Military

A SAS soldier's journey from trainee to elite warrior fighting Islamic militants in Afghanistan, only to be betrayed by his own senior leaders at home. 'I've had more than my share of close calls. Truth is, it's fucking thrilling. But the fear can hit just as hard, especially when you see mates...

The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland....

The extraordinary story of the heroic doctor whose courage and leadership were a lifeline for thousands of Australian prisoners-of-war on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway of World War II - brilliantly told by Australia's favourite storyteller, Peter FitzSimons In September 1939, young Australian...

33 Strategies of War is a comprehensive guide to the subtle social game of everyday life, informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war. It's the I-Ching of conflict, the contemporary companion to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and is abundantly illustrated with examples...

Own five of history's most influential books on strategy, power, war, and leadership in one complete audiobook. Together, these timeless classics have shaped the thinking of military commanders, political leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, and strategists for centuries.

For Australians, Kokoda is the iconic battle of World War II, yet few people know just what happened and just what our troops achieved....

The Battle of Le Hamel on 4 July 1918 was an Allied triumph, and strategically very important in the closing stages of WWI. A largely Australian force, commanded by the brilliant Sir John Monash, fought what has been described as the first modern battle - where infantry, tanks, artillery and...

Throughout the twentieth century, the pilots of the Royal Australian Navy carved their name with pride to build a service that would take shape as the Navy's Fleet Air Arm. Australian naval aviators stood tall in the gallant ranks of the fighter Aces of World War 1.They fought, and some of them...

Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence and unmatched courage. In performance and character he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War....

Death Waits in the Dark: Six Guns Don't Miss is a thrilling story about a Night Stalker at war. This is the story of an attack helicopter pilot who flew with the renowned 160th Special Operations Regiment (Airborne)....

Uncover the true story of the man who unified medieval Japan. For 700 years, Japan was ruled by military commanders who waged war against one another incessantly. Shogun tells the fascinating story of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who finally unified and brought lasting peace to the nation. He...

'The bloodstained drama of the last decades of the Roman republic... is told afresh with tremendous wit, narrative verve and insight' 'I owe a debt of gratitude to Tom Holland not just for reminding me of the great figures who bestrode the Roman world - Pompey and Crassus, Cato, Cicero and...

‘Stop screaming, I’m scared too!’ is not what you’d expect to see on the back of a loadmaster’s helmet in a Chinook helicopter flying over southern Afghanistan, but for Rod Henderson it sums up his 22 years of service as a soldier in the Australian Army. During the busiest period in...

Nancy Wake, nicknamed 'the white mouse' for her ability to evade capture, tells her own story. As the Gestapo's most wanted person, and one of the most highly decorated servicewomen of the war, it's a story worth telling....

In 1858, 14-year-old Narcisse Pelletier sailed from Marseilles in the French trader Saint-Paul. With a cargo of Bordeaux wine, they stopped in Bombay, then Hong Kong, and from there they set sail with more than 300 Chinese prospectors bound for the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo. Around the...

Stephen E. Ambrose’s classic New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the acclaimed HBO series about Easy Company, the ordinary men who became the World War II’s most extraordinary soldiers at the frontlines of the war's most critical moments. Featuring a foreword from Tom Hanks. They...

Established after World War I by the Royal Australian Navy, the Coast Watchers were a loose organisation of several hundred European settlers, missionaries, patrol officers and planters living in British and Australian Pacific Island territories whose job it was to observe and report on the...

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel offers an unforgettable account of Hitler's horrific reign of terror in Night. This definitive edition features a new translation from the original French by Wiesel's wife and frequent translator...

NOW A BLOCKBUSTER MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD—NOMINATED FOR SIX ACADEMY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST PICTURE From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly...

Bloomsbury presents Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive by Prit Buttar, read by Leighton Pugh. A fascinating history of the great summer offensive launched by the Red Army in 1944 which turned the tide of the war. Throughout the war on the Eastern Front, there were two consistent trends...

The shocking story of the case against Australia's most highly decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, and the defamation trial of the century. With a Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry, Ben Roberts-Smith was the most highly decorated Australian soldier, the best of the best. When he...

The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created...

‘Paddy’ Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War. Hamish Ross’s authoritative study follows Mayne from solicitor and a rugby international to troop commander in the Commandos and then the SAS, whose leader he later became and whose annals he...

The definitive account of the warrior-monks who stood as Christendom’s shield against centuries of relentless Islamic aggression and a superlative example of Muscular Christianity for an era marred by effete and effeminized forms of the faith. In this magisterial history, Raymond Ibrahim...

Our heroes can come from the most ordinary of places. As a shy lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become. Albert 'Bert' Jacka was 21 when Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. Bert soon enlisted in the Australian Imperial...

A SAS soldier's journey from trainee to elite warrior fighting Islamic militants in Afghanistan, only to be betrayed by his own senior leaders at home. 'I've had more than my share of close calls. Truth is, it's fucking thrilling. But the fear can hit just as hard, especially when you see mates...

211 BC: Hannibal's struggle against the Romans in Italy continues, but the Carthaginians have been utterly defeated on Sicily. Fleeing the island to Spain, Hanno and Aurelia are shipwrecked, and taken prisoner by local tribesmen. Unless they escape, a life of slavery and brutal treatment awaits...

Throughout the twentieth century, the pilots of the Royal Australian Navy carved their name with pride to build a service that would take shape as the Navy's Fleet Air Arm. Australian naval aviators stood tall in the gallant ranks of the fighter Aces of World War 1.They fought, and some of them...

The Japanese experience of war from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century presents a stunning example of the meteoric rise and shattering fall of a great power. As Japan modernized and became the one non-European great power, its leaders concluded that an empire on the Asian mainland...

New York Times Editors' Choice One of People's 15 Most Anticipated Books of Summer The Next Big Idea Club's July 2026 Must-Read Books One of the New York Times Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer Sunset Magazine's 15 New Books You Don't Want to Miss From Annie Jacobsen, the author of...

Bloomsbury Presents The Battle of Gettysburg 1863: The Third Day by Timothy J. Orr, read by Tom Alexander An authoritative and superbly illustrated exploration of the events of July 3, 1863, incorporating new interpretations that have arisen in the past two decades. The third day of the Battle...

Bloomsbury presents Dien Bien Phu 1954: The French Defeat that Lured America into Vietnam by Martin Windrow, read by Thomas Judd A study of the battle at Dien Bien Phu, the 56-day siege that eventually led to the surrender of the remaining French-led forces, this iconic battle provided the...

In January 1980, a secret review quietly rewired Britain’s war in Northern Ireland. Commissioned by the Chief Constable of the RUC and led by future MI5 Director General Sir Patrick Walker, it placed intelligence above the law - and changed everything. What followed was a vast, covert...

Bloomsbury Presents The Battle of Gettysburg 1863: The First Day, by Timothy J. Orr, read by Tom Alexander An authoritative and superbly illustrated exploration of the events of July 3, 1863, incorporating new interpretations that have arisen in the past two decades. The third day of the Battle...

Bloomsbury Presents The Battle of Gettysburg 1863: The Second Day by Timothy J. Orr, read by Tom Alexander An authoritative and superbly illustrated exploration of the events of July 3, 1863, incorporating new interpretations that have arisen in the past two decades. The third day of the Battle...

Coup d'État astonished readers when it first appeared in 1968 because it showed, step by step, how governments could be overthrown. Translated into sixteen languages, it has inspired anti-coup precautions by regimes around the world. In addition to these detailed instructions, Edward Luttwak's...

What role did German big business play in the persecution of European Jews during the Holocaust? What were its motivations? And how did it respond to changing social and economic circumstances after the war? Profits and Persecution examines how the leaders of Germany's largest industrial and...

A riveting retelling of one of the great adventure stories of antiquity—when Greek philosopher-warrior Xenophon led a stranded band of the “Ten Thousand” mercenary soldiers on a treacherous escape from the Persians. 400 BC. The Persian prince Cyrus the Younger hires an army of Greek...

Bloomsbury presents Iran and the Bomb, written and read by Sina Azodi Iran’s nuclear program remains one of the most contentious issues of modern international politics. This book is the first to trace the evolution of Iran’s nuclear strategy (program) in the broader context of its...

In this stirring and contrarian modern classic, bestselling author H. W. Crocker III unfolds four hundred years of American military history, revealing how Americans were born Indian fighters whose military prowess carved out first a continental and then a global empire—a Pax Americana that made the modern world. From the seventeenth century on, he argues, Americans have shown a jealous regard for their freedom—and have backed it up with an unheralded skill in small-unit combat operations, a tradition that includes Rogers’s Rangers, Merrill’s Marauders, and today’s Special Forces.

Spring of 1592. Near the small town of Hamhae, Soodol knows that his life will end as a lowly baekjong, the untouchable caste of Joseon Korea. As he feels sorry for himself with a bottle of cheap alcohol, Japanese horsemen sweep through Hamhae, his birthplace and where his noble father still...

Look, are you a people watcher? Are you someone who is more interested in how a person reacts to their circumstances? There is always somebody who has an interesting approach and a fascinating personality. They will leave you unblinking and open-mouthed while you endeavour to suck in all their intricacies. Life is full of them and if given the opportunity when circumstances are right, they will provide you with a unique story.

The story of Black Hawk Down is a familiar one. On 3 October 1993 two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, and in the ensuing Battle of Mogadishu eighteen Americans and hundreds of Somalis were killed. But very few appreciate that this was one day in a two-and-a-half-year operation; the most...

Through the voices of the men who experienced it, Boys, Just Boys relates the story of the 423rd regiment of the 106th Infantry Division during and after the Battle of the Bulge.

Christopher Waters survived a childhood built on violence, fear, and emotional chaos. Long before Iraq, he had already learned how to live in survival mode. In The Child I Took to War, Waters delivers a brutally honest memoir that exposes the devastating collision between childhood trauma and combat PTSD. From the trailer houses of Texas to the battlefields of Iraq, this unforgettable story follows a young man searching for purpose, brotherhood, and escape through military service; only to discover that some wars continue long after the firefight ends.

In August 1862, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania quickly responded to President Lincoln’s request for more troops. An overwhelming response of volunteers would provide the Union with eighteen infantry regiments that would serve for a period of nine months. Individual motivations to enlist were as varied as were the volunteers themselves. Many wanted the attractive recruiting bounties, and others sought the adventure. The majority in the recruiting lines were there with the sentiments of “right” and “duty”, a symbol of their honor and manhood.

Air Force Once tells of the highs and lows of a military career. It's a detailed journey from basic military training to a celebrated conclusion, highlighting events that occur along any pathway that soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines can and will endure. The book reveals the inside scope of supporting the president of the United States during three White House administrations and one secretary of state. Performing work on Air Force One is not your typical aircraft technician's assignment. Security is a different way of life, working on the commander in chief's mode of transportation.

This is not a war story. It is a record of responsibility. Lessons from a career. Authority Without Control is a memoir of leadership under pressure, where decisions carry weight long after the moment has passed. From rural Nebraska to Afghanistan, Brandon Burton writes about the quiet, often invisible burden of command- where restraint matters more than action, and where the hardest choices are the ones no one sees, both in war and coming home. This book is not about heroics. It is about proximity to consequence.

Why have the major post-9/11 US military interventions turned into quagmires? Despite huge power imbalances in America's favor, capacity-building efforts, and tactical victories, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq turned intractable. The US government's fixation on zero-sum, decisive victory in these conflicts is a key reason why these operations failed to achieve favorable and durable outcomes.

Bloomsbury presents Generalship on the Eastern Front, 1941–45: A Study in Command by Robert Forczyk, read by Elliot Chapman A comprehensive evaluation of generalship on the most important front in World War II. The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the largest sustained air-ground...