945, by Antonio J. Muñoz, reviewed by Robert Kirchubel, 764–766
The Secret War Between Hitler & Stalin: Intelligence and Counterintelligence on the Eastern Front, by Norman Ridley, reviewed by David R. Stone, 766–767
Guadalcanal’s Longest Fight: The Pivotal Battles of the Matanikau Front, by Dave R. Holland, reviewed by Allan R. Millett, 768–769
Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World, by Tim Bouverie, reviewed by Carson Teuscher, 769–771
Indian Prisoners of War in Japanese Captivity During World War Two, by Kevin Noles, reviewed by Fred L. Borch, 771–772
Nothing But Courage: The 82nd Airborne’s Daring D-Day Mission—And Their Heroic Charge Across the La Fière Bridge, by James Donovan, reviewed by Michael D. Gambone, 773–774
The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision “Hitlerjugend,” Volume 1: The Normandy Bridgehead Battles 7–11 June 1944, by Arthur W. Gullachsen, reviewed by Rob Citino, 774–776
Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive, by Prit Buttar, reviewed by Rob Citino, 776–777
Encounters in Wartime Italy: A Social History of Invasion, Liberation, and Occupation, by Fabio Simonetti, reviewed by Simonetta Falasca Zamponi, 777–779
Intrepid’s Fighting Squadron 18: Flying High with Harris’ Hellcats, by Mike Fink, reviewed by Karl J. Zingheim, 779–781
Rhineland: Hitler’s Last Defence, 1944–1945, by Anthony Tucker-Jones, reviewed by Stephen G. Fritz, 781–782
Training for Atomic Warfare: US Army Doctrine and Education in the Early Cold War, 1945–1963, by Brad Hardy, reviewed by Ingo Trauschweizer, 783–78
Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians after World War II, by Chunmei Du, reviewed by Syrus Solo Jin, 784–786
America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan, by James Graham Wilson, reviewed by Sean M. Case, 786–788
The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA, by Peter C. Grace, reviewed by Katherina W. Gonzales, 788–790
A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir—and Honor Back Home, by Steve Vogel, reviewed by Brandon Palmer, 790–791
McNamara at War: A New History, by Philip Taubman and William Taubman, reviewed by Zachary Tayler, 791–793
Biafra: A Military History, by Roy Doron, reviewed by Taiwo Bello, 793–795
Disarming Apartheid: The End of South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme and Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968–1991, by Robin E. Möser, reviewed by Travis Nason, 795–797
The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft, by Erik Lin-Greenberg, reviewed by Paul J. Springer, 797–798
MEDIA REVIEW
“The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior Princes of Mycenaean Greece,” at The Getty Villa, 27 June 2025–12 January 2026; Exhibit catalog: Sharon R. Stocker, Claire L. Lyons, Jack L. Davis, and Evangelia Militsi-Kechagia, The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Mycenaean Greece, reviewed by Wayne E. Lee, 798–800
BOOKS RECEIVED: 801–804
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES: 805–812
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: 813–814
The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence, by Jeffrey P. Rogg, reviewed by Joshua Rovner and by Bart Talbert, 716–719
The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World, by Daisy Dunn, reviewed by Rosemary Moore, 720–721
Weapons, Warriors & Battles of Ancient Greece & Rome, by Fernando Quesada-Sanz, reviewed by Rose Mary Sheldon, 721–723
Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind, by Michael Scott, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 723–724
Leaving the Fight: Surrender, Prisoners of War, and Detainees in Western Warfare, by John A. Lynn II, reviewed by Lisa Beckenbaugh, 725–726
Winning the Ten Crucial Days: The Keys to Victory in George Washington’s Legendary Winter Campaign, by David Price, reviewed by Travis C. Perusich, 726–728
George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution, Volume II, by Gary Ecelbarger, reviewed by Kelsa Pellettiere, 728–729
The Battles of Spencer’s Ordinary and Green Spring, 1781, by John R. Maass, reviewed by Eugene A. Procknow, 729–731
Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster & the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America, by John C. Wendt, reviewed by Susan Brynne Long, 731–732
Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell, and the Birth of Modern Warfare, by Gregory Carleton, reviewed by Timothy C. Dowling, 733–734
From Ironclads to Admiral: John Lorimer Worden and Naval Leadership, by John V. Quarstein and Robert L. Worden, reviewed by John M. Hinck, 734–736
Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy, by Beau Cleland, reviewed by Brian Rouleau, 736–738
From Gray to Blue: Galvanized Yankees in the American Civil War, by Patrick H. Garrow, reviewed by Evan Kutzler, 738–739
A Fate Worse Than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War, by W. Fitzhugh Brundage, reviewed by Joan Waugh, 740–741
Richmond Views the West: Politics and Perceptions in the Confederate Capital, by Larry J. Daniel, reviewed by Andrew F. Lang, 741–743
The Surgeon’s Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the War, by Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, reviewed by Matthew M. Stith, 743–745
Two Counties in Crisis: Measuring Political Change in Reconstruction Texas, by Robert J. Dillard, reviewed by Charles David Grear, 745–746
Island & Empire: How Civil War in Crete Mobilized the Ottoman World, by Uğur Zekeriya Peçe, reviewed by Semih Gökatalay, 746–747
The Garza War in South Texas: A Military History, 1890–1893, by Thomas Ty Smith, reviewed by Samuel Watson, 748–749
Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination, by Simon Ball, reviewed by Kiril Avramov, 749–750
Democracy’s Foot Soldiers: World War I and the Politics of Empire in the Greater Caribbean, by Reena N. Goldthree, reviewed by Jana K. Lipman, 750–751
Churchill’s Enemies, 1927–1940: Part 2 of Churchill’s Challenges, by John Harte, reviewed by Richard Toye, 752–753
Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War, by Helena F. S. Lopes, reviewed by Yanqiu Zheng, 753–755
Why Barbarossa Failed: Germany and Russia in the Second World War, by Timothy Manion, reviewed by Yan Mann, 755–756
Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Most Controversial World War II General, by Peter Mauch, reviewed by Danny Orbach, 757–758
Defenders of the Reich: The Luftwaffe’s War against America’s Bombers, by Robert Forsyth, reviewed by Nicholas Michael Sambaluk, 759–760
Goering’s Ground Troops: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions of World War II, by Michael J. Stout, reviewed by Michael E. Weaver, 761–762
The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion: Destroyer of the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow, by Samuel De Korte, reviewed by Westin Robeson, 762–764
Hitler’s Muslim Allies: German Army and Waffen-SS Islamic Volunteers, 1941–1945, by Antonio J. Muñoz, reviewed by Robert Kirchubel, 764–766
The Secret War Between Hitler & Stalin: Intelligence and Counterintelligence on the Eastern Front, by Norman Ridley, reviewed by David R. Stone, 766–767
Guadalcanal’s Longest Fight: The Pivotal Battles of the Matanikau Front, by Dave R. Holland, reviewed by Allan R. Millett, 768–769
Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World, by Tim Bouverie, reviewed by Carson Teuscher, 769–771
Indian Prisoners of War in Japanese Captivity During World War Two, by Kevin Noles, reviewed by Fred L. Borch, 771–772
Nothing But Courage: The 82nd Airborne’s Daring D-Day Mission—And Their Heroic Charge Across the La Fière Bridge, by James Donovan, reviewed by Michael D. Gambone, 773–774
The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision “Hitlerjugend,” Volume 1: The Normandy Bridgehead Battles 7–11 June 1944, by Arthur W. Gullachsen, reviewed by Rob Citino, 774–776
Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive, by Prit Buttar, reviewed by Rob Citino, 776–777
Encounters in Wartime Italy: A Social History of Invasion, Liberation, and Occupation, by Fabio Simonetti, reviewed by Simonetta Falasca Zamponi, 777–779
Intrepid’s Fighting Squadron 18: Flying High with Harris’ Hellcats, by Mike Fink, reviewed by Karl J. Zingheim, 779–781
Rhineland: Hitler’s Last Defence, 1944–1945, by Anthony Tucker-Jones, reviewed by Stephen G. Fritz, 781–782
Training for Atomic Warfare: US Army Doctrine and Education in the Early Cold War, 1945–1963, by Brad Hardy, reviewed by Ingo Trauschweizer, 783–78
Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians after World War II, by Chunmei Du, reviewed by Syrus Solo Jin, 784–786
America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan, by James Graham Wilson, reviewed by Sean M. Case, 786–788
The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA, by Peter C. Grace, reviewed by Katherina W. Gonzales, 788–790
A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir—and Honor Back Home, by Steve Vogel, reviewed by Brandon Palmer, 790–791
McNamara at War: A New History, by Philip Taubman and William Taubman, reviewed by Zachary Tayler, 791–793
Biafra: A Military History, by Roy Doron, reviewed by Taiwo Bello, 793–795
Disarming Apartheid: The End of South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme and Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968–1991, by Robin E. Möser, reviewed by Travis Nason, 795–797
The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft, by Erik Lin-Greenberg, reviewed by Paul J. Springer, 797–798
MEDIA REVIEW
“The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior Princes of Mycenaean Greece,” at The Getty Villa, 27 June 2025–12 January 2026; Exhibit catalog: Sharon R. Stocker, Claire L. Lyons, Jack L. Davis, and Evangelia Militsi-Kechagia, The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Mycenaean Greece, reviewed by Wayne E. Lee, 798–800
BOOKS RECEIVED: 801–804
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES: 805–812
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: 813–814
