Contemporary Perspectives on Private Military Contractors Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War   Written by: Dina Rasor and Robert Bauman, Palgrave Macmillan, New   York, 2007, ISBN: 9781403981929, 274pp.   Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army   Written by: Jeremy Scahill,  Serpent’s Tail, London, 2007, ISBN: 9781568583945, 438pp.   Reviewed by: Antony Trentini The role of private contractors in war is no longer considered solely in terms of the …

Vietnam: The Australian War   Written by: Paul Ham,  HarperCollins, Sydney, 2007, ISBN: 9780732282370, 813 pp. Reviewed by: Brigadier John Essex-Clark (Retd) The Australian reading public have been presented over the past few years with books about Australia’s military history. Paul Ham, who previously authored Kokoda , has now contributed again with another blockbuster and tour de force in Vietnam . Like his previous book, this is a weighty tome, figuratively and literally, with 813 punchy pages including …

The Torch and the Sword: A History of the Army Cadet Movement in Australia   Written by: Craig Stockings,  UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007, ISBN: 9780868408385, 328pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant General John Coates (Retd) For those among the reading audience who were never school cadets, this book is unlikely to be a riveting read. It is a subject that has not been handled comprehensively before, and as part of the frequently febrile defence debate, it deserves its place in Australia’s military and social history. …

Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon   Written by: Bernard Rougier, Harvard University Press, Cambridge: Massachusetts, 2007, ISBN: 9780674025295, 298 pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Jason Thomas This is not a text that will find its way onto the shelves of your local bookshop, though the reason is not because it has a title that raised a few eyebrows when I carried it onto some domestic airline flights. Bernard Rougier is a French academic who appears to have spent …

Taken By Force: Rape and American GIs in Europe during World War II   Written by: J Robert Lilly, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2007, ISBN: 9780230506473, 272 pp. Reviewed by: Narelle Biedermann Reading a book that discusses rape so confrontingly and transparently in any context makes for a challenging and often difficult read. Sociologist and academic J. Robert Lilly sets himself an extraordinary task to make this unpalatable and highly sensitive topic approachable, and surprisingly, manages to do this …

Prisoners of the Japanese - Literary Imagination and the Prisoner of War Experience   Written by: Roger Bourke, University of Queensland Publishing, Brisbane, 2006, ISBN: 9780702235641, 165 pp. Reviewed by: Captain Kate Tollenaar In Australian popular consciousness, the POW experience under the Japanese in the Second World War has always been significant, and importantly, this understanding has largely been gained from representation in narratives and film over the last sixty years. Roger Bourke’s …

General Ulysses S. Grant: The Soldier and the Man   Written by: Edward G Longacre, Da Capo Press, New York, 2007, ISBN: 9780306812699, 338 pp. Reviewed by: Joseph K Smith The United States is in the middle of a bloody Civil War that continues to polarise public opinion. Opposing camps have emerged which comprise those supporters of the conflict who do not want to ‘cut and run’ and those detractors who desire peace and a withdrawal from the conflict. The Administration is struggling to maintain public …

Rommel’s Desert Commanders—The Men Who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-42   Written by: Samuel W Mitcham Jr., Praeger Security International, London, 2007, ISBN: 9780811735100, 214 pp. Reviewed by: Antony Trentini While many English-language military biographies are concerned with Allied leaders from the Second World War, there is a market for exploration of the lives of great commanders on the other side of the conflict. Samuel Mitcham Jr.’s book, while focused broadly on the immensely popular …

Letter to the Editor In his 2006 Australian War Memorial Oration, Dr. Stanley questions that there ever was a Battle for Australia. Instead, he attempts to decry the emergence of a concept that thousands have embraced but which few historians have endorsed. He believes it is an idea that has captured popular imagination but is too restricted in concept and generally ill-conceived. I do not agree. The commemoration of the Battle for Australia seeks to ensure that the knowledge and understanding of the …

Letter to the Editor I thoroughly enjoyed Dr Peter Stanley’s thought-provoking paper titled ‘What is the Battle for Australia?’ in the Winter 2007 edition of the Australian Army Journal and would like to make some personal observations. I agree with Stanley when he states that there was no battle for Australia in the literal meaning of the term. However, in 2007 we should also acknowledge that the ability to confidently make that statement comes with the benefit of hindsight, including some detailed …