The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: Yorktown to the Seven Days: vol. 2 edited by William J. Miller

The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: Yorktown to the Seven Days: vol. 2 edited by William J. Miller is the second in a three volume series of essays on this campaign of the Civil War. I've reviewed the first volume previously. There are six essays. Topics include Confederate artillery, Union logistics, the behavior of Union Quartermaster General M. C. Meigs and extracts from the diary of a Confederate staff officer. There isn't really an overarching theme.

Unlike in the first volume the essays in this one do take advantage of modern secondary sources but there is still quite a bit of original archival research. There are footnotes instead of endnotes. They provide extra information not just citations. Perhaps a little more specialized than what I'm used to but still well worth it. The Civil War is one of those conflicts that I know I should do more in-depth study on.

Recommended!

The British Empire 1558-1995 by T.O. Lloyd

The British Empire 1558-1995 by T.O. Lloyd is a highly readable extensively researched history of the British Empire. This is from a larger series on world history topics (Short Oxford History of the Modern World). It is presumably aimed towards the college market.

The narrative tries to weave together the various parts of the empire as well as provide a wider perspective on the political entity as a whole. This is basically political and economic history with the occasional social or military comment thrown in. Considering the length of time covered it's always a risk that the reader will be bombarded with a list of names and dates without much context but this is not the case in this. I actually learned quite a bit. The book concludes with a bibliographic essay that occasionally gives snarky comments about further reading.

Highly recommended!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

This looks like fun! I've put a button over in the sidebar.

The Bush Rebels: A Personal Account of Black Revolt in Africa by Barbara Cornwall

The Bush Rebels: A Personal Account of Black Revolt in Africa by Barbara Cornwall is the author's description of her time with the guerrillas in Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau) and Mozambique. These conflicts are components of the Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974).

Cornwall is definitely a fellow traveler if not an outright supporter of the gorilla's actions. She takes pains to claim that the guerrillas weren't Marxists. I'm not sure what exactly that says about her own politics. Occasionally the book is unintentionally funny, she didn't seem to realize that moving through a jungle could be rather difficult and unpleasant. Not much here from a military history perspective but still interesting as a relic of the last days of colonialism in Africa.

Mildly recommended.

Kitchener: "Road to Omdurman" and "Savior of the Realm" by John Pollock

Kitchener: "Road to Omdurman" and "Savior of the Realm" by John Pollock is a very positive biography of this controversial figure in British military history. This combineds the two volumes published separately into a single one. So the book is pretty long.

Pollock describes Kitchener's youth including his mother's death. He claims this explains Kitchener's lack of relationships in later life. His military career is described from his experience as a surveyor in the Middle East through the campaign in the Sudan. There's also coverage of the Boer War. I was surprised to see his time in India covered so expensively in particular the dual control controversy. The first world war is only about 20% of the book.

My biggest problem is the tone of the book. The entire thing reads as a case for the defense. Kitchener: never did anything wrong. Now I understand from the introduction that the author managed to get a lot of access to previously unused material from the family so perhaps that helps explain it. This lack of objectivity takes away from a very interesting story.

Recommended although I wonder if there's a rebuttal somewhere.

2nd Military history reading challenge review post

Here is the 2nd review post for my Military history reading challenge. Just put a direct link to your review in the below box. Please include your handle and the title of the book. If you're not participating what are you waiting for? There's plenty of time between now and November 11 to read three books on military history. For more information see the original post.

Not Canada Post's fault

For the last couple of weeks I've been complaining to anyone that will listen that Canada Post lost a package of mine. It contained my third book for the Southern reading challenge so I was particularly annoyed. Two days ago I received an e-mail out of the blue asking for more money for shipping. It turns out that the package had never been shipped in the first place. Apparently they didn't try putting it in the envelope until 3 1/2 weeks after it had been purchased. This hasn't stopped them from listing its status as "shipped". So apologies to Canada Post I'll never criticize you again umm, at least for a couple months.

Century of Conflict: The struggle between the French and British in colonial America by Joseph Lister Rutledge

Century of Conflict: The struggle between the French and British in colonial America by Joseph Lister Rutledge this is the second volume in a multi-volume history of Canada published in the 1950s and 60s. Strangely there is a 20 year overlap with the first volume. I find Rutledge's argument that he included it because it was interesting a rather weak justification.

The book starts with King William's War 1689 – 1697 and concludes with the fall of new France to the British. The narrative is firmly political and economic. There are occasional nods to religious history as well as social history topics. The racism that I had noticed in the first volume doesn't seem to be as evident in this one which is a comfort. As mentioned with the earlier volume no bibliography or list of sources which I find irritating.

Recommended although it's probably been superseded in the specialized literature.

Soviet Airland Battle Tactics by William P. Baxter

Soviet Airland Battle Tactics by William P. Baxter was originally published in 1986. This book provides western military officers a look inside Soviet decision-making, tactics and strategy. The title is somewhat of a misnomer since the Soviets didn't have the same sort of view of combined arms that Western militaries do.

The book starts out with a discussion of the way that decisions were made on questions of military science. After this there is material on different types of units, command and control, logistics and medical. I'm not too sure how well the material holds up when compared with the access given after the collapse of the Soviet Union. A lot of what is here does pass the smell test.

Recommended.

1st Military history reading challenge review post

Here is the 1st review post for my Military history reading challenge. Just put a direct link to your review in the below box. Please include your handle and the title of the book. If you're not participating what are you waiting for? There's plenty of time between now and November 11 to read three books on military history. For more information see the original post.

The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC - AD 2000 by Julia Lovell

The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC - AD 2000 by Julia Lovell tries to do two different things. First it is a history of the various fortifications that have tried to defend the northern Chinese border for the last 3000 years. The second is to describe the metaphorical wall separating China from their neighbors and the West.

The book is quite good at doing the second but not so good at the first. There are descriptions of wall building as well as some material on design however besides mentioning that the walls were breached that's about it for any sort of tactical analysis. We are told at least 20 times that walls are useless militarily this gets rather repetitive after a while. Luckily the history of Chinese exclusivity is quite interesting and provides some nice insights into the Chinese character. A concluding section on Internet censorship seems rather tacked on.

Recommended as a history of China not of fortifications.

Best Blogging Friend Award

Jessica tagged me with the Best Blogging Friend Award. I'm not going to post the graphic if that international conglomerate wants some advertising they can pay me. The rules are:

1. Only five people are allowed to receive the award.
2. Four of them must be followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

My 5 are:

1. Spittin' Venom
2. Maggie Reads
3. TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog
4. JZ's Books and Stuff
5. WWII and other Book Reviews NEW

Quotation [occasional],

It was misery wrapped in despair rolled in broken glass and shoved down my throat by a talentless writer who broke many narrative promises she made to her readers and should never write another word unless it is on a bathroom wall in Guam.
- from Ari's Amazon review of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Amazon picks up Abebooks

The book blogs are all in a tizzy over the announcement that Amazon is taking over Abebooks. Apparently the websites will continue to function separately although I wouldn't be surprised if Abebooks listings were appearing on Amazon and vice a versa.

Used book dealers who aren't exactly the most cheerful of people to begin with are naturally enraged. Their irritation with Abebooks is only tempered by their disgust with Amazon. This doesn't stop some of them from listing on both however.

LibraryThing which is 40% owned by Abebooks has posted a statement saying that this doesn't change anything. I do hope that is the case. Only time will tell.

All and all for myself I don't think the sky is falling. If Amazon is too abusive to their cellars or customers, the free market being what it is someone will find a way to exploit that. As long as I don't have to change my over 350 affiliate links I'll be happy..

The Battle of Aachen by Irving Werstein

The Battle of Aachen by Irving Werstein is a very short book on a forgotten battle of the second world war. Aachen was the first town within Germany that the Americans captured. Werstein's book contains about as much text as the average Osprey campaign title although, there is only the occasional map. The Americans had to seize several important terrain features before assaulting the town. First with artillery then with infantry. The German force inside surrendered at that point. I found the book to be much too short. The narrative itself is pretty good. There is a bibliography of sources and order of battle. Since this is the only book length treatment of this, I've been able to come across I would have to say it was worth while if a little disappointing.

Mildly recommended.