Customer Reviews

Who's Who in Military History: From 1453 to the Present Day (Who's Who Series)

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From Abbas (Persian conqueror), to Zhukov (World War II Marshal of the Soviet Union), the authors have listed all the significant military figures, not only the famous combat commanders, but also the great organizers of victories, thinkers and theorists, and military technocrats, and not forgetting the heroes, "symbols of daring and romance".
Each entry is succinct but comprehensive, and the authors are refreshingly not reluctant to evaluate the historical reputations of the great.
Very readable, and with helpful glossary and maps, this work will find a place on the shelf of the most experienced reader of military history, as well as the more casual reader.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

This review is for the 2nd edition (1987) and straddles the line between popular history and a serious reference book. The bestselling military historian John Keegan is the main selling point and he writes with his usual clarity and exposition. This work, however, is not a true reference book because it does not list under each entry all the relevant battles with dates; nor is there a bibliography; for example under " Robert E. Lee". Military leaders from antiquity such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar are not covered because the starting point is 1453 (the fall of Constantinople by cannons and gunpowder).

The entries read more like a compressed magazine article, but short on facts and penetrating evaluation when compared to The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography by Trevor Dupuy. Keegan's book has fewer entries, (a few hundred compared to 3,000) but an illustration on every second page. The serious student would prefer the Dupuy book. The Keegan book is for a wider audience.

Whenever I am writing about the history of a lost ship I find myself drawn into the wider elements of the overall story. To give two examples; With many of the vessels I study having been victims of WW2, I have read the biography of Karl Doenitz and, having written a scuba diving guide to Malta, I also closely followed the involvement of Napoloen in 1798 and those of De La Valette - the eternal hero of Malta who died in 1568.

Having, therefore, now discovered the existence of a single book containing the biographical details of, supposedly, all the prominent military figures from history (i.e. 1450 to the present day), I quickly settled down to read the accounts of several who came readily to my mind. I was left a little disappointed.

My overriding concern was that De La Valette (after whom Valetta is named) is not included at all - and that omission suggests there will be other significant absentees. Another shortcoming is that the entry for the man who succeeded Hitler as Fuhrer and immediately sued for peace (Doenitz - architect of the U Boat war and a man, incidentally, I greatly admire) is so short as to contain nothing more than some brief notes which anyone might have conjured up from memory. Whereas others get far more coverage, there is clearly a lack of detail for far too many entries.

Perhaps more importantly, I found the absence of the specific dates of birth and death of each subject covered to be a considerable failing. Yes, the years (e.g. 1861-1928) are included but this book is supposed to be far more detailed than that!

Having said that, I write as someone who does not know which might be the next person from history to cross my desk and having a readily available source of collective biographies at best (or résumés at least!) is most useful.

NM