Military history has typically enjoyed a devoted following among a relatively small niche of history buffs and academics. But recent years have brought a surge of interest in the topic among the wider population, spanning all ages and stages of life. According to literary website QueryTracker, history continues to sit comfortably among the top ten most popular genres and is the third most requested category by literary agents. Several publishers report a specific demand within the genre for military history.

With June 6th, 2019 marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, Americans and Europeans are spending precious remaining time with the last surviving veterans who remember first-hand the heroism and atrocities of World War II. Vietnam War veterans too are in their sixties and older, and it now seems an appropriate time for reflection by younger generations on this iconic conflict as well. This collective societal reflection and sense of fading personal connection to these particular wars may well account for the newfound popularity of the genre.

Publishers are specifically reporting new interest in memoirs and first-person accounts from battles, rather than more traditional narrative histories. A quick look at any new release section shows that firsthand accounts and memoirs almost entirely dominate the landscape. Popular television series are also contributing to a renewed interest in the military history of medieval and Viking cultures.

It’s not only the military history narrative that’s evolving, but also the medium through which the story is told. One could speculate that social media and the gaming industry have heavily influenced the way young people learn about "old" conflicts. Short personal anecdotes, audiobooks, graphic novels, and one-a-day factoids from various battles are some of the ways military history is being presented in 2019 offerings.
 

Casemate Publishing
 

"Military history titles are our bread and butter," explains Sam Caggiula, Director of Marketing and Publicity at Casemate, a 20-year-old publishing company. "We try to find the story within the story and offer new information for readers, including never before published photos from combat." Casemate titles, he explains, are appreciated for their well-researched and compelling approach to telling the stories of war.

One such story is Left for Dead at Nijmegen, July, 2019, ISBN 9781612006963. Gene Metcalfe, now a 96-year-old World War II veteran, parachuted into the Netherlands under enemy fire with the 82nd Airborne Division. Metcalfe survived the ill-fated Operation Market Garden, only to be captured and interrogated by Heinrich Himmler himself. This year Metcalfe will travel back to the Netherlands to receive the prestigious Orange Lanyard military decoration, the Dutch equivalent to the U.S. Medal of Honor.

The Casemate Illustrated series makes use of glossy pictures and short-form storytelling to appeal to "armchair historians" who aren’t looking for a long read. Works in this series include The Third SS Panzer Regiment Totenkopf, July, 2019 ISBN 9781612007311, and Operation Chariot, July, 2019, ISBN 9781612007298. "Our aim is to bring new readers to the category by using innovative formatting and packaging," says Caggiola. The series is particularly popular with military hobbyists, re-enactors and modelists.

For high school and young adult readers, Casemate offers the Casemate Short History series. This compendium of highly accessible books has grown from subjects like Big Guns, July, 2017, 9781612004884, and Tanks, July, 2017, ISBN 9781612004907, to such targeted topics as Old Testament Warriors, November, 2019, ISBN 9781612007939 and Alexander the Great, September, 2019, ISBN 9781612006819. The series’ popularity has prompted Casemate to reissue back volumes in hard cover.

Casemate is also answering the market’s demand for Viking history titles. The Viking Way, May, 2019, ISBN 9781842172605, by historian Neil Price, delves into the great Icelandic Sagas, bringing readers on a journey through medieval Norse battlefields and combat rituals.

Osprey Publishing
 

Osprey, an imprint of Bloomsbury that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, publishes 120 titles a year and offers an unconventional point of view on military history. This publisher has created space in the canon for different perspectives on war and doesn’t focus solely on the American point of view.

"Our intention with our books has always been to not take sides and to present the information to the best of our knowledge, dispassionately examining the actual events, ground and protagonists from a military historian’s perspective," explains Richard Sullivan, Managing Director of Osprey Publishing.

Under Fire: A Graphic Novel Series, begins with D-Day: Storming Fortress Europe, September, 2019, ISBN 9781472838780. Through pages of powerful drawings and dialogue that have been fact-checked by a historian, this volume invites readers to experience the invasion of Normandy and the Allied landing that changed the course of World War II.

The series continues with its second volume, The Battle of Britain: Struggle for the Skies, October, 2019, ISBN 9781472838698. This volume draws on firsthand accounts and historical documents to bring readers along with the Royal Air Force, as they defend Britain’s skies from the German Luftwaffe. Finally, The Battle for Guadalcanal: Hell in the Pacific, November, 2019, ISBN 9781472838735 uses historical records and interviews with men who fought in the Pacific theater to depict the hard-won battle for control of the Solomon Islands and ultimately the Pacific.

Sullivan also highlights Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939, October, 2019, ISBN 9781472834959, by Robert Forczyk as a book that continues in the theme of objectively examining the protagonists of war, in this case by going back to the very beginning days of World War II.

From Osprey’s vantage point, World War II titles like those above continue to outperform other categories within the genre, perhaps more so in the months before and after the D-Day anniversary in June.

Bernan Press
 

Bernan Press, a 67-year-old imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, specializes in statistical and government-related references, as well as handbooks for business, emergency preparedness and homeland security titles. But, where they’ve made a splash with librarians, bloggers and the general public, is with their This Day in… books. According to Holly McGuire, Senior Editor at Bernan Press, books that can present history in a short, pithy, and memorable format are proving hugely popular.

One such example is Rowman & Littlefield’s Chase’s Calendar of Events, an annual publication that shares the key events on each day of the calendar year, from world holidays to celebrity birthdays to astronomical phenomena. It has been hailed as one of the world’s most important reference volumes, and the definitive guide to holidays and anniversaries.

Following the widespread popularity of Chase’s, Bernan Press is announcing their upcoming spinoff, This Day in US Military History , November, 2019, ISBN 9781641433853, by award-winning White House press corps member Paul Brandus. This day-by-day compendium will serve as the armchair historian or social media content creator’s guide to memorable moments in military history and covers everything, from the French and Indian Wars to the current day Middle East conflicts. Brandus himself is also the founder of Twitter’s popular @westwingreport account, where he shares insights, thoughts and anecdotes from his press corps role.

McFarland & Company, Inc.

McFarland, now in its 40th year, offers 1,100 military history titles and has grown from a scholarly approach to military history, to an approach that includes topics that appeal to general readers. Still, it is their academic foundation that sets them apart, and they often package their titles with charts and graphs to explain conflicts in visual terms. McFarland caters strongly to public libraries, as well as serving a unique slice of the book-buying public, from the academic reader to the general history reader.

"Books about World War II had been far and away our bestsellers in military history," explains Karl-Heinz Roseman, Vice President of Sales & Marketing. "However, several years ago, Vietnam memoirs started showing greater strength." Roseman shares that not just newly published, but also older works, seem to be having a moment of popularity. McFarland’s memoirs spare no blood or guts, offering readers a "you were there" experience that resonates with many readers and preserves the voice of the writer.

The Boys of St. Joe’s ‘65 in the Vietnam War , 2019, ISBN 9781476679716, by Dennis Pregent, is one such highly personal memoir that follows eleven high school friends from Massachusetts as they endured the Vietnam War’s most fierce fighting. One died in combat, others were badly injured or traumatized, but all are memorialized through the many hours of interviews that inform this book.

Vietnam Veterans Unbroken: Conversations on Trauma and Resiliency , November, 2019, ISBN 9781476677071, by Jacqueline Murray Loring, analyzes the damage caused by war and enables the more controversial experiences of Vietnam veterans to be told, drawing from interviews conducted with 17 soldiers.

While it’s often said that history is written by the victors, today’s readers seem hungry for compelling and non-traditional perspectives on combat written by those who were personally involved. Publishers are certainly delivering on that need in the marketplace and keeping abreast of broader consumer trends. 2019 is proving an exciting year for military history audiences.

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