The Battle of First Bull Run–Manassas Campaign July 16–22, 1861: An Illustrated Atlas and Battlefield Guide. Blaikie Hines. American Patriot Press, 2011. 225 pages. 82 maps, 500+ photographs, bibliography, index. Paperback: $39.95.

As a volunteer at Virginia’s Manassas National Battlefield …

Armchair General Editor in Chief Jerry Morelock reviews Cain at Gettysburg by Ralph Peters.

‘Great Civil War Heroes and Their Battles’ takes its information from a work that was the source for biographies of Civil War officers that were printed on 19th-century tobacco trading cards. Reproductions of artwork from the cards are included.

“The Rogue Republic,” by William C. Davis, gives a detailed account of a little-known event in the history of North America, the brief life of the independent Republic of West Florida and the colorful characters behind its creation.

War in the Pacific Skies, by Charlie and Ann Cooper, features the aviation art of Jack Fellows as it tells the story of the fights in the skies wherever Allied and Japanese aircraft clashed in World War II.

Wolfram Grajetzki’s book “Greeks and Parthians in Mesopotamia and Beyond: 331 BC – 224 AD” examines a part of history that is all too often overlooked, when the eastern territories that had been conquered by Alexander the Great were losing ground to a new power, the Parthians.

The book “Battlefield Angels: Saving Lives under Enemy Fire from Valley Forge to Afghanistan” shines a much-needed light on the all-too-often overlooked service of military corpsmen and medics and the evolution of battlefield medical care.

A new book on the Second Battle of Manassas, or Second Bull Run, provides a blow-by-blow account of the fighting for Chinn Ridge and Henry Hill, “one of the clearest descriptions of Civil War combat this reviewer has ever read.”

A review calls “The New York Times: The Complete Civil War 1861-1865″ and its accompanying DVD-ROM “a MUST HAVE.”

Douglas E. Nash reviews Blood, Steel, & Myth: The II. SS Panzer Corps and the Road to Prochorowka by George Nipe, Jr. — a new account of the Battle of Kursk that will shock and surprise you.

In “Hitler’s Master of the Dark Arts: Himmler’s Black Knights and the Occult Origins of the SS” Bill Yenne explores how Hitler and Himmler used a variety of social movements in 1920s Germany to create the mythic images of the SS.

Armchair General Editor in Chief Jerry D. Morelock reviews Ralph Peters’ latest book — Lines of Fire: A Renegade Writes on Strategy, Intelligence, and Security.

After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped, by David Hardin, tells the post-war stories of 11 figures from the Civil War, ranging from U.S. Grant to Mary Chestnut.

“Atlas of Empires” explores the rise and fall of empires from the ancient world through the colonial era, examining the motivations behind them, the philosophies that contributed to their longevity, and the causes of their decline.

Gerald M. Carbone’s sole emphasis in Washington: Lessons in Leadership is the performance of George Washington as a senior military leader. He provides readers with a balanced portrayal.

‘Guns of the Civil War’ is a heavy volume filled to the brim with clear, full-color, glossy close-ups of 150-year-old rifles and handguns, including many rare and one-of-a-kind weapons.