Customer Reviews

USMC: A Complete History (U.S. Military Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved it. USMC is the ultimate Marine coffee table book for Marines, Marine Corps historians, and Marine Corps buffs. It can be used as a tool to settle arguments or--when the recalcitrant refuse to be convinced--as a formidable weapon!

An excellent source of information for both the history buff and the Marine who wants to know about his/her Corps.

Very good book,well written the seller was great and fast on the shipping. Highly recommended thank you.

As a new volunteer docent at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, I bought a few books to bring me up to speed on Marine Corps history so as to do my job better. The subtitle of this book makes it look like a good overall history, ready to be supplemented by particular studies. But that's not what it is at all.
First of all, I should mention the size of this book. It's absolutely enormous. Thirteen inches by 9.5 by 2 inches. It weights 9 pounds, 3.5 ounces. You'd think it would be chock full of useful information, but it's not. There are long chronologies, year by year, with numerous events listed, but with no useful information attached to the events. Also there is no principle of organization beyond the dates: insignificant items are listed along with world-shaking ones. It's hard to see how anyone could find this material useful.
Then why give it as many as three stars, rather than one? The reason is that the photographs and paintings are both numerous and first-rate. This is essentially a picture book and an excellent one. Not a bad coffee-table book either, if you have a particularly strong coffee table.

...Chronology. Great coffee table book. If you're looking for down and dirty USMC history, this is not the book. If you're looking for names and dates, buy it. Great Reference material.

I am very pleased with this purchase and it was offered truthfully by the seller as being "like new" and I would not hesitate to buy from this seller again. I had previously written a negative review but I was remiss in not reading that the book was "like new" but it had inscriptions on 2 blank pages. I rectified this by carefully removing those 2 pages, rendering the book "like new" to the person for whom it was bought.
My apologies to the seller for the negative review. Please inform the seller of this new review.
Charles A. Masso
CM1953@aol.com
PS: Please acknowledge that you have revieved this letter to me at CM1953@aol.com

Don't buy this book expecting the definitive history of the United States Marine corps. Think of it more as reference book. Every single significant event that a date can be attributed to is listed, in that sense the book is great. But it does not give the reader a true sense of "Esprit de Corps"

With 600+ pages, this is a fat book. It must way a ton, but based on the first few pages, it looks real good. It is descriptive, intelligent, and long. I would never have to go to the library again. Ill just look at this book, but only if its for reports that im doing. I only do reports on war stuff, since my other teachers dont give us reports.