Purkiss’ history of the ECW was something of a slog for me to get through. The general idea as given is admirable: to look at the English Civil War as something that involved people, and see how various people were[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged history
This book gets a few ratings of ‘biography’, and… yes, actually, this is a fairly decent biography of Fernão de Magalhães, or Ferdinand Magellan, as it goes into his background and life as a whole. However, it is primarily about[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I was a little skeptical of a Men-at-Arms sub-series dedicated only to the Roman Centurion, but it does make some real sense. Mostly, they’re the lowest rank that is going to regularly come to the attention of prominent people, so[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
As of February, 1775, Massachusetts was declared to be in a state of rebellion to the British government. Just under a year and a half later, the Thirteen Colonies jointly declared themselves independent. This was an event that was by[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The first volume of Rick Atkinson’s Revolution Trilogy shows that there’s quite a lot I don’t know about the Revolutionary War. Like a lot of people, I have a good grasp of the outline, and know a few more things,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Romans are not generally known for a well-developed cavalry arm, but here, like everywhere else, they looked at what worked for everyone else, and borrowed or imitated what they liked. The second volume is still not out (nearly two[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In premise, this is more of a meditation on history than a ‘strict’ history book. Zamoyski had some thoughts on nationalism, and faith, and wrote this book to explore his thoughts. The general theme is that as the church lost[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Being American, history classes didn’t go much into the British Raj. I remember one book talking about the process of expanding British influence that ended with the Empire getting control of the entire subcontinent. But this was a one-page overview;[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I know I’ve heard of the Volga Bulgars before, but certainly, the Volga is not the area I commonly think of when discussing the Bulgars. So, this is a good book for broadening my horizons right there. The Bulgars are[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Greco-Persian Wars are famous thanks to some very good accounts written not long after they happened (primarily The Histories), but still get boiled down to a few famous battles. The Battle of Plataea isn’t one of those, and feels[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…