My lastest book purchases

[ShadesWolf]

To celebrate me changing my job, I've been shopping and brought some new books. Its been a couple of months since my last purchases, so its time for a few new books.

So what did I buy......

Otterburn 1388 - Osprey
The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell
The perfect King (The life of Edward III) - Ian Mortimer
Atlas of Military History - Collins

Do any of you else have these books, if so what do you think of them ?

[Justiciar]

The perfect King (The life of Edward III) - Ian Mortimer

I've ordered that one too.. don't know when it'll arrive though. I also bought one about the Godwin dynasty. Should be good stuff. The Pale Horseman was alright. I'm not a big fan of Cornwell's, but he could be worse.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

How much did all that cost?

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

You going to get Flodden Shades?

[ShadesWolf]

How much did all that cost?

About £47
So not to bad.
Ive also just ordered Dukes of Burgundy: John the Fearless
Which is the last one from the series. I have the other three and they are excellent. Richard Vaughan is some writer.

You going to get Flodden Shades?

Im not sure yet. Its a little out of my time period. If I did I would get Bannockburn and Stirling first. As those are the only ones from the period I dont have.

[Orda Khan]

Can you tell me a little more about that Atlas of Military History? My interest in the Mongol Empire was inspired by a similar sounding book, The Illustrated History of the World or something like that (obviously not the same book since I was a mere lad at the time). It gave a break down of the important civilisations and empires and I was fascinated by the scale of the Mongol Empire. Sadly I lost that book during a house move. I stumbled upon a book that I kick myself daily for not buying and as I can not remember the title, I kick myself again. It was something like The Changing Face of Asia, and had loads of maps covering a huge time frame

......Orda

[ShadesWolf]

ISBN 0007166397
Paperback 192 pages (May 4, 2004)
Publisher: Collins
Language: English

A brand-new history of the world's principal military developments and campaigns, from the Greeks and Romans to the Vietnam War and beyond, illustrated with state of the art mapping. From the dawn of the very first civilizations, people have fought for the control of resources and territory. The Collins Atlas of Military History takes a look at all the principal military developments which have made these struggles ever more lethal and at the major military campaigns throughout the ages. From the Egyptians and Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh, to the recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and the Gulf, the most innovative military tactics, new weaponry, the key commanders and the decisive battles are all discussed and analysed.

If you pop along to Amazon Orda Khan it has this new feature which allows you to have a look at a few pages from the book to get an idea what you can expect.

The books is very limited on what it covers in ancient and medieval but it has some exellent sections on the 19th century covering crimea, Franco-austrian, franco-prussian, US civil war, russo- turkish, colonial wars and the russo-japanese wars.

The final section of 80 pages takes us from the first world war right up to April 2003

[Avicenna]

The Russo-Japanese war of 1904 can be described in a very short amount of writing. A few Russian defeats, and then annihilation of the fleet. There goes Korea and Port Arthur.

Do you know any good books on Roman times? I've tried to look for some, but in the history section of the last bookstore I've been in, there are whole shelves stuffed with books on the Napoleonic wars and the world wars, but not a single book on Romans. Even the Greeks had a book or two!

[AwesomeArcher]

The Russo-Japanese war of 1904 can be described in a very short amount of writing. A few Russian defeats, and then annihilation of the fleet. There goes Korea and Port Arthur.

Do you know any good books on Roman times? I've tried to look for some, but in the history section of the last bookstore I've been in, there are whole shelves stuffed with books on the Napoleonic wars and the world wars, but not a single book on Romans. Even the Greeks had a book or two!

yes, there arent an abundance of books on roman history, although i did read a good one on the Roman army a while back. I am now reading the book 1776, which is about the american revolution. I just got done reading Hope and Honour. It is a great book about a halocaust survivior who become a special forces general.

[Atilius]

Do you know any good books on Roman times?

Polybius' Histories is a very enjoyable read - I have a Penguin Classics edition in paperback entitled "The Rise of the Roman Empire" which keeps the focus on Rome.

Livy is also good. I don't actually have a physical copy, but you can find him online at the Perseus project. I've also downloaded a text version from the Project Gutenberg, but Gutenberg doesn't have translations of all of the surviving books of his history for some reason.

More modern books I'd recommend:

Cicero - Anthony Everitt
Caesar - Christian Meier
Rubicon - Tom Holland

Unfortunately, these three all deal with the same time period, but all are excellent and all describe Roman life during the late Republic. I find Holland's style irritating but the book has much that I hadn't read elsewhere.

Adrian Goldsworthy's The Punic Wars is very good.

For the Empire I don't have much to recommend. I haven't finished Gibbon, though he's been good so far. I have biographies of Claudius, Vespasian, and Livia (Mrs. Augustus) which tended to be on the dry side.

[ShadesWolf]

Do you know any good books on Roman times? I've tried to look for some, but in the history section of the last bookstore I've been in, there are whole shelves stuffed with books on the Napoleonic wars and the world wars, but not a single book on Romans. Even the Greeks had a book or two!

In my local book shops we have whole sections based on the ancient world.
Have a look for an Ottakar or waterstones ( or the equivalent in your country)

Worst come to the worst Amazon. Most of my ancient books have come via Amazon because they are cheaper.

[Geoffrey S]

Anyone got good books to suggest on the development of the Americas? I'm most interested in the British-French wars and the war for independence (preferably in seperate books), but something on early colonisation in North and South America and interaction with the natives would also be good.

Right now, I'm reading History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani.

[Strike For The South]

Im going on tuesday.

[Marshal Murat]

Cornwell always does a very nice job of military history. I don't favor first person ,with his last kingdom novels, but I enjoyed it all the same.

[ShadesWolf]

Anyone got good books to suggest on the development of the Americas? I'm most interested in the British-French wars and the war for independence (preferably in seperate books), but something on early colonisation in North and South America and interaction with the natives would also be good.

Right now, I'm reading History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani.

A good book on the period is 'Warpaths - Invasion of North America' by Ian K Steele
ISBN 0195082230

[Geoffrey S]

Cheers; next time I'm near a bookshop or library I'll seek it out.

[The Stranger]

i recommend my latest book The 70 most important battles. its a book that adresses 70 battles from the greek period till the 2nd gulf war. it is a real cool book with lots of cool pics and interesting facts. its written in a very enjoyable style and i like it alot.

ill look up the writers for people that are interested

[Avicenna]

When I went to England and had a look at Waterstone's, the major one near Charing Cross with three whole floors, I found three (or was it two?) books on ancient times, none of them being about Romans. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed. The whole shelf was full of Napoleon, WWI, WWII and the Cold War.