When you pick up any book from Pen & Sword's Images of War series, you have a pretty good idea what to expect: An excellent photo record of the military in whatever specific era is the focus of the book, along with fine scholarship presented in prose to explain the details of what you are seeing.

Michael Green's US Cold War Tanks & Armoured Fighting Vehicles certainly fits the bill. The book features the war machines devised by the American military from 1949 to 1991 -- a long, tense period during which the United States expected at any time to be in armed conflict with the Soviet Union.

Of course, that war never occurred, so the tanks and other vehicles pictured here are not shown in combat. Most of the photos are staged, to show the vehicles at their most flattering angles, so expect lots of clean lines, pristine edges and perfect paint. There are some battlefield shots, however, such as a Soviet T-54, a medium diesel-powered tank, shown destroyed in Iraq during the First Gulf War. Closeup views of equipment and design illustrations are also included.

Accompanying the photos are detailed captions and many pages of explanatory text giving plenty of information about the technical aspects of each vehicle's design, production and capabilities. (You'll also learn about project designs that never saw fruition.) Green is bluntly honest, too, about the military failures along the way, and U.S. efforts in some cases to catch up to superior Soviet designs.

Some readers will enjoy books in the Images of War series no matter what era or conflict they define. Others will find particular areas of fascination, depending on the specific time or place they focus upon. For niche readers, this book will delight anyone with an interest in Cold War technology or general tank designs. Green provides a thorough, highly detailed look at his subject over decades of development and evolution.