Cassell, 2001, $29.95, ISBN 0-304-35272-1, 224 pgs., hard cover

The great strength of this book consists of the multitude of revolutionary movements covered since WWII. These meanderings over globe and 50 years are terse and contain scant information, but their brevity serves as a good introduction.

Profusely illustrated with 70 color photos, 80 black and white photos, and 23 color maps, the eight main chapters cover: China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Algeria, Africa, Latin America, Israel, and Vietnam. The less you know, the more valuable the chapter. The chapters on China and Algeria proved most valuable to me and provided basic background on insurgency and counter insurgency operations. Chapters on Africa and Latin America were less useful, as their many insurgencies and guerilla wars receive only a few paragraphs and perhaps a big photo or map--far too little to even contemplate being more than an encyclopedic entry.

Moran offers a straightforward and competent prose, and the book moves right along. The maps are generally informative and interesting.

Oddly enough, for a 2001 book, there's precious little on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, only a photo about Chechnya, and nothing about the breakup of Yugoslavia. For an author who teaches international and military history in the Dept. of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, the omission is especially noticeable.

Wars of National Liberation makes for a nice coffee-table book, and indeed will inform you about a wide variety of movements in a short period of time. It may not be more than a brief background, but for most of us, I suspect that's all we need.