The TotalWar Booklist

[Shahed]

Greetings

I have started this thread as a book repsitory. There are a lot of us here who are interested in the same historical periods represented in the TW series. As such I thought it is a good idea to have a thread which contains all of your most favorite and good books.

Please post here all that you think is worth reading. All media is welcome DVD, VHS, CD-ROM etc.

Basically you can post anything that is related to the times of STW, MTW and RTW. It can be very specific e.g Shinkage Ryu Iaijutsu or very broad e.g Art of War.

Cheers http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Shahed]

Moving towards Stillness (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804831602/ref=cm_wl_ovu-pg.1-pos.17/102-4028144-0256958?v=glance&coliid=I116IER1K3L0U0&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

Omori Sogen (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0710305885/ref=cm_wl_ovu-pg.3-pos.15/102-4028144-0256958?v=glance&coliid=IVY9YVM036CT9&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
"Omori Sogen (1904-1994) is considered the greastest Zen master. His background as an expert in kendo (the Way of the Sword) and shodo (the Way of the the Brush) and as a political activist, scholar and university president made him unique among Zen maters. The story of Omori's life details his years of training and explores the three "Ways" in which he was trained: martial arts, Zen, and calligraphy. The book also explores the fundamental aspect of Zen martial arts and offers solutions for some of the problems encountered in Zen training. Omori Sogen was the author of the influentialIntroduction to Zen Training, published by Kegan Paul international. This biography is a much needed English-language appraisal of a figure who has been too long invisible to the West"

Kagemusha (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6301661737/ref=cm_wl_ovu-pg.4-pos.8/102-4028144-0256958?v=glance&coliid=I2HP9637GDYDZQ&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
"Amazon.com essential video
The 1970s were difficult years for the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Following the box-office failure of his 1970 film Dodes'ka-den and an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Kurosawa was unable to find financial backing in Japan, and he made his acclaimed 1975 film Dersu Uzala in Siberia with Russian financing. With only partial Japanese backing for his epic project Kagemusha, the 70-year-old master then found American support from George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, who served as coexecutive producers (through 20th Century Fox) for this magnificent 1980 production--to that date the most expensive film in Japanese history. Set in the late 16th century, Kagemusha centers on the Takeda clan, one of three warlord clans battling for control of Japan at the end of the feudal period. When Lord Shingen (Tatsuya Nakadai), head of the Takeda clan, is mortally wounded in battle and near death, he orders that his death be kept secret and that his "kagemusha"--or "shadow warrior"--take his place for a period of three years to prevent clan disruption and enemy takeover. The identical double is a petty thief (also played by Nakadai) spared from execution due to his uncanny resemblance to Lord Shingen--but his true identity cannot prevent the tides of fate from rising over the Takeda clan in a climactic scene of battlefield devastation. Through stunning visuals and meticulous attention to every physical and stylistic detail, Kurosawa made a film that restored his status as Japan's greatest filmmaker, and the success of Kagemusha enabled the director to make his 1985 masterpiece, Ran. --Jeff Shannon "

[Shahed]

Chushingura (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000056PNV/qid=1058955616/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/102-4028144-0256958?v=glance&s=video)

The story of the famous 47 Samurai. A brilliant story of loyalty, a central precept of Bushido.

[Sjakihata]

videos or dvds:
seven samurai
Spartacus (for rtw, kubrick did an ok job, tho the senate is not historical)
Yojimbo (by Akira Kurosawa this story have been made by many others featuring, Clint Eastwood in a western and Bruce willis in a gangster set mid 30's)
Ran (a good movie a part of it is used in the intro)

books:
Sun Tsu's art of war
James Clavell's Shogun (can also be seen as video)


other:
www.samurai-archives.com
The Role Playing Game (RPG) Sengoku very good (www.sengoku.com)

[Shahed]

Thank you.

Btw James Clavell's absolutely brilliant series is soon available on DVD http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Shogun DVD Edition (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000A2ZNX/qid=1058967525/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-4028144-0256958?v=glance&s=dvd)

[Oaty]

I thought Attilla the Hun was pretty good, wich was produced by the USA Network and Joan of Arc by Alliance Atlantis under the subsidiary of Artisan Home Entertainment. Both ar available on DVD

[Ithaskar Fëarindel]

Try going through the Library - there are some good links posted in there...

http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin....;t=6090 (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=20;t=6090)

http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin....;t=4098 (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=14;t=4098)

http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin....;t=4104 (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=14;t=4104)

...from a quick look.

[Shahed]

Thank you. I hope it's ok to keep this thread. I felt that a central thread would be useful.

[Stefan the Berserker]

Like old Languages? Already learned Latin but not enough?

Gothic Book (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0873522958/qid%3D1044796915/sr%3D2-3/ref%3Dsr%5Faps%5Fprod%5F3%5F1/302-1437840-5565635)

Here is an English-Language Gothic Course, this is the oldest germanic Laguage saved in Script. This represents the Gothic Language from 300 A.D. , this Way interresting for Germanic-Friends (like me) and also for Romans through Goths were highly regarded Soldiers in the Late Legions

"Demo-Version":

Priest: "Atta unsar thu in himinam weihnai namo thein..."

[The Scourge]

At the moment.

Hideyoshi ,by Mary Elizabeth Berry.
I usually don't go for books this scholarly(Maybe because I'm an idiot.),but this one's very readable.

If we can have novels as well,then I'm still waiting for Romance of the three Kingdoms ,from Amazon.com.

Got tons of the stuff thrown around the house ,so I'll have to post again later.

[Alrowan]

ill be able to add a swager to the list soon, one of my courses at university this semester deals with european history from 1350-1650, and one of the main things we are looking at is the evolution of warfare over this period... im already loving it and its only week 1

[Shahed]

Thanks guys http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Keep em coming. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif

[Crash]

"Warriors of the Steppe, a Military History of Central Asia, 500 BC to AD 1700" by Eric Hildinger

Excellent and short, quick reading. One of my all time favorites. I still re-read parts of it sometimes, for inspiration. Hildinger also has 2 other books that I haven't read yet:

"Swords Against the Senate, The Rise of the Roman Army and the Fall of the Republic"

A translation of "The Rise of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars, by Friar Giovanni Di Plano Carpini"

When I can tear myself away from the game, I'm going to read both of them.

[Crash]

Oops, I forgot the obvious one:

"On War" by Carl Von Clausewitz

It's the other classic, the European equivalent of "Art of War". Required reading at all military academies.

"The Book of the Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi

The samurai classic, must reading for all STW fans.

[Sjakihata]

Hagakure - a scientific book about japan culture and samurai

[Nowake]

I can't add too many, but one comes in my mind:


Il principe by Niccolo Machiavelli http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[frogbeastegg]

Let me look in my massive library. Some of these books I got out of my own interest, many others are required reading (and ownership) for my archaeology degree. No wonder I'm broke

Try Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at war. The book is well illustrated and very detailed, I've treasured my copy for years. This man is an authority on the Ancient world and his experimental archaeology is responsible for many discoveries, for example he is the man who recreated the Roman saddle and proved that Ancient cavalry could do more than chase routers.

Also worth a look is Richard Underwood's Anglo Saxon weapons and warfare. This is a very well written book, the author has a real passion for the subject and it shows.

Take a look at Egypt, Greece and Rome by Charles Freeman. It was written in part by some of my university lecturers and is required reading for my course, but this book is actually interesting It's well written, easy to understand (it explains all the foriegn language terms), has a lot of depth and contains a lot more than you might think. This book can be read for fun on a lazy Sunday and you will learn a lot from it.

The Archaeology of Athens by John M. Camp is an outstanding guide to Athens. It contains a lot of photos, maps and reconstructions which make it easy to create a mental map of the city. It starts right at the beginning of Athenian history and continues until the end of Roman rule. It gives specific histories of all the monuments and buildings as well as giving an overview of general Greek histry at the time.

If you can find an English copy of A history of Rome second edition by Le Glay, Voisin and Le Bohec you should snap it up immediately This book was originally in French but the English translation is fantastic. It is published in hard back on wonderful paper, this book will last for decades even under heavy usage. It's just shy of 600 large pages long but it contains just about everything you need to know about Rome, covering 1300 years from primitive Italy to the end of the empire. The book has much more than dates and facts, it also has extensive sections on politics, daily life, women, a guide to Greek and Roman writers, religion, the army, basically you name it it's in there I had to buy this book for my course but I would have snapped up a copy years earlier if I had known it existed. I got my copy from Amazon UK, it took them 6 weeks to get one and it cost £45 but it was well worth it, this is the best book on Rome I have ever read (and I've read hundreds ).

Have The Oxford classical dictionary, now on it's third edition. This monster weighs in at 1640 pages and is actually about 1.5KG in weight The price is nearly as hefty (£80 ), but most university libraries will have one if they teach classics etc. This is the ultimate reference to the Ancient world, if you want to look something up it will be in here (most of the time, I needed something on fortifications in Mycaneaen Greece and didn't find much http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif ), but it's not exactly a book to read for pleasure as it's way to heavy and very, very dry.

The Classical dictonaries companion volume The Oxford history of the Classical world is similarly good, heavy and expensive. Thankfully it only weighs 1KG and is 883 pages with illustrations. It's worth a read but once again it is a bit dry. The binding on my copy is also rather shoddy, it'll drop to bits in a few years and I take good care of my books.

A word of advice on Dark Age and Medieval books-stay away from Lloyd Laing His books are supposed to be perfect for degree level but I find most of them seem very simplistic and patronising. It doesn't help that he is the only lecturer I have who tells you to buy his own books Seriously, I was reading books like this when I was 11 and I found them rather simple then.

Osprey do a series of books on militery history focusing on specific subjects and periods. They are usually very good, if very expensive. They are interesting reads and the colour reconstructions are often sound (although I have doubts about Angus McBride). They have saved my behind in an essay or two, so I guess that says something.

My copy of Sun Tzu is by Shambala Dragon Editions, translated by Thomas Cleary. It's very readable, one of the better translations I've seen. It keeps the verses etc of the Chinese original, while being in very understandable English. It also has comments by other famous generals like Zhang Yu and Cao Cao which help to expand on the points and offer more interpritations for you to ponder on.

Chronicle of the Roman Emperors by Chris Scarre is a one stop reference for all the empeerors from Augustus to Valentinian III. It has reasonable detail on the Emperors and covers many ancient sources like Suetonius. I find it quite interesting to read on a lazy day.

(Ancient Egypt gets in the list because I like it, also the pyramids are in RTW so that gives me an excuse )

Chronicle of the Pharaohs is the Egyptian version of the above book. It is just as good, if not better as it serves as a handy reference to Egyptain chronolgy while I'm reading other books on Ancient Egypt.

The Oxford history of Ancient Egypt works the same as the Oxford history of the Classical world. It's just as good, heavy, interesting and expensive

A personal favourite of mine is The art of Ancient Egypt by Gay Robins. I've loved it ever since I found a battered copy mouldering away in a second hand book shop. It has everything you could ever wish to know about Egyptian art, it's lavishly illustrated and just generally wonderful.

For the hardcore Egypt: World of the Pharaohs contains quite literally everything. Its a massive outsize book that weights about 2.5KG, you really need a desk to put this one one It is full colour with photographs all the way through. If you like Ancient Egypt, this is for you.

On fiction.
Read Eiji Yoshikawa's Mushashi and Taiko, they are fantasic reads and really conjure up Samurai japan.

Lindsay Davis's Falco novels are mysteries set in Ancient Rome at the time of Vespasian. There have very good historical accuracy and are funny (if you've read my stories the humour is quite like that). They run in order so you should read them in order of publication. Start with The silver pigs. Lindsay also has a book called The course of honour, it's a life story of Caenis, a freed woman who was Vespasians mistress. It's not a tacty romance or anything like that, it's more like a biography of Caenis and Vespasian. Once again the accuracy is good.

Has everyone heard of Bernard Cornwall? Yes, good.

Anyway that's a small sample of my library, are you surprised I've run out of space and have books piled on the floor of my tiny study?

[Nowake]

Sounds familiar http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[deejayvee]

Quote[/b] (frogbeastegg @ July 26 2003,08:57)]Osprey do a series of books on militery history focusing on specific subjects and periods. They are usually very good, if very expensive. They are interesting reads and the colour reconstructions are often sound (although I have doubts about Angus McBride). They have saved my behind in an essay or two, so I guess that says something.
Nice selection frogbeastegg. Quite a few of those are in my library too.

With the Osprey books, why do you have doubts about Angus McBride? I personally can't comment on the accuracy of the colours, but I do know that he is much more interesting and talented than any of the other illustrators they use. "Warriors and Warlords - The Art of Angus McBride" is an excellent book displaying some of his best colour plates.

The thing with a lot of the Osprey books that I own and have read, is that a lot of things like clothing colour are often left to the artist's discretion due to the lack of historical/archeological evidence for the period. Remember, while the author can just omit any reference to something that is unknown, the illustrator has to draw it regardless.

[frogbeastegg]

Well, it's kind of hard to explain and there is nothing wrong with Angus as such. It's more a collection of tiny niggles that won't go away. I know that there are artists who are worse, as well as some who's work is just plain outdated (Ronald Embleton, the poor man died some time ago. His work was phenomonal in its day.)

I've done a bit of research into historical reconstruction drawing, so I've found out some of the basic pitfalls and techniques. I can't fault any of Ospreys illustrators on details like clothing colour. Angus is quite good in this respect, and he always include little details like cloak pins and belt buckles. He even gives his Romans white tunics, which is probably more correct than red but still rather rare in illustration. Unfortunately he very rarely provides close-ups of individual artefacts like sword hilts, so it can be a little hard to see these details. In some of his work (specifically the Soldiers of the English Civil War duo) he does do this, and to great effect. I just wish he would do it more often like the other artists, because its those details I'm looking for in the pictures and I prefer to see them then a dramatic scene which doesn't display the artefacts as well.

Angus seems to have illustrated at least a third of Ospreys total output All most every third book I look at his work. This raises two concerns. Firstly how does he research his work? He has work in all eras, in my library he goes from Ancient Egypt all the way to the English civil war. It seems like he will cover anything, unlike the other artists who stick to several periods only. I would like to know how he finds time to research all these different periods and civilisations in sufficient depth. It's possible that he reads an advance copy of the books manuscript to get basic information and then ask the author about specific details. This would be a flawed approach because the books do not contain enough information to make these reconstructions and the most basic rule of published historical work is never trust just one source, no matter how respected always get much more evidence. If the author is telling him what to do right down to the shoes people wear, then the books can be very vulnerable to abuse and becoming a mouthpiece for an authors specific (and sometimes strange) views. This would make these serious history books just as bad as 'Aliens made the pyramids' and other silly books based on one persons opinions. I don't think any of Ospreys authors would abuse their position like this, but if the safeguards are gone it becomes a very real possibility. Some famous authors have fallen down this dark path in the past (I will name no names, but for an example think along the lines of a highly respected Celtic art expert who wrote a world respected reference, only to reveal he hated Celtic art and had downplayed it's significance and sophistication.) If we assume he personally researches everything with only a little help from the author it would take about a month at the absolute least. How does he find time? They say 'Jack of all trades, master of none’; this applies to historical research too. The more periods you try to cover, the less you learn and the less evidence you find.

Secondly I have noticed a distinct variance in the quality of his work. Normally the first work an artist produces appears crude in comparison to his later work. In Angus' case this seems to be the other way around. To give an example Soldiers of the English Civil War (1) Infantry was first published in 1989. Its artwork is really good; it's detailed, clear and accurate. Republican Roman Army 200-104 BC was published in 1996 and its work it noticeably worse. It is less detailed, the colour seems a little rushed; it seems a little flatter somehow. That's not to say Republican Rome is bad, it just seems strange that it's not better than his earlier work. Some of his later work is up to his old standards, better even, although some is worse. Perhaps his workload is affecting his work? It is very possible that the poor man is overworked and is therefore less able to devote enough time to his work.

On a personal note I often think that there is something slightly off in the proportions of his people, its as though they are just a fraction too short or something. But as I said this is just a personal thing, no one else has noticed it and it doesn't affect the historical aspects of his work - and that's what I buy the books for.

So there you go. Like I said at the start there's nothing concrete or dramatic, just a series of niggling doubts. If Angus were to pop up in our forums and answer them I would be perfectly happy to have my doubts laid to rest. I think I'll take a look at 'Warriors and Warlords' if I can find a copy.

On a side note: Has anyone else seen the English medieval knight trio? I think these three are among the best Ospreys I've read so far. The text is very good and the pictures have plenty of those little close-ups on artefacts I mentioned earlier. Has anyone read the 'Gladiators' book? I've heard a lot of bad things about it; apparently it is very inaccurate and doesn't have much weight to it. Is this true, because I would like to read it if its good.

[deejayvee]

I too have noticed that Angus' quality does fluctuate a bit, but I don't think it's too bad.

I don't mean to defend Angus McBride (I'm sure he can do that perfectly well himself) it's just that a lot of your concerns are addressed in the Warriors & Warlords book. He acknowledges that parts may not be accurate, but without better information it is left to him to decide.

[Vanya]

GAH

And there's the universal classic, Vanya's own Imperial Arquebusier trilogy.

Vanya is not certain if they are still here to be found at the org though...

GAH

[Mount Suribachi]

Quote[/b] (frogbeastegg @ July 26 2003,14:57)]Has everyone heard of Bernard Cornwall? Yes, good.
Not me http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

And as no-one has mentioned it, I'll throw in J J Norwich's History of Byzantium trilogy, a fascinating read that covers 1100 years of history, including virtually every major event of that period in Eurasia & N Africa.