The fourth book of the excellent Hundred Years War series by Jonathan Sumption picks up in 1400, with a visit by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II to Paris. This echoes the start of the first book with the funeral procession of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged history
R.F. Delderfield is mostly known for fiction, but this book shows he was quite good at popular non-history as well (his fiction was mostly historical, so the two do go together). In this case, he’s looking at Napoleon from after[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Bryant’s third book of the Napoleonic era starts with Wellington in the Peninsula in front of Badajoz, while Napoleon faces the Sixth Coalition in Germany. This is very much English-centric history, so the focus is entirely on the Spanish front.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Gill’s third book has Wagram and Znaim as the subtitle, and these battles are indeed important to the volume. However, we finally get a proper recounting of events elsewhere (other than Italy, which was covered previously, though the sequel to[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Marc Morris returns to Dark Ages England with a ‘prequel’ of sorts to The Norman Conquest. This time, he tackles the entire period from Saxons and others legendarily being invited to help defend Britain to the end of Anglo-Saxon rule[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Book two of John Gill’s continues straight on from the first volume, with the Austrian army in strategic disarray after Eggmühl and covers up to the end of the Battle of Aspern-Essling on May 22, 1809. Unlike the previous book,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Julian the Apostate is known for his disastrous defeat by the Sassanids in 363. d’Amato and Frediani go back six years to show Julian’s very successful campaign in Gaul. This is a typical Osprey Campaign book with its conventional format,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The third book of Sumption’s history of The Hundred Years War continues the excellent job of the first two. This one is less “sexy” than the others as none of the famous battles fall in the thirty year period of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I picked up this history of the state of Virginia mostly because of curiosity about the Colonial era. There’s lots of political cross-currents going on as the Colonies move towards rebellion and independence, and providing true scope to these just[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I really have to wonder at the level of obsession that makes someone write so many words on one campaign, and so few on anything else. But, Gill’s obsession is our gain, as his books are worthwhile additions to the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…