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Jihad By Sea

by Cecelia Holland

In ad 655 the emperor Constans II confronted a new and surprising threat to his Byzantine Empire. For years, armies of Arabs had overrun the empire’s southern provinces in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Having defeated the Sassanid Empire, they dominated the Middle East and had even reached the gates of Constantinople before being driven back. But now these desert warriors had taken to the sea.

Posted inReview

Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin, 1941–1945

by Alexander Hill

“Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin, 1941–1945” By John Mosier. Deathride is a history of the Eastern Front during World War II. John Mosier—who has gained a reputation for writing revisionist history—and his publisher both claim it offers a new idea: that Nazi Germany and its allies came ever so close to victory in the East.

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Bloody Field at Champion’s Hill

by Steven E. Woodworth

After three months of frustration, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in May 1863 succeeded in getting his army onto the east bank of the Mississippi River in the rear of the fortress city of Vicksburg. In a lightning campaign Grant’s army defeated Confederate detachments at Port Gibson on May 1, Raymond on May 12, and Jackson on May 14, neutralizing the Mississippi capital as a Confederate base for the relief of Vicksburg. Then he turned toward Vicksburg itself.

Posted inStories

Folly in the Philippines

by Rod Paschall

On May 3, 1898, two days after Commodore George Dewey’s stunning defeat of the Spanish at Manila Bay, President William McKinley sent American troops to occupy the Philippines. At this early stage in the Spanish-American War, there was no plan for the occupation, including how long it would last or what ends the United States sought in those distant islands.