Being an avowed maven of the Great War I must admit that these books from Amber Books UK took me by surprise. I have spent the last twenty years collecting First War books, maps, and weapons but I had not encountered these items in the flesh until this past spring,. I do admit that I very much tend to shy away from "coffee table" books as they are usually collections of the same couple of hundred photos that have all been seen before, I found these while shopping at Half-Price Books in metro San Antonio (we have no such marvels here in Michigan) and only picked them up on account of their being on sale. Once I had looked inside I spent the next ten minutes looking for more.
The text is pretty middle of the road fare but the photos and illustrations are what made the sale. Page after page of crisp, clear, detailed photos, a good many that I had never seen before and many of the familiar ones were larger and clearer than I had ever found them. Maps, a goodly number in each book, and (for the most part) of decent quality. Illustrations, both period and modern, pepper the pages as well, although a few seem to have been added to fill in blank spots on a page (handgun illustrations, however interesting, appear apropos of nothing on many pages).
The titles, pictured above, were the ones I managed to find in the Half-Price Store, There are several more listed on Amber's website. If you are looking for a good basic grounding in the history of the Great War these would do nicely as a platform on which to build, if you are an old hand looking for new and different photos this will do quite well. All of the books that I own have good indexes and a decent bibliography and thus provide the reader with a handy way to look up facts as well as a good springboard for further research.
All in all (even at full price) these are an excellent value; Highly Recommended .
Gallipoli & The Middle East 1914-1918
Author Edward J. Erikson
Artists, many and credited
ISBN 978-1-908273-88-8
The Eastern Front 1914-1918
Author Michael S Neiburg & David Jordan
Artists many and credited
ISBN 978-1-908273-87-1
Naval Warfare 1914-1918
Author Tim Benbow
Artists many and credited
ISBN 978-1-908273-89-5
I believe Edward J Erikson is a scholar of the Ottoman Army. Wrote a couple of (expensive) books on the subject from Westview....
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