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Title: Encyclopedia of Warrior Peoples and Fighting Groups by Paul K. Davis, Allen Lee Hamilton ISBN: 0-87436-961-4 Publisher: ABC-CLIO Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $75.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (3 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: One of the best I have ever read!!!
Comment: This book is fantastic! I learned more in two days with this book than an entire semester in a college classroom. I love the writing. Some of the pieces read like novels. I do wish there were more illustrations, but one can't have everything. And I agree with the review by Clint from Texas that the guy from Turtle Island or where ever definitely has an agenda. ... Whoever reads this, listen to me, "this book belongs in your collection." I just hope there is a volume two in the works.

Rating: 5
Summary: Totally different opinion
Comment: After reading the first review from Turtle Island, I wonder if he is reading the same book that I am. After some reflection, it occurs to me that the reviewer has much more of an issue with his own limited perceptions than with this book. I found WARRIOR PEOPLES to be informative, educational, VERY useful as a research tool, and amazingly well-written. It would be interesting to see what actual credentials the Turtle Island reviewer possesses; he certainly cites no concrete examples, but instead engages in unfounded and obviously biased criticisms. I give WARRIOR PEOPLES five stars; any military historian or history buff would do well to have this book in their libraries.

Rating: 1
Summary: There's no such thing as "warrior peoples "
Comment: This book probably deserves 2-3 stars for the quantity of information it contains, but the quality is quite another matter. Throwing warrior peoples in with fighting groups, e.g. the Green Berets or the Long Range Desert Group from World War Two, simply lumps together units which have little or no connection (beyond merely being warriors) except possibly in the mind of the authors. The result is a work which has no conceptual coherence apart from whatever interest the authors may stimulate in their audience.

Even taking this work on its own terms, there are many omissions among "warrior peoples;" only the best-known are included, such as Gurkhas in the Indian or British Army, or Zulus from South Africa. Others who have ben labeled in this fashion, such as the Ila of Zambia or the Ngoni of Malawi and Mozambique, simply aren't here. But the Sikhs are included, despite their assigned role in British India as police, not soldiers. So it is conceived in vague, even misleading terms.

The grossest flaw, however, is that "warrior peoples" simply do not exist, except in the colonial mindset that pigeonholed and then drafted/enlisted them. The term is presumably updated from "warrior races," which is archaic to say the least. But no peoples are naturally more suited to be warriors than others; their history or circumstances may impel them or compel them to combat, but not heredity. People may resemble a warrior race if one looks only at the warriors, but this slights the full range of human endeavor pursued by all human groups.

There are also some factual errors which tend to limit the book's value for reference, and the deceptively long bibliography omits key works which might aid readers (and the authors) in critically analyzing their preconceptions. Cf. Cynthia Enloe's book "Ethnic Soldiers," and Anthony Kirk-Greene's article "Damnosa Hereditas," in Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Though this book has been recommended by reviewers for high-school students and other readers, it may actually interfere with their understanding by encouraging them to think in terms of ethnic and racial stereotypes. For those willing to think critically, rather than stereotypically, about warfare's relation to forms of group identity, this book is simply not satisfactory.