As fitting for the twenty-first century as von Clausewitz’s On War was in its own time, Invisible Armies is a complete global history of guerrilla uprisings through the ages.Beginning with the first insurgencies in the ancient world—when Alexander the Great discovered that fleet nomads were harder to defeat than massive conventional armies—Max Boot, best-selling author and military advisor in Iraq and Afghanistan, masterfully guides us from the Jewish rebellion ag...

**NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWashington Post • 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024Best Books of 2024: The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, The Auburn Citizen"This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style.... A landmark work." —New York Times, "10 Best Books of 2024""Reagan: His Lif...

A monumental, groundbreaking work, now in paperback, that shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefieldCombining gripping narrative history with wide-ranging analysis, War Made New focuses on four "revolutions" in military affairs and describes how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air strikes have remade the field of battle—and shaped the rise and fall of empires.War Made New begins with ...

"Anyone who wants to understand why America has permanently entered a new era in international relations must read [this book] . . . Vividly written and thoroughly researched." -- Los Angeles TimesAmerica's "small wars," "imperial war," or, as the Pentagon now terms them, "low-intensity conflicts," have played an essential but little-appreciated role in its growth as a world power. Beginning with Jefferson's expedition against the Barbary pirates, Max Boot tells the exciti...

'Judicious and absorbing' New York Times Book ReviewIn this biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987), the man said to be the model for Greene's The Quiet American, Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a 'hearts and minds' diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy, steered by elitist generals who favoured napalm bombs o...

The true story of a colorful and momentous 16th-century voyage, and of the Black mariner whose accomplishment was almost lost to history.It was a voyage of epic scope. In a Spanish plot to break Portugal's trade monopoly with the fabled Orient, four ships set sail from a hidden Mexican port. The smallest of them was guided by Black seaman Lope Martín, one of the most qualified pilots of the era. Mutiny, murderous encounters with Pacific islanders, and extreme physi...

This "impeccable, myth-busting study" of WWII maritime operations sheds new light on the conflict with sharp analysis and an international perspective (The Sunday Times, UK).Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe, and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"?

A lively and fascinating narrative history about the birth of the modern world.Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume—the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World—chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition.Popes continue to preach crusade, but the hope of a Christian empire comes to a bloody end at the walls of Constantinople. Arist...

An engrossing chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, from the bestselling author of Thermopylae .At the dawn of the thirteenth century, Constantinople stood as the bastion of Christianity in Eastern Europe. The capital city of the Byzantine Empire, it was a center of art, culture, and commerce that had commanded trading routes between Asia, Russia, and Europe for hundreds of years. But in 1204, the city suffered a de...

**The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • A spellbinding work of history that reads like a Cold War spy thriller—about the U.S.-sanctioned plot to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the newly independent CongoA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Economist, Financial Times**“This is one of the best books I have read in years . . . gripping, full of colorful characters, and strange plot twists.” —Fareed Zakaria, CNN hos...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A BARACK OBAMA SUMMER PICKA rollicking, revelatory look at the tumult of the early 1990s and the rise of a new, more berserk America that birthed the Donald Trump Era‘When the Clock Broke is leagues more insightful on the subject of Trump’s ascent than most writing that purports to address the issue directly’ WASHINGTON POST‘A fascinating, provocativ...

A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy AdamsIn this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy’s long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic.Born the first son of John and Abigail Adams, he was pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps in both law and politics. His boyhood was spent amid the...