Paths of Fire: the gun and the world it made
The essential weapon of military campaigns for hundreds of years, the basic design and operation of the gun has changed very little: a chemical explosion at one end of a barrel causes a bullet to fire out of the other at terrifying speed. Yet the gun has also evolved greatly over time. Historian Andrew Nahum traces its developments, from origins in the time of Galileo through to the era of the first cannons and beyond: to the possible future of ray and beam weapons, the standard in sci-fi films but perhaps one day soon a battlefield reality.
Pathfinders
Based on author Cecil Lewis’s own experiences as a World War I fighter ace, Pathfinders follows the crew of a Wellington bomber as they reflect on the paths their own lives have taken while undertaking a dangerous mission above Nazi Germany in 1942. One of several classic wartime novels to have been recently (and stylishly) republished by the Imperial War Museum.
The Viking Great Army and the Making of England
In the winter of 865, a Viking army, having raided Britain opportunistically for decades, instead stayed permanently, forming a new hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. Drawing on new research, including at the Viking Great Army winter camp at Torksey in Lincolnshire, this book offers a definitive account of the consequences of the Viking settlement in England.
War Classics – On the Psychology of Military Incompetence