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France’s century-long wars of conquest in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia remain both understudied and symbolic of European imperialism. Launched to provide political legitimacy for the House of Bourbon during unstable times, these wars of empire ironically ended by generating nationalist sentiments that undermined French imperial aspirations, although France was successful on the battlefield after tremendous effort. The controversy both at the time and today about France’s North African ambitions has overshadowed the significant history of this conflict. Fought across some of the world’s most unforgiving, yet spectacular, terrain, these wars featured innovative military campaigns, epic battles, inspiring resistance leaders, and countless episodes of remarkable courage. Profoundly relevant, the French North African wars had a major global impact, influencing the development of military organization, tactics, and technology in the American Civil War, both world wars, and even modern Middle Eastern conflicts. Yet it is the human element that is most compelling. Based on extensive primary source research, Lions of the Atlas: France’s Wars for Empire and Resistance in North Africa, 1827–1934 is the first-ever comprehensive study, in any language, of these pivotal wars and those who fought them. 

Beginning with the French naval blockade and amphibious invasion of Algeria in 1827–1830, the book tells the story of the large-scale campaigns and huge set-piece battles that ensued over the following several decades, across the highest peaks of the Atlas Mountains, in hills and valleys, along and over rivers, through scorching deserts, and even in fierce urban combat in town and city streets. Engagements include two unforgettable campaigns to capture the mountain fortress at Constantine, bold and devastating forays by Algerian cavalrymen and mountain warriors, and the pivotal 1844 Battle of Isly. The story continues with the French invasion of Tunisia in 1881, and then the thirty-year French campaign for the subjugation of Morocco, concluding with the Rif War of the 1920s that shocked the world. The narrative features charismatic resistance leaders such as Algeria’s Emir Abd-el-Kader, legendary military units such as the colorful Zouaves and the Foreign Legion, and changes in military technology, including the use of aircraft and armored vehicles. A major contribution to our understanding of one of the world’s most storied regions, Lions of the Atlas provides gripping and insightful reading while presenting the complex history of war and resistance in North Africa.

Featured in Ken Burns The American Revolution on PBS®
By the spring of 1780, American fortunes were at a low point. Charleston, South Carolina, fell to British forces on May 12. At Morristown, New Jersey, George Washington’s army struggled to recover from the worst winter of the entire war. The national economy failing, his troops short of supplies and on the verge of mutiny, Washington prepared for an all-out assault on British-occupied New York City with the support of approaching French naval and land forces under General Rochambeau. The planned attack was a gamble born of desperation. Washington felt he had to risk it, or face certain defeat. In New York City, German General Wilhelm von Knyphausen sensed opportunity. Commanding there in the absence of British General Henry Clinton, who was on his way back from Charleston, Knyphausen hoped that a quick strike into New Jersey could deliver a staggering blow to Washington’s weakened army. The June 7–8 Battle of Connecticut Farms, however, found American militia and Continentals—mostly soldiers of General William Maxwell’s New Jersey Brigade—to be shockingly stalwart. In a series of sharp engagements, fought hard on both sides, the Americans convinced Knyphausen to turn back. Clinton, fresh from his victory in the South, tried again on June 23 to end the war. His advance into New Jersey, intended to draw Washington into the open and perhaps capture Morristown, culminated in the Battle of Springfield. Once again, though, Washington’s hardened soldiers, led by men like Colonel Israel Angell, Colonel Elias Dayton, and Major “Light Horse Harry” Lee, fought Clinton’s forces to a standstill.
            The Battles for Connecticut Farms and Springfield, 1780, by distinguished historian Edward G. Lengel, chronicles these two important battles that marked a turning of the tide in the Revolutionary War. Drawing on newly available primary sources, the author presents a fresh and engaging interpretation of these events, which exposed King George III’s declining military fortunes in North America even as they revealed the resilience of George Washington’s army.

The Small Battles Series: Military History as Local History
Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Series Editors
Small Battles offers a fresh and important new perspective on the story of America’s early conflicts. It was the small battles, not the clash of major armies, that truly defined the fighting during the colonial wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the hostilities on the frontiers. This is dramatic military history as seen through the prism of local history—history with a depth of detail, a feeling for place, people, and the impact of battle and its consequences that the story of major battles often cannot convey. The Small Battles Series focuses on America’s military conflicts at their most intimate and revealing level.