Battlescapes: A Photographic Testament to 2000 years of Conflict (General Military) [Hardcover]

Alfred Buellesbach (Author), Marcus Cowper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2009 | Series: General Military

Walking through the battlefields of Europe today can be a bewildering experience--not for what you see, but for what is now vanished. In his new book, German photographer Alfred Buellesbach takes readers on a photographic journey through 34 of Europe's most legendary battlefields. A hauntingly beautiful grain field in Austria was once the site of the largest battle ever between knights in armor. A seemingly pristine forest marks the spot where Americans fought the Germans in the bloody Battle of the Bulge. And sheep now graze on the grass-covered trenches of the Somme where more than 1.5 million soldiers lost their lives.

Three-hundred stunningly reproduced photographs, together with text provided by long-time Osprey editor, Marcus Cowper, tell a moving story that will stir armchair generals and travelers alike. For each battle, full-bleed panoramic battlescape photos are supplemented with candid shots of the surrounding area, including present-day cemeteries and memorials.

Battlescapes is a timelessly apt tribute to the landscapes which will forever be remembered for that brief moment in time when they were consumed by war.

The 34 battlefields pictured:
Alesia (September, 52 BC); Poitiers (October 732); Hastings (October 1066); Marchfeld (August 1278); Agincourt (October 1415); Morat (June 1476); Nieuwpoort (July 1600); Lützen (November 1632); Fehrbellin (June 1675); Blenheim (August 1704); Gadebusch (December 1712); Leuthen (December 1757); Valmy (September 1792); Austerlitz (December 1805); Jena and Auerstedt (October 1806); Leipzig (October 1813); Waterloo (June 1815); Solferino (June 1859); Vienna (September 1863); Dybbol (April 1864); Königgrätz (July 1866); Metz (September-October 1870); Sedan (September 1870); Ypres (1914-1918); Dolomites (1915-1918); Isonzo (June 1915-November 1917); Verdun (February-December 1916); The Somme (July-November 1916); Vimy Ridge (April 1917); Normandy (June 1944); Operation Market Garden (September 1944); Hürtgen Forest (September 1944-February 1945); Ardennes (December 1944-January 1945); Seelow Heights (April-May 1945)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Through magnificent color photographs, this coffee-table book takes readers to 34 European battlefields as they appear today. Most of these locations hosted famous conflicts, e.g., Hastings, Agincourt, Blenheim, Waterloo, and Normandy. Others, such as Marchfield (1278) in what is now Austria, are not as well known. Travelers may have driven by some of these sites unknowingly, while others bear scars and extensive memorials and cemeteries. Narrator Cowper, military history editor at Osprey, provides ample background information to accompany the dominant images by Buellesbach. An alternative approach to military history, richer on mood than historical detail, this will appeal to military history enthusiasts, landscape photography buffs, and some readers considering future travels." -Library Journal (October 2009)

"This striking book marries pithy descriptions of key European battles throughout history with lush contemporary panoramic photographs of the sites of those conflicts. The battlescapes-from Hastings to Austerlitz, Waterloo to Hurtgen Forest-beckon readers to step into the frame and imagine themselves in the battle's midst, the eerily serene scenes transformed by war." -Military History Quarterly

"Viewing the panoramic landscape photos of battle sites like Murten (1476), Vienna (1683), Austerlitz (1805), and Waterloo (1815) it’s difficult to fathom how such hauntingly beautiful places were once the scene of bloody, vicious conflicts. With few notable exceptions—Verdun (1916), for example—the scars to the landscape have long since disappeared, and cemeteries and memorials (if any) provide the only reminder of the terrible events that once took place at these now pristine locales." - Jason Zasky, Failure Magazine

"Alfred Buellesbach and Marcus Cowper's Battlescapes: A Photographic Testament to 2,000 Year of Conflict will reach into general-interest as well as military libraries, gathering over 200 images of major world battlefields taken by a leading landscape photographer and presented in an oversized collection of panoramas. More than just a photo album, though, the accompanying history of battles and events is invaluable." -The Bookwatch (January 2010)

"These photographs are of the battlefields as they are today and brought to us with superlative images that cover nearly two feet from one side of the page to the other. In amongst the images of the battlefield are those of the memorials and cemeteries that dot the landscape; especially in the battles of the last century. Each entry is accompanied by a short history of the event and its significance to history. It is an outstanding book on how these places are today and one that I can easily recommend to you." -Scott Van Aken, Modeling Madness / modelingmadness.com (February 2010)

"The basic, straightforward nature of these contemporary landscapes lend to the viewer’s impulse to imagine the horrors that once took place on these grounds. Time has caused the signs of previous battles to vanish; only man-made monuments or fortresses suggest the specifications. One is encouraged to conceptualize the location’s historical events. These beautiful, untouched landscapes were at one point blood stained and littered with bodies. The contrast of the present beauty with previous ugliness makes for an interesting allusion to the overall cycles of history." - Tara Sellios, Boston Photography Focus (January 2010)

About the Author

Alfred Buellesbach, M.A., was born in Asbach, Westerwald, Germany in 1961. He studied photography at Lette-Verein, Berlin and journalism, geography and political science at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 1993 he has been co-owner, managing director and photographer of VISUM photo agency, Hamburg. He is a member of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie. In his photography, he is attracted most to landscapes that show not just nature but have a deeper cultural meaning. He first made the first connection between history and landscape in the high altitude of the Italian Dolomites when he joined the Paths of Peace 25 years ago. Here, volunteers of the Dolomitenfreunde, coming from many nations, established an open-air-museum in the high alpine battlefield of the Monte Piano, establishing new hiking trails that linked not just historic military objects but also people in that famous vacation area. His website may be found at www.buellesbach.com.

Marcus Cowper studied Medieval history at the universities of Manchester and Birmingham. He specialized in High and Late Medieval Church history, and received his postgraduate degree for a study on the impact of heresy in the locality. He has edited Osprey military history books for over seven years and is one of the editors responsible for the creation of the Fortress series. The author lives in Oxford, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing; First Printing edition (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846034140
• ISBN-13: 978-1846034145
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars too many battles, not enough scapes, March 4, 2010

By 

Jesse F. Paxton "jpax10" (Norwalk, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battlescapes: A Photographic Testament to 2000 years of Conflict (General Military) (Hardcover)

Not quite a thousand words worth. The authors tried to fit too many battles into this book, limiting themselves to too few pictures of each, without much perspective in the photos and very little description. I am writing a story based on the battle at Alesia, and visited France to view the area. unfortunately, I had only a few hours there -- not enough to get a lot of pictures -- and had hoped that this book would fill in some gaps. There are only two photos, one of the current town there, and one long distance from a field. Almost no description of the battle or the photos is given. And the others are, I'm afraid, the same. Some are limited to a photo of a field , with nothing to put them in their perspective of where in the photo the battle occured. Nice scenery, but not much else.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars DISAPPOINTING, July 31, 2010

By 

Gary G. Hess "CAPTAINDAD" (LARGO,FLORIDA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Battlescapes: A Photographic Testament to 2000 years of Conflict (General Military) (Hardcover)

THIS BOOK IS RELEVANT ONLY TO THOSE WHO ARE FOND OF EUROPEAN HISTORY. THIS BOOK WAS A GIFT SO I CAN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT WASTING MONEY ON IT. TO FANS OF MORE RECENT MILITARY HISTORY, WHERE AMERICA WAS INVOLVED, THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR YOU. ALL OF THE BATTLES, SOME OF WHICH ARE VERY OBSCURE, OCCURRED ON THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT. THEREFORE BATTLES SUCH AS THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, WORLD WARII PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS AND SIGNIFICANT OTHERS ARE NOT EVEN MENTIONED.THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF OLD BATTLEFIELDS COULD BE OF ANY EMPTY FIELD ANYWHERE INDISTINGUISHABLE. ONLY THOSE PHOTOS OF MONUMENTS GIVE ANY CLARITY AS TO PLACE AND TIME. ANOTHER IRRITATING FACET OF THIS BOOK IS THE SIZE AND CLARITY OF THE PRINT USED. THE PHOTO CAPTIONS IN PARTICULAR ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO READ FOR AN OLDER READER(65) SUCH AS MYSELF. UNLESS YOU ARE A EUROPHILE I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautfiul photos, but it's not a book I'd return to, January 8, 2010

By 

Michael A. Duvernois (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battlescapes: A Photographic Testament to 2000 years of Conflict (General Military) (Hardcover)

Took this out from the library and am glad, despite being quite impressed with the photos, that I didn't purchase it. It's a book that I wouldn't be likely to look at a second time. It's a selection of battlefields from 52BCE through 1945 with a little about the battle, a few small pictures of details, and then one or more panoramic photos of the battlefield. Well, most of the old battlefields are European countryside, with a few more urban sites seen as well. And there are a few battle monuments, and the occasional (World War I mostly) shell crater left in place.

There is so much more that could be done with this idea, nothing from the recent wars in former Yugoslavia to contrast the old fields, nothing from outside of Western Europe, nothing of the massacres rather than battles, nothing marking naval actions, nothing showing the importance of the topography. Adding in some of those might have made for a book I'd be more interested in returning to.

That all said, this is a five star review, it's a beautiful book that very well captures the following motif: "Current photos of a selection of old Western European battle grounds."