Customer Reviews

A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages: Volume One: 378-1278 AD (Greenhill Military Paperbacks)

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These two volumes present an enormous amount of information and analysis, well-organized and well-written. Working directly from primary sources, Sir Charles Oman has reconstructed innumerable details and outlines of this extremely poorly-documented period. It is not a novel, to be read once, but a reference, to be gone back to again and again. (In fact, it's mildly irritating that Oman refers throughout the first volume to a battle descibed only on the last pages.) The author appears to be on a first-name basis with all the chroniclers with whom he has to deal, a depth of knowledge which is necessary to decide which of several contradictory accounts to accept. It's like a series of long discussions with a master scholar, over port in his rooms in College. He does prefer you to be something of a scholar yourself: footnotes in Latin, Greek, French, and whatnot are not translated (annoying, but not a major problem). The subject has moved on greatly since the time these were published, and some of Oman's conclusions and ideas are now known to be wrong, but these works still define the Medieval art of war.

but not much else. It is a great work to tell about organization, armor, and weapons. It is surprisingly easy reading for the time period and considering the genius of the man who wrote. If you want to know about the political intrigues, you must go elsewhere though.

Oman actually starts out before 378 giving comment to the Roman military sysem. I lost track of a lot of the details but really enjoyed the book. With his detail of the battles he paints a good picture. He also gives some connecting information as to why the battles were taking place. The politics, powers and so on that were taking place. This book gave me a new appreciation for the Byzantines. Any one interested in the crusades would also do well to understand how the Byzantines fought and how the middle east looked when the crusaders showed up. Since everyone talks about crusades and the holy-land now days it is good to understand just what those words mean. This book offers more than great battles that should be put to the screen.