History (Academic) Books

This volume focuses on the most prominent European leaders.

Though much has been written about the Civil War itself, little has been written about the spy war that went on within. The chronicling of Civil War intelligence activities, challenges historians because of the lack of records, the lack of access to records, and the questionable truth of other...

Between July 1980 and December 1981, Poland stumbled through the most serious political crisis faced by a Warsaw Pact member since the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The resolution of this crisis through the declaration of martial law by the Polish authorities provided only a temporary...

Soviet military planning for conflict in Europe after World War II from the outset harnessed East European military capabilities to Soviet military purposes and assumed operational subordination of East European military formations to higher-level Soviet commands.

After Communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed twenty years ago and the Soviet Union disintegrated two years later, immense opportunities for archival research opened.

This study examines the role of clandestine reporting in the CIA's analysis of the Warsaw Pact from 1955 to 1985. The Soviet Union established itself as a threat to the West at the end of World War II by its military occupation of eastern European countries and the attempts of its armed proxies to...

Reagan, in the old narrative, simply could not be the architect of anything positive that happened while he was president. That perspective has changed forever and is marked by the continually improving regard historians have for Reagan.

Stories of Sacrifice and Dedication: Civil Air Transport, Air America, and the CIA examine two unique stories that exemplify the sacrifice and dedication that the CIA inspires in its officers: Lima Site 85 – a covert radar site in Laos, and a CAT flight to recover an agent in Communist China.

This collection consists of more than 250 previously classified documents, totaling over 1,400 pages, including some 150 that are being released for the first time. These documents cover the period from January 1977 through March 1979 and were produced by the CIA to support the Carter...

In the mid-1950s the US faced the first real challenge since World War II to its strategic superiority over any nation on earth. The attempt to collect intelligence on the Soviets began with an initial period of poor collection capabilities and consequent limited analysis.