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Title: Alexander 334-323 Bc: Conquest of the Persian Empire (Campaign Series 7) by John Warry ISBN: 1-85532-110-6 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the Best
Comment: Alexander 334-323 BC: Conquest of the Persian Empire (Campaign Series 7) by John Warry is one of the best of the Osprey Campaign Series. Unlike most to the other books, Alexander does not focus on a given battle or a series of battles, but on the almost decade long conquest of Persia and neighboring countries, such as parts of India. If one is looking for an overview of Alexander's conquests then there is probably no better book. The battles are described in such a manner as to acquaint the reader with the ins and outs and the maps are beyond excellent.
Warry does a fine job in explaining how 50,000 infantry and cavalry troops were able to defeat an empire with troops several times their number. Focusing on the the tactical brilliance of Alexander and the innovations in battle field technologies, the book explains why Alexander was victorious. It is written in a readable fashion and is a good place to start for anyone who is interested in the conquests of Alexander.
Rating: 5
Summary: A bit bias
Comment: It is a very interesting book. But it is written from the Greeks point of view about the Persians. For examole, it is well accepted by modern historians that the Persian army was not 600,000 men and yet the author fails to mention this and just repeats the old fictional account that was passed on from the past. However, I recommend this book for anyone interested on ancient history and Alexander the great. But it is a bit bias.
Rating: 5
Summary: Like a Discovery/History Channel TV special in a book!
Comment: Don't let the size of this book fool you---the point of reading is to understand and this is the best book I've read that puts Alexander the Great's campaigns together in a way that military professionals and casual readers can understand. Every war form we use today has its antecedent in the past--there is a lot to learn from the past if we take the time to reflect on it.
Warry shows some remarkable things--that Alexander's Army of 40,000 defeated a Persian Army of 600,000 and did it with almost no casualties because in ancient war shields defeated arrows and spears. The Macedonian phalanx--a formation of men with shields linked together would close on the enemy at foot speed led by Parmenio, while Alexander surged ahead with his cavalry and collapsed his enemy while the phalanx held the enemy. Think of how Commanders combined their arms in the film, Braveheart to see how Alexander waited until the time was right before placing himself and his Cavalry force at the critical spot to smash his enemy's structure. It was when enemy cohesion and formations collapsed---when they threw down their shields and ran---that the high casualties we usually associate with 1st Generation muscle-powered combat come from. That we are having too many casualties on the modern, automatic weapons fire swept battlefield, means its high time we re-examine the individual Soldier shield to recreate a phalanx capability today.
When Alexander confronted the walled island city of Tyre/Sidon he built siege engines on both ships and rolled across a causeway of land he built by throwing stones into the sea as foretold in the Bible in Ezekiel 26. Warry shows the siege in amazing detailed, color illustrations that enlighten without boring the reader as a dry "scholarly" book tends to do. He then marched across the known world at amazing march speeds--Warry describes the weaponry/equipment in great deatil--you'll notice the macedonians wore a "himation" which could be used both as a sleeping blanket and as a coat--there was no wasted weight being carried on the Soldier's back--a lesson we could stand to relearn today.
Reading Warry's book with its long-range and close-up maps and illustrations from ancient engravings and modern depictions is like an inter-active computer simulation of the battle---you can see both the "big" picture and the "little" picture, in short this book is a masterpiece. We need to re-evaluate our views that for a book to be "accurate" it has to be visually dull, especially in the computer age we live in where we can with hyperlinks go to an entire world of background information from all walks of life on any given subject.
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Title: Cannae 216 Bc: Hannibal Smashes Rome's Army (Campaign Series, No 36) by Mark Healy ISBN: 1855324709 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Wars of Alexander the Great by Waldemar Heckel ISBN: 1841764736 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: August, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome by John Gibson Warry ISBN: 0806127945 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Army of Alexander the Great (Men at Arms Series, 148) by Nick Sekunda, Nicholas V. Sekunda ISBN: 0850455391 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: September, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B. C.: A Historical Biography by Peter Green ISBN: 0520071662 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: October, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.44 |
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