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The Best Books of 2012 on Military, Scientific, and Technological Subjects

Lawrence D. Freedman's Picks
Article Summary and Author Biography

The professor of War Studies at King's College, London selects the most important books on military, scientific, and technological topics published during the last year.

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The professor of War Studies at King's College, London selects the most important books on military, scientific, and technological topics published during the last year. Here are his reviews, culled from recent issues of the magazine.

Click here to see all of the best books on international relations of 2012.

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
Capsule Review, December 27, 2012
Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
Lawrence D. Freedman

Logevall's megisterial book describes how the United States' role in former French Indochina developed during the 1950s; it is, in essence, pre-histories of the Vietnam War.

Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad
Capsule Review, August 20, 2012
Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad
Lawrence D. Freedman

Bergen captures the paradoxes of bin Laden's demise superbly, drawing on his excellent government sources, his deep knowledge of al Qaeda, and his reporter’s instincts (which got him into the Abbottabad compound just after the raid). His book is full of fascinating details and illustrates the immense pressure on national security bureaucracies to provide options to policymakers and then reduce the risks associated with their implementation.

The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle
Capsule Review, December 27, 2012
The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle
Lawrence D. Freedman

The NBC television show Stars Earn Stripes, co-hosted by the retired U.S. general and one-time presidential candidate Wesley Clark, purports to put minor celebrities through the harsh realities of war. This book represents a corrective to the conceit the show peddles, that soldiering is simply about drills, endurance, and shooting straight.