Description

E. P. Dutton, 1972. Hardcover, 128 pp. First American Edition. Very good in very good dust jacket. Red cloth covered boards with gold lettering on spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges of covers. Binding tight. Previous owner's circular stamp on front paste-down. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and tears and light creasing along edges. light overall scuffing to jacket as well. Price clipped. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. Color and black and white illustrations, maps. [from front jacket flap] Ten great battles of world history are recreated in this unique book, by eight expert military historians. Illustrated with specially commissioned full-color photographs of realistic military miniatures reenacting each battle, the book is both an impressive and fascinating study of the art of war, and a guide for war-game enthusiasts in setting up their own battle tables. "Assembled in these pages," Aram Bakshian, Jr, writes in his Foreword, "are highlights of more than two millennia of military history: battles that changed history, for better or for worse. The Editor, Brigadier Peter Young, is a man equally deft with the pen or the sword. He knows both the grim business and the colorful game of war, and he has assembled a team of knowledgeable, articulate writers who have brought alive its splendour, its squalor, and its undeniable fascination." Originally devised to train military staffs, war-gaming today is a rapidly growing hobby, and war-game layouts are becoming increasingly complex and refined. This is also true of the art of casting and painting fine military miniatures. With their accurately modeled equipment, ranging from ancient shields and crossbows to modern mortars and tanks, these model soldiers, prized by collectors, make it possible to create amazingly lifelike dioramas of historic battle scenes. Over 20,000 model soldiers, guns, tanks and other weapons had to be assembled to make this book. The model armies were photographed on terrain specially designed and constructed for the book. In its choice of battles, which are listed on the jacket front, the volume ranges widely through history, from Thermopylae in 480 B.C. to El Alamein in 1942. It includes ancient, medieval, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century, Napoleonic and modern warfare. From the American Revolution, the battle of Saratoga has been chosen, and from the Civil War, Gettysburg. The events leading up to each battle, and the careers and personalities of the opposing commanders are presented as well. Battle maps chart the progress of the battles in close detail. Whether for the reader of history, the war-game enthusiast, or the military collector, here is an engrossing portrayal of mankind's most dazzling, most dangerous game: The War Game, as it has been fought and played over the centuries.