Norman Friedman’s Illustrated

Newly revised, U.S. Aircraft Carriers, Revised Edition is one the most comprehensive references available on the entire development of U.S. Aircraft Carriers, starting in 1920, with USS Langley CV-1, continuing through to Gerald R. Ford CVN-78.

November 2022

512 pp. | 8 x 11½ Hardcover

978-1-68247-762-5 $130 | Holiday Price: $65

PRAISE FOR U.S. BATTLESHIPS: “The book is still as relevant today as it was when it was first released, and perfect for anyone interested in learning more about U.S. Navy Battleships!”

—Ryan Szimanski, executive director of the Historic Naval Ships Association and the curator for Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial

978-1-68247-758-8 $100 | Holiday Price: $50 978-1-68247-759-5 $100 | Holiday Price: $50 978-1-68247-757-1 $100 | Holiday Price: $50 978-1-68247-760-1 $70 | Holiday Price: $35

October 2022

440 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |

978-1-68247-437-2 $39.95 | Holiday Price: $19.98

April 2022

264 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |

978-1-68247-722-9 $39.95 | Holiday Price: 19.98

BY MARGARET SANKEY

“Behind every successful criminal enterprise is a bureaucrat managing the books and demanding receipts. Sankey’s deeply researched, witty, and engaging book offers a fascinating, albeit disturbing, journey into how violent non-state actors are funding their operations in every sector of the global financial system with ever increasing return on investment.”

—Frank A. Blazich, Jr., military history curator, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

It is convenient to think that bad guys are drumming up money for their activities far away and in shady back alleys, but the violent non-state actors (VNSAs) of the world are hiding in plain sight. They peddle knockoff sneakers, pass the hat at ethnic festivals, take a cut of untaxed booze sales, swindle senior citizens with bogus phone calls about needing bail in Mexico, and run money through mainstream banks to buy up rental properties (just to name a few). On a grand scale, their behavior erodes rule of law, creates moral injuries from corruption, and emboldens bad actors to steal and back violent tactics with impunity.

Blood Money analyzes the ways in which VNSAs find money for their operations and sustainment, from controlling a valuable commodity to harnessing the grievances of a networked diaspora, and it looks at the channels through which they can flip the positives of globalization into flat, fast, and frictionless movement of people, funds, and materials needed to terrorize and coerce their opponents.

DR. MARGARET SANKEY earned a PhD at Auburn University in European military history, and taught military history, security studies and political science at Minnesota State Moorhead before joining the staff at the USAF Air War College as the director of research and electives. Currently, she is Air University’s research coordinator in the Office of Sponsored Programs (“The Hub”) matching and supporting Air University assets with DAF research problems.

Digital Influence Mercenaries

Profits and Power Through Information Warfare

BY JAMES J. F. FOREST

“This volume is of great interest–whatever one’s politics. The emerging cyber realities detailed here must be better understood by all of us in the social sciences, including economics and sociocultural anthropology.”

—Christopher C. Harmon, PhD, adjunct professor, Institute of World Politics

In today’s online attention economy, supply and demand have created a rapidly growing market for firms and entrepreneurs using the tactics, tools, and strategies of digital influence warfare to gain profit and power. This book focuses on the more malicious types of online activity such as deception, provocation, and a host of other dirty tricks conducted by these “digital influence mercenaries.”

Forest also highlights how government agencies and social media platforms are trying to defend against these foreign influence campaigns through such tactics as shutting down offending websites, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels; tagging disinformation with warning labels; identifying and blocking coordinated inauthentic behavior; and suspending social media accounts, often permanently.

JAMES J. F. FOREST is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and a visiting professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He previously served on the faculty of the United States Military Academy, West Point (2001–2010), and served as a senior fellow at the U.S. Joint Special Operations University (2010-2019). He has published over twenty books and dozens of articles on various international security topics.

June 2022

368 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |

978-1-68247-620-8 $34.95 | Holiday Price: $17.48 Fall 1949 and the Crises in American National Security

BY JOHN M. CURATOLA

“Curatola weaves an exciting and powerful narrative that brings a new perspective to a key turning point in American history. This reexamination of how U.S. defense strategy dramatically changed in the early Cold War is extremely relevant to present-day defense and foreign policy debates.”

—Michael W. Hankins, curator, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and author of Flying Camelot

In the Fall of 1949, a series of international events shattered the notion that the United States would return to its traditional small peacetime military posture following World War II. Autumn of our Discontent chronicles the events that triggered the wholesale review of United States national security policies. The review led to the adoption of recommendations advanced in NSC-68, which laid the foundation for America’s Cold War activities, expanded conventional forces, sparked a thermonuclear arms race, and, equally important to the modern age, established the national security state—all clear breaks from America’s martial past and cornerstone ideologies.

JOHN CURATOLA is a professor of military history at the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Dr. Curatola is a retired Marine Officer of 22 years with a Doctorate from the University of Kansas. In addition to his published works, he has lectured extensively on airpower and early Cold War topics at the National Archives, on C-SPAN, and at international venues.

February 2022

288 pp. | 6 x 9 Hardcover |

978-1-68247-753-3 $39.95 | Holiday Price: 19.98

From Berkeley to Berlin

How the Rad Lab Helped Avert Nuclear War

BY TOM RAMOS

“This is a powerful story of a vital part of America’s challenges in the Cold War, and the role that the Navy’s submarine service played in it. It is a must-read for anyone interested in how national deterrent strategy developed to face an aggressive Soviet threat, and how young physicists at a national laboratory rose to the challenge. This book is a tribute to the roles jointly played by scientists and the military to preserve our freedom in a dangerous world.”

—Adm. Richard W. Mies USN (Ret.)

In November 1960, bolstered by anti-Communist ideologies, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev brandished nuclear diplomacy in an attempt to force the United States to abandon Berlin, setting the stage for a major nuclear confrontation over the fate of West Berlin. From Berkeley to Berlin explores how the United States had the wherewithal to stand up to Khrushchev’s attempts to expand Soviet influence around the globe.

At the Nobska Conference in 1956, the Rad Lab physicists took up the daunting challenge to provide the Navy with a warhead for Polaris. The success of the Polaris missile, which could be carried by submarines, was a critical step in establishing nuclear deterrent capability and helped Kennedy stare down Khrushchev during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.

For the past 40 years, TOM RAMOS has been a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he was a member of the nuclear team that developed the X-ray Laser for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. He later supported US/USSR arms control negotiations. Ramos, who graduated from West Point, commanded combat engineers before entering MIT to earn a degree in high energy physics.