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Title: The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present by R. Ernest Dupuy, Trevor N. Dupuy, Harpercollins ISBN: 0-06-270056-1 Publisher: Harper Resource Pub. Date: 01 April, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $80.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Single-Volume Military History Book Ever
Comment: I originally bought this book in 1978 for $25. I only replaced it with the new addition in the year 2001. This book is the definitive one-volume work on military history---nothing else can compare to it. All the battles are there and there are many helpful diagrams. The opposing forces and casualties are listed for almost every battle. Included in the book is an excellent bibliography---if you read every work there you should come out with a thoughrough understanding of military history. I haven't, even after 22 years. If you are a wargamer this is a book you will use frequently. I also recommend it to college students and even graduate students majoring in history. The book is well worth the cost. All the great military leaders are highlighted at the beginning of each chapter. I also liked the author's "Comments" section which is usually given after very important battles and events. I read parts of this book on an almost daily basis and still find out new things. This is the one book I would want on a desert island.
Rating: 5
Summary: An amazing work
Comment: This book is one of the best additions to my bookshelf in a long time. It is humongous, but instead of tracing every important event in human history as so many of these types of books do, it traces the evolution of military and warfare, it records almost every single battle ever (a few are excluded for space reasons), it has pictures and all kinds of cross-referencing indexes at the back.
This book is divided into chapters for time periods, and the chapters are divided into sections that talk about different areas/nations. Each section starts with an overview of the people, their history, their tactics and strategies, and just generally adds some background. Then the authors give an extremely detailed and referenced timeline of military events.
Of course, in a work this size, there will be errors. In the introduction to this edition, the author acknowledges that, and apologizes. He notes that often there are inconsistencies from one history to the next, so while researching he had to pick which was most likely to use. Still, this is an extremely helpful, thorough, well-written and illustrated book that no one should be without.
And you can get some good excercise while reading it; it's somewhere around ten pounds.
Rating: 5
Summary: Pages worn from use
Comment: This book makes superb companion reading to other history, or stands alone as a fun browser.
A couple of criticisms:
I have found a couple of instances in which the authors accepted their source material's claims uncritically and without reference. Numbers used by Herodotus, for example, are passed on in the book in a couple of places whereas these numbers are highly disputed among military historians and certainly are wrong. To Dupuy and Dupuy's great credit, they often give fantastic context and this is a very minor problem.
The bibliography cites works in English, German and Spanish. I presume them to read original works in French as well. Consequently, their treatment of East Asian military history is much weaker than their treatment of European military history. Nonetheless, I have not found another encyclopedia on East Asian military history that rivals this work.
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Title: The encyclopedia of military history from 3500 B.C. to the present by Richard Ernest Dupuy ISBN: 0060111399 Publisher: Harper & Row Pub. Date: 1977 |
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Title: An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of over 1560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present by David Eggenberger ISBN: 0486249131 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 August, 1985 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by John Keegan ISBN: 0375400532 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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