15 March 2019
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With dating on the subtitle, of 1200BC to 1302AD, makes it clear that the famous battles in question are in fact ones from the distant past, not recent events.
Author: BEATRICE HEUSER & ATHENA S LEOUSSI
Reviewed by: Duncan Evans
With dating on the subtitle, of 1200BC to 1302AD, makes it clear that the famous battles in question are in fact ones from the distant past, not recent events. It’s also a compendium of battles described by various writers, with the first and last chapters from the authors being scholarly discussions on depictions of famous battles, their after life, and how battle commemorations are used for political and civic purposes. The first of these is the very worst kind of pretentious navel-gazing, while the latter ropes in commentary on Brexit, but completely fails to understand the main reason for the vote to leave the EU. Wedged in the middle are the Siege of Troy, the Battle of Marathon, Thermopylai, wars of ancient Israelites, Teutoburg Forest, Hastings, Beziers 1209 and Courrai, the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302.
The result is the very worst kind of academic self-indulgence that is entirely unsuited to a mainstream audience. Truly awful and also the first volume of two.
• Pen & Sword
• 202 pages. Hardback. £25
As reviewed in The Armourer March 2019.
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