A military can learn, adapt, and still lose the war. Dr. Wendy Whitman Cobb and Colonel Cory Hollon join Gregory Hospidor and Sanders Marble to discuss why in After America’s First Battles, 1861–2008. From amphibious operations to air campaigns in Europe and Vietnam, the conversation examines why forces can change how they fight while leaving their assumptions about victory intact. Commanders, service culture, and bureaucratic barriers shape which lessons move beyond the battlefield and which remain trapped at the tactical level. For strategists, the challenge is recognizing when better execution leaves the larger problem unsolved.

If you have questions, comments, or episode recommendations, please email us at bookstobattles@au.af.edu

The opinions expressed here are those of the hosts or the guests and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of the Air Force, the Depart of Defense or War, or the United States Government.

Books Mentioned

Charles E. Heller and William A. Stofft, America's First Battles, 1776-1965 (UP of Kansas, 1986).

In this episode of Books to Battles, Dr. Wendy Whitman Cobb and Colonel Cory Hollon welcome Lieutenant Colonel Rachel Reynolds to discuss Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire and its connections to the Foundations of International Politics course. Poetry, memory technology, and an imperial succession struggle become ways to examine soft power, domestic politics, and strategies of denial. The discussion asks whether institutions can survive without the military power behind them and how smaller powers can make conquest costly. For strategists, the challenge is choosing the theory that helps explain the problem in front of them. Throughout, the hosts examine what fiction reveals about the possibilities and limits of applying international relations theories to complex strategic problems.

If you have questions, comments, or episode recommendations, please email us at bookstobattles@au.af.edu

Books Mentioned

John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (WW Norton & Co., 2014).

Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in World Political Economy (Princeton UP, 2004).

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge UP, 1981).

Jeff Pearlman, Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur (Mariner Books, 2025).

Everett Dolman, Pure Strategy: Power and Principle in the Space and Information Age (Routledge, 2005).

The opinions expressed here are those of the hosts or the guests and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of the Air Force, the Depart of Defense or War, or the United States Government.

In this episode of Books to Battles, Dr. Wendy Whitman Cobb and Col. Cory Hollon speak with Dr. Rob Hutchinson, SAASS Dean of Academics, about the school’s field study in Germany and its role in educating strategists. They explain how student research and discussions at historical sites connect classroom study to enduring questions about airpower, great-power competition, and the human consequences of strategic decisions. Stops including the Fulda Gap, Schweinfurt, Dresden, and Berlin provide opportunities to examine defense planning, strategic bombing, and the Berlin Airlift. Visits to Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora prompt discussion of the relationship between Nazi war production, forced labor, and the subsequent development of space technology. The conversation also explores how museums and memorials construct historical narratives and how engagements with American and German officials connect those histories to contemporary European security. The trip brings abstract strategic problems into contact with terrain, human suffering, and the choices facing an ally today.

If you have questions, comments, or episode recommendations, please email us at bookstobattles@au.af.edu

Books Mentioned

Joseph Maiolo, Cry Havoc: The Arms Race and the Second World War, 1931–1941 (Basic Books, 2012).

The opinions expressed here are those of the hosts or the guests and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense or War, or the United States Government.