Military History

Military History

episodes

Interviews with scholars of military history about their new books.

Lauren Duval, "The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence" (Omohundro Institute and UNC Press, 2025)

June 3, 2026

The Home Front

Lauren Duval
Hosted by Leah Cargin

Prior to the American Revolution, the urban centers of colonial North America had little direct experience of war. With the outbreak of violence, Brit…

Chunmei Du, "Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Everyday Occupation

Chunmei Du
Hosted by Anthony Kao

Chunmei Du is an Associate Professor of History at Lingnan University. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of modern China, specifical…

Timothy Mason Roberts, "After Barbary: Algeria's Roles in the French and American Empires" (Cornell UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

After Barbary

Timothy Mason Roberts
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

After Barbary: Algeria's Roles in the French and American Empires (Cornell University Press, 2025) by Dr. Timothy Mason Roberts explores the connectio…

Julia F. Irwin, "Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century" (UNC Press, 2023)

May 25, 2026

Catastrophic Diplomacy

Julia F. Irwin
Hosted by Nathan Moore

Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century (UNC Press, 2023) offers a sweeping history of US foreign disaster assi…

Jeffrey Whyte, "The Birth of Psychological War: Propaganda, Espionage, and Military Violence from WWII to the Vietnam War" (Oxford UP, 2023)

May 25, 2026

The Birth of Psychological War

Jeffrey Whyte
Hosted by Michael Vann

Jeffrey Whyte's book The Birth of Psychological War: Propaganda, Espionage, and Military Violence from WWII to the Vietnam War (Oxford UP, 2023) explo…

Jeremy Yellen, "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War" (Cornell UP, 2019)

May 25, 2026

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Jeremy Yellen
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Jeremy Yellen’s The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Cornell University Press, 2019) is a challenging transnat…

Ruth Balint, "Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe" (Cornell UP, 2021)

May 22, 2026

Destination Elsewhere

Ruth Balint

In this unique “history from below," Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe (Cornell University Press, 2021)…

Evelyn Iritani, "Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II" (FSG, 2026)

May 21, 2026

Safe Passage

Evelyn Iritani
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In October 1943, the Gripsholm—a Swedish ocean liner—and the Teia Maru—a Japanese troop ship—sat in Mormugao, a port in Portuguese India. There, the t…

Nathan K. Finney, "Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War" (Cornell UP, 2025)

May 21, 2026

Orchestrating Power

Nathan K. Finney
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War (Cornell University Press, 2025) explores how the expansion of the Am…

Kori Schake, "The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States" (Wiley, 2025)

May 21, 2026

The State and the Soldier

Kori Schake
Hosted by John Armenta

One of the biggest worries of the US Constitution's Framers was the danger of a standing army to a democracy, so they designed a system to ensure civi…

David Eisler, "Writing Wars: Authorship and American War Fiction, WWI to Present" (U Iowa Press, 2022)

May 17, 2026

Writing Wars

David F. Eisler
Hosted by John Armenta

In Writing Wars: Authorship and American War Fiction, WWI to Present (U Iowa Press, 2022) David Eisler looks at how American literary fiction about wa…

Silvia Danielak, "Peace Infrastructures: How UN Peace Operations Build Roads, Bridges, and Solar Farms in the Pursuit of Sustainability" (MIT Press, 2026)

May 15, 2026

Peace Infrastructures

Silvia Danielak
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Roads, bridges, a renewable power plant, and an electricity grid: UN peacekeepers might be unusual infrastructure builders, but they’re certainly not …

Fyodor Tertitskiy, "Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea" (Hurst, 2026)

May 14, 2026

Pyongyang on the Brink

Fyodor Tertitskiy
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

North Korea has survived wars, sanctions, and isolation—to the point where it now seems that the continuation of the Kim dynasty, and a starkly divide…

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos

May 13, 2026

The Light of Days

Judy Batalion
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—som…

Chiara Libiseller, "Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies" (Oxford UP, 2026)

May 12, 2026

Reconceptualizing War

Chiara Libiseller
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The field of Strategic Studies, which studies the use and threat of force for political purposes, has seen the repeated rise of concepts to dominate d…

Wil Haygood, "The War within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home" (Knopf, 2026)

May 12, 2026

The War Within a War

Wil Haygood
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Award-winning author Wil Haygood joins Michael Stauch to discuss The War within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home (Knopf, 2026) his new…

Brenda Boyle, "American War Stories" (Rutgers UP, 2021)

May 10, 2026

American War Stories

Brenda M. Boyle
Hosted by John Armenta

In American War Stories (Rutgers UP, 2021) Brenda Boyle examines how the story of war is told in the Unites States and how these stories of war work t…

Are We Entering An Arms Race in Outer Space?

May 8, 2026

Are We Entering An Arms Race in Outer Space?

This week on International Horizons, RBI interim director Eli Karetny interviewed Mallory Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Strategic…

Charles W. A. Prior, "Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic" (U Nebraska Press, 2026)

May 1, 2026

Treaty Ground

Charles W. A. Prior
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic (U Nebraska Press, 2026), Professor Charles W. A. Prior off…

Anthony Kaldellis, "1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople" (Oxford UP, 2026)

May 1, 2026

1453

Anthony Kaldellis
Hosted by Charles Coutinho

A detailed account of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and c…