Potomac Books: 562 books

Dismissed from the U.S. Naval Academy in early 1861, William Barker Cushing nonetheless emerged from the Civil War as one of the NavyÆs greatest heroes. Cushing transformed his reputation from a rabblerouser into a living legend, because he embodied the special qualities that the Navy demands of the...

Imagine what it would be like to talk and fly with the men who flew the airplanes of World War II. What was in their minds as they made their first solos? And what was air combat like? Flying Through Time is the closest many of us will come to understanding what it was like to be a WWII aviator.Tens...

Since its inception the United States has sent envoys to advance American interests abroad, both across oceans and to areas that later became part of the country. Little has been known about these first envoys until now. From China to Chile, Tripoli to Tahiti, Mexico to Muscat, Peter D. Eicher chronicles...

Since its independence in 1991, Russia has struggled with the growing pains of defining its role in international politics. After Vladimir Putin ascended to power in 2000, the country undertook grandiose foreign policy projects in an attempt to delineate its place among the world’s superpowers....

Charles George Gordon was the preeminent military hero of the late-Victorian British Empire. A lifetime officer in the Royal Engineers, he served in several theaters of war and imperial contest, most notably China and the Sudan. His last assignment took him back to the dusty Sudanese capital, Khartoum,...

Lt. Benjamin Loring (1824–1902) lived the life of an everyman Civil War sailor. He commanded no armies and devised no grand strategies. Loring was a sailor who just wanted to return home, where the biggest story of his life awaited him. Covering almost a year of Loring’s service, I Held...

Former secretary of defense Leon Panetta once described cyber warfare as “the most serious threat in the twenty-first century,” capable of destroying our entire infrastructure and crippling the nation. Already, major cyber attacks have affected countries around the world: Estonia in 2007,...

Over the last sixty years, the relationship between the United States and Latin America has been marred by ideological conflict, imbalances of power, and economic disparity. The U.S.-sponsored coup in Guatemala, the near lynching of Vice President Richard Nixon in Venezuela, and the disastrous Bay of...

Two of the most prominent trends in world affairs over the past decadethe projection of American power abroad and high energy priceshave made for some strange bedfellows. Flush with oil revenues, autocratic governments in Venezuela, Iran, and Russia have tried to counter U.S. influence not only in Latin...

Donald E. Nuechterlein examines George W. BushÆs transformation of American foreign policy and the repercussions for the future. Defiant Superpower recounts how the Bush administrationÆs bold actions in response to September 11, 2001, toppled the Taliban and displayed American strength. But by 2002,...

Remarkably, most conventional wisdom about the shifting balance of world power virtually ignores one of the most fundamental components of power: population. The studies that do consider international security and demographic trends almost unanimously focus on population growth as a liability. In contrast,...

“Who Murdered the Vets?” writer Ernest Hemingway demanded in an impassioned article about the deaths of hundreds of former soldiers. Their fate came as part of the larger and often overlooked story of veterans of the Great War and their deplorable treatment by the government they once served. Three...

Starting with twenty-eight followers, Francisco Pancho Villa rose out of banditry to become a dynamic strategist who mastered the tactical use of a diverse array of weapons, including modern railroads and cavalry, to contest control of Mexico. In his early days as a brigand, the peasantry idolized him...

In Red Rogue, Bruce Bechtol analyzes the changing nature of North KoreaÆs national defense, foreign policy, and illicit economic activities in the postû9/11 era. He describes how North Korea has adapted to a changing global and regional environment to ensure regime survival and has often dictated the...