Robert E. Lee opined, "It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." Nevertheless, war remains one of the most popular of human activities. Its language infuses our cultures, we bear its costs, and we write books about it. Here are 14 of the recent crop, all sure to find a place in libraries.

This is a solid collection of nine new essays analyzing and assessing the leadership styles of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lewis "Chesty" Puller, Henry "Hap" Arnold, Hyman G. Rickover, Harold G. Moore, and Colin Powell. Each man is here classified by a particular leadership strength, e.g., "Cross-Cultural Leadership" for Eisenhower and "Charismatic Leadership" for "Chesty" Puller. The contributors are academic historians and military writers. With good footnotes and a list of recommended reading increasing its value, this fits into most military history and leadership/management collections.

In the first volume of a projected two-volume set, Cummins (History's Great Untold Stories) offers short, chronological narratives of dozens of subjects, from the Greco-Persian Wars and King Leonidas through the American Revolution and Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne. Featuring strong color images, it is an easily navigated compilation with time lines and wide-ranging subpieces ("the Dossier") that add interest. Made to order for help with historical essays in high school and college, it is also simply a fun book that you might pick up over and over to check your memory of, say, the Battle of Poltava. With a brief bibliography but virtually no citations.

This is a compilation of writings on war, conscription, and social control by dozens of 20th-century figures across politics, art, ethics, and social commentary. The organization by war (including the Cold War) gives us Emma Goldman and W.E.B. DuBois contrasted with the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917–18; and Howard Fast and Joseph McCarthy side by side in the Cold War section. Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the second Iraq War have their own sections, featuring antiwar activists and official pronouncements from the administration in office. This is a useful handbook covering many shades of public opinion but generally on the left in orientation. An interesting and valuable collection for public and college libraries.

Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs are available in numerous volumes. In this one, Savas (Hunt and Kill: U-505 and the U-boat War in the Atlantic) has selected 150 of them, organized not chronologically but by 14 subject themes such as army life, prisoners, personalities, engineering, and ships. There are a few of Brady's studio portraits, but most of the images show his work in the field. Savas adds relatively minimal text to introduce each section and to place each photo in context. As this is a popular subject area, libraries should consider it as a supplement to existing collections, but it is not a vital addition.

Coddington (columnist, Civil War News), described as a "visual journalist," has already published Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soliders and Their Stories. Now he presents an equally absorbing compilation of 77 images of common soldiers who posed for photographs to leave with loved ones as they themselves went to fight for the Confederacy. Each entry consists of a full-page photograph and a two-page biography, culled from considerable research by the author. These were generally ordinary men who, for reasons they considered sufficient, answered the call to arms in the South. Readers learn that some survived the war and went on to varied careers. Many did not. Libraries with significant Civil War collections will want this.

Not exactly a glowing account of World War II in Europe, this recounts all the injustices, mistakes, and mass killings on both sides. The war in Europe was not just an honorable struggle to liberate a continent from a vile dictatorship; Hitchcock (history, Wellesley Coll.; The Struggle for Europe) reminds us that it was also a disaster that cost millions of people everything they had. An anodyne to more simplistic views, this work, per its author, aims for a "richer, more complex history of the 'good war.'" For large World War II collections.

This is a belated companion to the 1973 multihour British TV documentary on World War II, which was based on hundreds of hours of interviews with key figures of the war (most since deceased) from all sides. The book represents the first use of that archive of interviews, here presented as hundreds of brief oral statements usually less than half a page long, from people in all walks of life and from many countries. Loosely organized under 35 subjects, the text results in not a history so much as a compilation of personal opinions and experiences. The immediacy of the statements is compelling, but they are of little use without knowledge of the context. The book should be a supplement to existing collections in larger libraries.

At Okinawa, the Japanese commanders tried a desperate tactic: suicide bombers crashing their planes into the greatest navy ever assembled. On May 11, 1945, four such planes penetrated the defense of one aircraft carrier and caused havoc. Alternating between the stories of the sailors and the kamikaze fliers, Kennedy picks apart the terrible events of that day in remarkable detail. The brutality and callousness of the commanders who directed the kamikaze effort, long after it was obvious that the cause was lost, did much damage but did not delay the Allied victory. Highly recommended for all libraries.

Korda (Ike), a skilled popular historian, here retells the familiar story of the Battle of Britain as a largely political tale, emphasizing the background, personalities, and preparation for the battle instead of the fighting. Strongly recommended for public and college libraries as a literate and readable supplement to existing books on the subject, e.g., John Lukacs's Five Days in London: May 1940, but it should not be the only source on the battle.

O'Donnell writes of the sabotage team that was dropped into German-occupied Italy in 1944 with the mission of disrupting transport for the retreating Wehrmacht. Things didn't go smoothly, but the help of various partisan groups allowed the team, though reduced by death and capture, to operate for several weeks and to coordinate effectively sabotage and ambush attacks. This exciting narrative of war at the personal level will be a good supplement to subject collections.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, Fox Company was on the sharp end of the marine thrust to the Yalu in 1950. They had fought hard and advanced steadily as far as the Chosin Reservoir. They'd been told there were no Chinese in North Korea and that they'd meet little resistance—assurances that turned out to be somewhat off the mark. The authors have pieced together a detailed battle narrative covering nearly every soldier for eight harrowing days of freezing cold, heroism, stamina, determination, training, loss, and death. Not for the faint of heart, this is a strong narrative of military valor against overwhelming odds. For any Korean War collection.

Krott is apparently one of the rare breed who actually enjoys combat, foreign countries, being shot at, and getting covered with mud. After a spell in the U.S. Army, he went private and undertook a variety of short-term jobs, including mercenary work in Croatia, which at the time was hiring soldiers toward working out differences with Serbia. Then he got jobs in the Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Somalia. His narrative, more entertaining than informative, reads like an article in Soldier of Fortune magazine, for which Krott writes. Not a necessary purchase but one that will probably garner some readers.

This is a detailed look at the work of U.S. Navy Seals doing counterinsurgency in one of the more hotly contested provinces of Iraq. Heavily promoted by its publisher, with a foreword by Sen. John McCain, this will no doubt be popular among those looking for success stories in a long war.

Colonel Mansoor was one of the officers who rewrote the counterinsurgency manual at Fort Leavenworth for General Petraeus, based in part on his experiences as a commander. His insights on this chapter of the war make up a crucial part of the history of the campaign. Important for any Iraq collection. [This reviewer oversees the library at Fort Leavenworth but did not undertake direct work for Mansoor and is not personally familiar with him.—Ed.]