Book Review Program

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JIPA Book Review Program

Dr. Jared McKinney (Air Command and Staff College) manages our book review program. The journal publishes book reviews to inform our readers and enhance the content of its articles. Reviewers are asked to analyze the book and provide an exclusive, original, unpublished, concise evaluation. The first section of the analysis should normally be the shortest and indicate the type of book (biography, anthology, history, monograph, etc.). Include a very short author biographic citation and then describe the context of the book in the literature of the field. Next, thoroughly analyze the thesis and arguments in the work. What are the strong points of the argument? What are the limitations in the work, including author biases? Is the thesis supported? What are the implications of the argument? Are there any profound aspects of the book? This section will be the longest part of the analysis. Finally, the analysis should finish with recommendations for improvement. Clearly state whether this book is worth reading, who may find this book most interesting, and why.

All books are free to reviewers. Each analysis must be submitted electronically within 45 days of book receipt. Limit your text to approximately 1,000 words, carefully edited.

Submit reviews or questions via e-mail to: jared.mckinney@au.af.edu or JIPA@au.af.edu. If you are interested in reviewing a book other than those listed below, please discuss the matter with Dr. McKinney.

New Books for Review

Lew-Williams, Beth. The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.

Westad, Odd Arne. Empire & Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2021.

Current Books for Review

Ahmed, Faiz. Afghanistan Rising: Islamic Law and Statecraft between the Ottoman and British Empires. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Celeski, Joseph D. Special Air Warfare and the Secret War in Laos: Air Commandos, 1964-1975. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2019.
Chang, Paul Y. Protest Dialectics: State Repression and South Korea’s Democracy Movement, 1970-1979. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.
Chowdhury, Nusrat Sabina. Paradoxes of the Popular: Crowd Politics in Bangladesh. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.
Doron, Assa, and Robin Jeffrey. Waste of a Nation: Garbage and Growth in India. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
Dye, Peter. The Man Who Took the Rap: Sir Robert Brooke-Popham and the Fall of Singapore. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.
Fey, Peter. Bloody Sixteen: The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2018.
Frampton, Martyn. The Muslim Brotherhood and the West. A History of Enmity and Engagement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2018.
Glenn, Tom. Last of the Annamese: A Novel. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2017.
Groh, Tyrone L. Proxy War: The Least Bad Option. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.
Jalal, Ayesha. The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2014.
Madsen, Grant. Sovereign Soldiers How the U.S. Military Transformed the Global Economy after World War II. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
Merlan, Francesca. Dynamics of Difference in Australia: Indigenous Past and Present in a Settler Country. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
Moore, Stephen L. Uncommon Valor: The Recon Company That Earned Five Medals of Honor and Included America’s Most Decorated Green Beret. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.
Ransmeier, Johanna S. Sold People Traffickers and Family Life in North China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Rizvi, Mubbashir A. The Ethics of Staying: Social Movements and Land Rights Politics in Pakistan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.
Shahrani M. Nazif, ed. Modern Afghanistan: The Impact of 40 Years of War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018.
Singh, Naunihal. Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.
Xu, Yan. The Soldier Image and State-building in Modern China, 1924-1945. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2019.
Yablonka, Marc Phillip. Vietnam Bao Chi: Warriors of Word and Film. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2018.
Younger, Stephen M. Silver State Dreadnought: The Remarkable Story of Battleship Nevada. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.