20th-Century Arms and Armor [Hardcover]

Stephen Bull (Author), Harry G. Summers (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Checkmark Books (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816033498
• ISBN-13: 978-0816033492
• Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr Stephen Bull is a museum curator and university external examiner who straddles the divide between the 'serious' and what most of the world actually wants to read. Interested in history from an early age he studied at the University of Wales, and worked at the BBC and National Army Museum in London. Later he became Curator of Military History and Archaeology for Lancashire County Museums, where he curated a number of exhibitions as well as completing an MBA and was elected to the Institute for Archaeologists. His work has been published on both sides of the Atlantic and translated into a variety of languages. Last year he was listed for the Portico Prize for Literature.

Stephen has made many TV and radio appearances, and at time of writing is working with Impossible Pictures on a new Channel 4 and Canadian Second World War series. Having been a lecturer or examiner with several North West universities he is now a consultant to the University of Oxford, where he is assisting in the creation of a European database to document the individual experience of the First World War through archives, photographs, and objects. The photograph shows Stephen (right) with Lorenz Andraes at the German National Library, 'DNB', Frankfurt.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent overview, but..., October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 20th-Century Arms and Armor (Hardcover)

... some of the captions are wrong. For instance: Page 116, a picture that they claim are Isreali troops firing Galil rifles -- they aren't Galils, they're Stoners. And in the "Law, Crime, and Terror" section are photos of Police Officers from the Salem Police Department -- except they're from Salem Oregon NOT Salem Massachusetts as the captions claim. Beyond the caption errors, it's a pretty good overview and introduction to modern weapons, with plenty of pictures of the weapons in use around the world and through history -- from WWI to the Persian Gulf War and modern Yugoslavia. It's not perfect, and it doesn't have a lot of technical detail -- for that, I'd suggest some of the works of Ian Hogg, Edward Ezell, and others.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written, this book has it all., June 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 20th-Century Arms and Armor (Hardcover)

If you ever wanted a book about infantry weapons of the 20th century, this is *the* book for you. It has everything, from the first world war all the way to the nineties.

Sections cover the main wars, and every main weapon of the era is extensively discussed. Great pictures (apart from one 2-page black-and-white pic where you can see the computer missing a line... :) Anyway - it has it all. even *armor*!

One bad thing: the last few chapters, about guns in the police, and sport rifles. Who needs these? I mean, the police I can understand. It's even quite interesting. But the sporting weapons are absolutely not needed in a book like this - i always skip it anyway.