The Battle for the Falklands

Far better than earlier "instant histories," this is a thorough work by a war reporter who was at the battlefront (Max Hastings) and a political observer in Whitehall (Simon Jenkins, political editor of The Economist). No flag-waving account, this book dissects bungled military operations and bad political judgements as well as extolling the ultimate success. Victory in the Falklands, the authors are convinced, was a much closer thing than most people realized at the time.