In 1507, new world maps were something of a booming business. The Portuguese had been discovering more about Africa for decades, the Spanish had recently found a number of islands, and a larger landmass across the Atlantic, and the English[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for History
Part of the Norton History of Modern Europe series, this is a good introductory history of a fairly turbulent period written in 1970. I’ll note that the series was apparently reorganized later, as there is a 1979 version of the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Quite some time ago, there was a photo on BGG of a bookshelf with the poster’s references for a game on the Battle of Lepanto (I have no idea how the game is coming along), and Braudel’s two volume work[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Part two of Osprey’s survey of European Medieval Tactics is much like the first volume. Unfortunately, while I felt the first volume started strong and finished somewhat weaker, all of this volume is at the level of the later portions[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
As usual, Osprey’s Campaign series does an excellent job of presenting the background and people involved in the battle in question. In this case, the later stages of the Wars of the Roses, and Richard III’s reign are covered very[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In the introduction of Stephen Turnbull’s The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts, he points out, “the figure of the lone samurai, whose popularity is never in doubt throughout history, stands in direct contrast to what are perceived as the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Ospery has been doing a bunch of ‘Battle Tactics’ books recently. I think it would have been neat if they’d made them their own line, instead of just part of the Elite series. I decided to start off with the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Norwich’s A History of Venice is a good and thorough work covering from the initial colonization of the islands of the Rialto to the city’s fall to Napoleon (roughly 420 to 1797), but I found it a bit disappointing. However,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Late last year, I picked up Empires of the Silk Road, as it looked very interesting. And it is, I highly recommend it as an extremely well done history of a part of the world that most people just don’t[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Lost to the West is a very good readable brief history of the Byzantine Empire, and I recommend it as such to anyone who would like to familiarize themselves with the subject. However, the subtitle “The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…