Dictionary of Wars [Hardcover]

George Childs Kohn (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 1579582044 | ISBN-13: 978-1579582043 | Edition: 2nd Revised edition

Dictionary of Wars, highly praised in its first edition (1986), has now been published in a completely revised, updated, and expanded 2nd Edition.

The Dictionary provides summaries of all notable wars from earliest recorded history to the present day. It affords the general reader and student with quick, useful, and accurate information - the who, where, when, what, why and how on the more than 1,800 recorded wars in human history from 2000 BC to the present. Completely updated, the Second Edition includes an additional 70 entries - on such major events as the Gulf War, the invasions of Panama and Haiti, and the Bosnian crisis.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up—Aiming to present "clear, essential, and accurate historical information on major and minor wars, revolts, revolutions, rebellions, uprisings, invasions and insurrections," the third edition of this well-reviewed reference source (the second edition was published in 1999) contains some additions and other changes that reflect the upsurge of international and domestic terrorism and violence. About 50 of the 1850 entries have been modified. Each alphabetical section begins with a full-page black-and-white painting or drawing depicting an event or artifact covered in that section. Entries include the dates of events and a brief summary of their causes, effects, and consequences. The straightforward writing style emphasizes basic facts rather than arguments justifying or opposing each conflict. This, along with the occasional cross-references and helpful and complete general and geographic indexes, makes the encyclopedia accessible to most students. However, the work understates many of the genocidal campaigns and terrorist attacks that have taken place in history. For example, the Holocaust is only mentioned in one sentence in the entry on World War II, and the slaughter of two million Cambodians by Pol Pot's regime is deeply embedded in "Kampuchean Civil War of 1978–1998." Not a necessary purchase for libraries that have an earlier edition.—Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Plenty of new conflicts have occurred since the second edition of this dictionary appeared in 1999, not only the war in Iraq but the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Chechen Civil War of 1999-2002, the Macedonian Civil War of 2001, and the ongoing Palestinian uprising, just to name a few. Entries, 50 of them new or extensively revised, briefly describe more than 1,800 wars over a period of more than 4,000 years. In addition to the general index, a "Geographical Index" provides useful points of access. Though not as comprehensive as the Encyclopedia of Wars (Facts On File, 2005) or International Encyclopedia of Military History (Routledge, 2006), this is now the most current among the several single-volume reference works on war. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 650 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2nd Revised edition edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579582044
• ISBN-13: 978-1579582043
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,909,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very handy reference., August 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Dictionary of Wars (Hardcover)

Covers more than 1,700 "global conflicts, civil wars,
mutinies, punitive expeditions, undeclared wars,
rebellions, and revolutions".

The great and famous wars are treated in admirably concise
and readable style, but the main interest is the
smaller and more obscure conflicts, for which you
would need a shelf of books otherwise.

From the tangled and confusing animosities of the
Balkans, to the many Turko-Persian Wars, numerous
Roman Civil Wars, and Canadian Rebellions, to our
own Vietnam War (interestingly treated as another,
if larger, installment in fighting going back over
a thousand years), every significant war is covered,
briefly but comprehensively, with the political
aspects covered and main players given their due
(or blame).

This book will find use by the general reader of
military history, as well as militaria collectors
and other interested in sorting out the conflicts.

(The numerical rating above is a default setting
within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not
employ numerical ratings.)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best history book, May 17, 2000

By 

bee guy (Volcano, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wars, Dictionary Of, Revised Edition (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic book. Practically every war of any kind is included (within the limits of historical information). Since most of the history of the world changes due to wars, it's basically the history of the world in one volume. Re the comment on dates by Mr. Clark: come on, no researcher worth his or her salt is going to use a book like this for a reference. This is for the layperson who wants a concise history, and it delivers very well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2,000 Wars over 4,000 Years in 621 Pages Plux Indexes, February 6, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dictionary of Wars (Hardcover)

Now in its third edition with a double handfull of new wars added, you could easily get the impression that warfare is the natural state of mankind with peace being only a few short interludes before the killing starts again.

This book covers about 2,000 wars spread over about 4,000 years and covered in 621 pages. That means that each war can only get a short amount of space. All of World War II gets covered in about 5 pages. As such this is an excellent reference when you need to look up some reference to an unknown war such as the Perak War or the Damascene War. It's usually enough to let you know where things fit into history.

I can help but have just a couple of complaints. There is a Geographical Index, and a General Index. I'd like to also see an index by time line. Further there are some references in places that could stand a little more explanation. For instance the closing sentence in the writeup on the Peninsular War says (in part) that it 'detonated revolutions throughout Latin America.' That would be a good place to put in the names of the revolutions it was talking about.

All in all, my complaints are minor. This is a magnificant work with an incredible amount of information.