In 1948, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered a blockade of Berlin to pressure the Western Allies into leaving the city or giving up the establishment of a state of West Germany. In response, President Truman, against the advice of his top defense and diplomatic advisors, declared that the United States was in the city to stay. For the next 11 months, under difficult and dangerous conditions, Allied planes delivered such necessities as food, mail, medicine and coal to the beleaguered residents of Berlin—whom those same planes had bombed only three years earlier. Richard Reeves, author of acclaimed biographies of Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan, tells this story in his riveting new book, Daring Young Men.

Reeves’ splendid narrative gives us various perspectives of the airlift, or “Operation Vittles,” as it was originally called. He quotes generously from Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Berlin’s most famous diarist of the period, who vividly described the bleakness of the city and was hopeful, but skeptical, that the Allies would help. Reeves also focuses on the 60,000 individuals who made the airlift work, including pilots such as Gail Halvorsen, who had volunteered for service in the airlift and thought he would return home in a few weeks. Instead, he became the famous “Candy Bomber” who dropped improvised parachutes filled with sweets for Berlin’s children.

From the beginning, the airlift faced many obstacles, not least that pilots were restricted to using carefully defined air corridors, and deviation from these meant attack by Soviet aircraft. An extraordinary leap in production occurred when Major General William Tunner was put in charge of the operation. An arrogant, cantankerous and incredibly imaginative man, Tunner had directed the first successful airlift in history, flying supplies over the Himalayas to Nationalist Chinese troops fighting the Japanese during World War II.

Reeves masterfully relates this story of a crucial mission that even American military officials considered nearly impossible—a pivotal chapter in the Cold War that had a profound effect on the course of European and American history.

Originally published in the United Kingdom as a companion to a BBC television series, this informative history covers eight battles, stretching from World War I to the first Gulf War. Father-son authors Peter and Dan Snow have chosen battles based on both interest and significance, whether in terms of military developments or political impact.

The title, 20th Century Battlefields, could be considered a bit of a misnomer, since this is not a guide to battlefields, but rather to the actual battles themselves. In three cases the “battlefields” encompass entire wars, albeit brief ones (the Yom Kippur War, the Falklands War and Desert Storm). Also included are Midway and Stalingrad from World War II, and battles from the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The Snows offer an insightful examination of changing military technology and tactics. They also delve into the events leading up to each battle, as well as the progress of the fight and the aftermath, revealing how even seemingly minor conflicts have influenced world events in crucial ways. The book includes basic maps of the various actions as well as photos from each of the wars covered. The Snows’ book is a highly readable and entertaining compilation, of special interest to military history buffs, as well as those who fought in the battles and their descendants.

Howard Shirley is a writer in Franklin, Tennessee.

From 1939 through the last months of the war, the Nazi army seized priceless paintings, sculptures, tapestries and more, from museums, palaces, cathedrals, private homes, even tiny chapels—the Nazis plundered everything, carting off the cultural history of every nation they entered.

But just as the Allied Forces fought to save the Western world, others fought to save Western Civilization. They were “the Monuments Men,” a handful of soldiers given a unique assignment: to preserve the cultural soul of Europe by protecting Europe’s art. Robert M. Edsel’s masterful book The Monuments Men shares their story, in a tale that is part history, part war story and part treasure hunt. Undermanned, undersupplied and with virtually no authority, the Monuments Men (and women) faced bullets, bombs and Nazi booby traps to rescue works by Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Vermeer, Michelangelo and more.

Edsel and his co-author, Bret Witter, have crafted an account that moves like a Hollywood action adventure, with scenes ranging from a peasant’s cottage in the middle of an artillery battle, to the depths of an ancient salt mine. There are heroes to root for, villains to hiss at and an increasingly pressing race against time as the Nazis, in a last vicious act of defiance, set about to destroy the art rather than give it up.

Edsel and Witter interviewed the few surviving Monuments Men, examined family letters and even Nazi archives in their research. Whether you’re a fan of art, military history or stories of real-life heroes, The Monuments Men is a treasure worth the hunt.

Howard Shirley is a writer in Franklin, Tennessee.

For most Americans, the name George McGovern is inextricably linked to his 1972 presidential campaign, a race that ended in a crushing, landslide victory for Richard Nixon. But McGovern's life has other interesting chapters, and in his latest book, historian Stephen Ambrose describes one of them in vivid detail.

Thousands of young, eager volunteers lined up to be pilots during World War II, and The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45 tells their story by focusing on one bomber, the Dakota Queen, its pilot George McGovern and its crew. McGovern, a South Dakota preacher's son, was a 19-year-old college sophomore when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He immediately volunteered for service and less than three years later was piloting one of the big, unwieldy B-24 Liberator bombers. Completing 35 missions over Europe, McGovern went on to earn a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.

Although McGovern's war experiences may come as a jarring surprise to those who recall his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ambrose sees the former senator as "a good representative of his generation," who was willing to put his own life on the line to secure an Allied victory.

Ambrose, who has chronicled the experiences of the infantry soldier in several previous World War II books (Band of Brothers, D-Day, Citizen Soldiers), captures the air campaign with his usual skill, bringing the characters and their harrowing missions to life. He recently answered questions about the book for BookPage.

When did you first meet George McGovern? I met George after the '72 campaign, when he was still teaching at Duke. He was kind enough to invite me there to lecture to a couple of his classes, and during the ride back to the airport, he told me some great stories about the campaign (since I was working on Nixon at this time, this was meat and potatoes), and his time in the 15th Air Force. As a result of this and other conversations, UNO [University of New Orleans] where I taught, invited him to come to our summer school in Innsbruck, Austria. Our friendship has flourished ever since.

What did you think of his anti-war stance during the '72 campaign? I agreed with what his campaign stood for, and in my own way, worked for McGovern in 1972. McGovern was reluctant to trumpet his war record during the campaign. Why do you think he was willing to talk about it now? None of the press people ever seemed to be interested in bringing it up nobody ever asked him about it, to my recollection. There are millions of veterans out there that this same thing is true of. They're not so much reluctant to recall what they experienced, but they are not going to volunteer anything if no one asks. In George's case, I just think that he felt the time had come to share his story. He told me once that he never discussed the war with anyone at any length when he was still in politics. By the same token, I don't think he was trying to effect some sort of catharsis by conducting extensive interviews with us, or that he feels he owes his grandchildren a legacy of some sort. He certainly didn't do it because he's running for office. I obviously can't speak for the man, but I think he is justifiably proud of his record of service, and he wanted George McGovern to tell George McGovern's story.

In your research for Wild Blue, what did you learn about McGovern's war experiences that surprised you? How difficult it is to fly that plane, above all. Plus the fact that someone at the ripe old age of 23 had such heavy responsibilities. He had the lives of every one of his crew literally in his hands, which is an experience that I'll never have. I've done a bit of pretend flying in a B-24, and the experience was humbling the amount of eye-hand coordination needed, the patience and judgment involved, and so on. The Air Force did an absolutely marvelous job at finding suitable personnel, and at turning these kids into skilled pilots in a very short period of time by today's standards.

What qualities made McGovern a successful pilot? Number one: professionalism. He knew how to handle that plane and was always alert when he had to be damn near whenever he had the controls. His leadership and concern for his crew was exceptional as well. He tried his best to make sure that they had dry socks, and that there was heat on in the plane, that everyone's oxygen equipment was functioning properly, and so on. As far as physical attributes, George has excellent coordination and eyesight he has phenomenal depth perception, which in the pre-radar age was a vital asset. He wasn't a mechanical genius; most of those pilots weren't. But he had good judgment, a confidence in himself, and a sound understanding of weather and navigation the same set of skills that make for a good pilot in this day and age.

In what ways was he typical of the young men who flew the Liberator? George was the same age as these guys and there were many of them, including George, who hadn't even finished college. All thrown into a situation where you're bored 95 percent of the time and terrified for the remainder. But in a lot of ways, it's impossible to come up with one definitive type of the "typical" GI. Some pilots surely drank, cursed and gambled more than George, some were probably more well read than he was at the time, some more religious it just varies on an individual basis. But George was certainly not a run of the mill pilot he was a pilot among his peers.

Are you hopeful that this book will give the American public a new respect for McGovern? Of course. I felt at the time of the election that he should have pressed the issue of his war record a bit more. For whatever reasons he chose not to. But yes, I would like the American people to know more about what he did during the war. I hope this will foster, not so much McGovern's appeal or a wider audience, but the understanding that you don't necessarily have to be a hawk to be patriotic. McGovern is one of the greatest patriots I know, and his anti-war stance doesn't make him any less of one.