Multi-period-tastic fulltime online group denizen, armchair historian, Slingshot Editor and occasional wargamer (when he has time!) Nik Gaukroger shares with us a listing of Ancient & Military history "must reads".
After playing with plastic toy soldiers like most boys of the time I was introduced to "proper" wargaming by a school friend who had a load of Minifigs 25mm English Civil war figures. That was about 30 years ago now..
Current favorites are the large, and ever increasing, collection of 15 Nik's 10 favorite books are listed below. The links go directly to the UK or US Amazon pages where you can find out more about each one.
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Amazon UK | Amazon US | |
Adrian Goldsworthy -
"The Complete Roman Army".
Damned fine introduction to the Roman army from the republic through the empire period, although he is strongest on the late republic and early empire. As with all of Goldsworthy's books it is very readable and contains a lot of valuable information. He is one of the real experts on the subject around at the moment and a really nice bloke as well. Wargames WAB for those who are interested in such facts
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The Face of Battle by John Keegan
Seminal work on the experience of the ordinary soldier during a battle. Investigates the human side of warfare and makes the soldiers real and not the automata that wargamers figures are.
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Matthew
Strickland & Robert Hardy - "The Great Warbow". An extensive work on the history of the "longbow" with which England won so many battles in the late medieval period. Lots of interesting data from the Mary Rose is included along with data on other "longbows" dating back to around 3000BC! The majority of the work is by Strickland which means Hardy's sometimes rose tinted view of the weapon is well and truly kept in check.
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Hugh Kennedy -
"The Prophet and the age of the Caliphs".
Good readable history of the Arab conquest and the states that succeeded it in the Middle East.
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GJ.F.
Verbruggen - "The Art of Warfare in Western Europe in the Middle Ages". Quite a weighty piece this and is translated from the authors native language so a few oddities crop up from time to time. It focuses on the role of infantry in the period and is a good corrective to the all too common view that cavalry rules the battlefield. |
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Guy Halsall -
"Warfare and Society in the Barbarian west, 450 - 900". Does what it says on the tin and discusses warfare in Europe in the so called Dark Ages. Packed full of information and not scared to say where the gaps are in our knowledge - and there are many. Although very much an academic Halsall is quite readable, although not a light read :-)
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Thomas Burns
- "Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome".
Another great
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Hans van Wees
- "Greek Warfare, Myths and Realities". A
fresh look at the evolution of the classical Greek hoplite phalanx.
Van Wees proposes that the phalanx we all envisage did not appear on
the battlefield until
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Anne Curry -
"Agincourt, A New History".
Study of the famous battle and the preceding
campaign by probably the leading expert on Plantagenet France.
Indicates that the English army was probably larger than usually
stated and that the French one was a lot smaller that it is usually
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Karl Friday -
"Samurai Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan". A
good read and a great introduction to the development of the famous
Samurai warrior. As most gamers ideas of the Samurai are actually
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Can't find a book (or a price you want to pay!) on your local Amazon? Try searching Abe Books - worldwide |
If you wish to submit a book list and answer the Big Three Questions please feel free to submit them to me to be considered for inclusion via this link Maroon Me Now Please Mr Madaxeman! and I will try and publish as many as I can (although I do have a real job to do as well, so it may take some time!). |