What are you currently reading ?

[Poggle]

Re-reading The Personal Memoirs of General Grant.

[Malbork]

Finished Atilla.  Now reading trilogy by Ross Leckie about Hannibal, Scipio and Carthage. Very enjoyable

Excellent books. Much better IMHO than the ones by Ben Kane. Had to stop about a quarter of the way into the first one.

[republic of tolworth]

Re-reading HG Wells War of the worlds. Getting a bit caught up on martian wars on kickstarter 

[Hertsblue]

Just finished The Austro-Prussian War of 1866: The Opening Battles by a certain John Drewienkiewicz and Andrew Brentnall and acquired at Salute last month. Highly informative; almost made me want to go off tramping around the Czech Republic (I did say "almost"!).

Can't wait for the Kônigggrätz follow-up! 

[Techno]

Right chaps.

Recommendations please.

Seeing as I've been doing lots of conversions for a number of you from periods I know absolutely bog all about.....I believe most of these are 19th C.....Which to me means 'Napoleonic'..(Yes....I know..sorry, I'm a historical ignoramus, which I truly regret)....Which I really have enjoyed doing.
I'm beginning to fully understand why folk get so engrossed in this 'period'.

It's time for me to take the plunge and actually read something now.....Not just listen to audio books.

I want to give myself some sort of overview on the history of this period, so that I don't feel such an ignorant twerp.
I'm not so interested in the minutiae of the uniforms at this point. I just want to start to understand the time-lines, the politics, what was going on etc.

I've been doing a 'trawl' for various possibilities that I might invest in.

So far....
I've come up with........

"Warfare in the 19thC (European History in Perspective)" by David Gates.
"Battle Zones - Warfare in the 16th to 19th centuries" by Mark Bergin.
"Warfare and Society in Europe 1792-1914, Warfare and History" by Geoffry Wavro.

Any of these been read by any of you ?.....Are they fairly comprehensive ?

They don't have to be perfect....I really want to get into the 'history' in a 'rough' sense.

Any others you'd say give a brief but useful 'history' ?

Cheers - Phil.

[OldenBUA]

For a general overview of a period, I've found the Osprey 'Essential histories' series to be useful. They give you the time-line, major events and backgrounds of a period. And they provide a 'further reading' section with selected titles. Maybe worth a shot? That said, I think the usefulness may vary a bit from title to title, depending on the author involved. And I haven't seen any of their titles on the Napoleonic period, myself.

But I'm sure more knowledgable members will chime in shortly.

[Techno]

Many thanks 'O'.

That/those might well be worth a shot.
Like I say.....I just really want something that will give me a 'time line' etc....as you've mentioned....
No point in me diving in with anything that's too comprehensive....I know I'd get lost far too quickly.

I really do want to give myself 'some sort of education' regarding the history of what was 'going on' .....even if it's fairly annotated.
Cheers - Phil.

[mart678]

Hi Phil

Will drop of the couple of Essential Histories I have for you to read won't tell you which ones that will be a suprise??

Martin

[Techno]

That'll be brilliant mate !
See you soon ! 
Cheers - Phil.

[howayman]

Re-reading the Tide at Sunrise, the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905.
  AND Pendraken do some figures.
                                                   next project ?


                                                          Possibly

[fsn]

Just finished Adam Zamoyski's "Warsaw 1920".

Fascinating! Machine guns in horse drawn carriages, cavalry battles, sweeping movements and rolling routs. Cossacks and Polish lancers, Bolshevicks and citizen militia, FT17's and armoured cars.

Must just go and check the Pendraken inter-war ranges ...

[Chad]

Just finished 'Persian Fire'. Excellent work on the Persian
Invasions of Greece by Darius and Xerxes and the
Historical background to the rise of Persia.

Chad

Ps. Weather here in Crete great

[Steve J]

Techno,
I have the concise version of these, edited by John Terraine, from the Cannonade at Valmy through to the end of the Second World War. Highly recommended for an overview of important battles as well as the 'gaps' in between. Worth checking out IMHO.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decisive-Battles-Western-World-earliest/dp/0304358673/ref=pd_sim_b_2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decisive-Battles-Western-World-Waterloo/dp/0304358681
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decisive-Battles-Western-World-3/dp/030435869X/ref=pd_sim_b_1

As for my reading, a mix of 'Sky Men' by Robert Kershaw, along with DBA 2.2 and Black Powder rulebook.

[Techno]

Many thanks Steve.
I'll check those out !!
(What has surprised me are the prices that folk are asking for some of the "Essential Histories" from Osprey !
£60+ for one particular one......Normal price from Osprey around £16...But it's currently out of stock.....Eeeek !!)
Cheers - Phil......Currently listening to "Firewall" by Andy McNab.....Having just finished "Long time coming" by Robert Goddard.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Phil - wait a while, Osprey are "kindeling" most of there stuff, and they also seem to be doing a Print on Demand for older titles.

IanS