Surrounded on all borders but its western coastline by hostile and aggressive neighbors, the state of Israel resembles the walled city of the Middle Ages. But its walls are not stone and mortar, they are flesh and blood-they are the soldiers, both men and women-the airmen, the intelligence, the tankscorpsmen and the paratroops. These young people-from the old ghettos of Europe, from the cities of North Africa and Asia, native-born Sabras-are the protecting wall that keeps Israel free. The Walls of Israel is Jean Larteguy's fascinating 1968 study of the Israeli armed forces. Talking with them, living with them, joining in their operations (he was taken along on a nighttime ambush set up to catch Syrian infiltrators), Larteguy got to know the Israeli soldier as few could. From this book, wide ranging and filled with lively anecdotes, emerges a picture of an army, tough and determined, yet intelligent and realistic enough to foresee a long and dangerous road ahead before a peace is won.

When The Centurions was first published in 1960, readers were riveted by the thrilling account of soldiers fighting for survival in hostile environments. They were equally transfixed by the chilling moral question the novel posed: how to fight when the "age of heroics is over." As relevant today as it was half a century ago,The Centurions is a gripping military adventure, an extended symposium on waging war in a new global order, and an essential investigation of the ethics of counterinsurgency. Featuring a foreword by renowned military expert Robert D. Kaplan, this important wartime novel will again spark debate about controversial tactics in hot spots around the world.

Out of print for decades and praised by the likes of Stanley McChrystal, Robert Kaplan, and David Petraeus, The Praetorians picks up in the footsteps of The Centurions. When a group of French paratroopers serving in the Algerian war are called to answer for actions they consider necessary, however immoral, they plot a coup that results in a new French government and in the death of one of their own. Based on the events of May 1958 in France, The Praetorians continues with some of Larteguy's most persistent, and most pertinent, themes: counterinsurgency, the ugly, self-conflicted nature of modern war, and the seemingly unbridgeable gulf between the experiences of soldiers and of the civilians they serve. A former soldier himself, Larteguy writes with unique authority on war and with a clear insight into the human costs of global conflict.