Customer Reviews

Battles:: A Concise Dictionary

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While like another commenter stated, this IS a CONCISE dictionary of battles from A to Z. I wish it were larger and went into more depth like the order of battle, tactics, terrain locations, etc.

One thing that would have made this book a total WINNER would have been to have COLOR pictures of how the battles were won (or lost). Heck, even some line drawings would have helped.

Ian Hogg is usually "on target" with details such as this, but he came up a little low off of the "ten ring" on this one.

Still, I do recommend it, simply becasue it does have ALL major battles from various wars at one's fingertips.

And besides, who can lug around the history of the world under their arms these days when someone ask you that weird war question?

Not bad for the money....shop for a used copy to get the best deal.

B.G.

Ian Hogg is an old hand at the military history game. He mostly writes about artillery and other weapons systems, but he obviously has a reasonable command of the generalities of warfare throughout the ages, because he shows it here. This is a collection of short descriptions of battles from all eras of history. It's a bit tilted towards the British and World War 2, but that's to be expected: the author's British, and the Big One is his specialty.

There is a larger problem, though. Since the articles are short, you don't learn much, because there are so few, you're not that likely to find what you're looking for. A historian who isn't normally interested in military history might find this moderately useful: the author will give you a summary of the battle of the Somme or whatever, in a couple of paragraphs. Anyone that interested in the field is going to find things that are left out (from the Battle of Kadesh to numerous engagements in later times) there are just too many things to list in this short of a book. There is a lot of information here, don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining about what's in the book, but what isn't. If you're interested in military history, this is a good starting place as a reference, but don't count on it by itself.

Battles: A Concise Dictionary is a useful reference work that outlines and summarizes over 500 battles from ancient times to the 1990s. For each entry, we are provided a brief description of the events in the battle, its participants, and the battle's significance. The book also includes five pages of battle maps, a chronology of weapons development, a chronology of wars and battles, and a fifteen-page overview of notable military commanders. Quotes on military strategy and the experience of war are interspersed throughout the book. Students and teachers of military, world, ancient, medieval, or European history will find this book quite helpful.

This dictionary contains factual inaccuracies and so while the format is good I can't recommend it.