steve@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Nuchia) (06/05/90)
From: nuchat!steve@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Nuchia) Just finished reading _Be_Your_Own_Napoleon_, by William Seymour, Bramhall House, 1988. Originally published as _Your's_to_Reason_Why_, St. Martin's Press, 1982. It was a gift, and I probably would never have bought it without a recommendation -- the premise is a little silly, and way overblown by the publisher's flacks. I found it a very useful introduction to land campaign strategy and tactics, an area in which I was previously essentially clueless. Recommended for anyone else who is clueless about those areas. Seymour sets up the situation in prose that is readable but occasionally flawed by assuming too much knowledge on the part of the reader. He then describes the options that were available to one of the commanders, and then which decision was taken, why, what the outcome was, and any controversy over it. This cycle repeats several times for each battle, and the sections are set off by typographical conventions. The maps accompanying the text, often repeated to show the several options, are sometimes tough to puzzle out. Usuable but not pleasant to use. Battles or campaigns covered: Hastings, Crecy and Agincourt campaigns of the Hundred Years War, The (English) Third Civil War, Saratoga campaign og the American Revolution, Waterloo, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg of the American Civil War, Gaza in WWI, and Anzio in WWII. -- Steve Nuchia South Coast Computing Services (713) 964-2462 "To learn which questions are unanswerable, and _not_to_answer_them; this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness." Ursula LeGuin, _The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness_