Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (Wordsworth Military Library) [Paperback]

A. L. Rowse (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wordsworth Military Library | Publication Date: July 1998

The Wordsworth Military Library covers the breadth of military history, including studies of individual leaders and accounts of major campaigns and great conflicts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions (July 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853266914
• ISBN-13: 978-1853266911
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,788,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased account of Wars Of The Roses, October 18, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (Wordsworth Military Library) (Paperback)

There have been many books written on the English 15th century, some good, some bad, and some, like Mr Roswe's here, completely one-sided. The book is dedicated to one of the author's friends, whose ancestors fought in the conflicts, obviously on the Lancastrian side. Rowse makes all Lancastrians/Tudors out to be noble, pious godsends, and all the Yorkists to be devious, unworthy, decadent cads. Even more ridiculous, Rowse appears to have used Shakespeare's cycles of plays as his "fact" base! Can that possibly be topped? Why yes, as there is even a chapter in this book dedicated to launching cheap insults at anyone who doesn't follow his narrow-minded, bigoted point of view!! "History" books like this one should not be taken lightly though, as they can be very dangerous. And one more thing, this doesn't make me a revisionist, it makes me a tradiotionalist! The real revisionists are the ones who altered history from the 16th century on. Strong reccomendation to avoid this book at all costs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Written, July 22, 2010

By 

Matthew Fisher - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (Wordsworth Military Library) (Paperback)

I disagree with the claims that the book is well written. The bias in the book has already been covered so I'll stick to the various basic rules of writing the author breaks. For instance, he consistently uses phrases in Latin or French and then does not explain what they mean. This is a large no-no for any writer. The next problem isn't as large if you know the history of the period, but newcomers will find it incredibly irritating. Mr. Rowse consistently likens the situation he is discussing with another time period or person and then leaves it at that. This wouldn't be as bad if he described it more, but the entire description of a situation may simply be its likeness to someone else's with no explanation of who they are. Lastly, the book often jumps around in time periods which is normally fine. In this book however, the jumping around is not recognized by the author until several paragraphs into it. So you may be reading about an event and the author continues it as a narrative until you suddenly realize that the date he gives for this part is 5 years before the last one given, with no indication until that point that what he was discussing took place before the previous information of the same topic. Overall the book is more of a frustrating read than a well written book.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rescuing Shakespeare's Histories From Revisionism, November 30, 2000

By 

Cindy Chopoidalo (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (Wordsworth Military Library) (Paperback)

A lively, detailed, and unapologetically traditionalist interpretation of the background of Shakespeare's history plays, by a respected Shakespearean scholar and historian. This book is an ideal introduction to the period for both history students and readers of the history plays; it includes, in addition to detailed accounts of the principal figures and events of the war, an examination of literary treatments (including Shakespeare's). Revisionists may be put off by Rowse's staunch defence of the Shakespearean view of the war, but traditionalists will enjoy it a lot. I found this book extremely helpful for my own studies of the War of the Roses and Shakespeare's treatment of it.