Sunday 25 July 2010

My 18C Books


Here is my list of 18C books. My main interest is SYW, chiefly Prussia, Austria and Russia.

The Army Of Frederick The Great - Christopher Duffy. [Excellent - the 'must have' Prussia book.]
The Army Of Maria Theresa - Christopher Duffy. [Excellent - the 'must have' Austria book.]
Russia's Military Way To The West - Christopher Duffy. [Excellent - the 'must have' Russia book.]
Prussia's Glory - Christopher Duffy. [Excellent - covers a lot not in The Army Of Frederick...]
Frederick the Great on The Art of War - translated by J. Luvaas. [From the man himself, I need say no more!]
The Wars of Frederick the Great - Dennis E. Showalter. [A very good military history.]
The War of the Austrian Succession - Reed Browning. [Excellent.]
Frederick the Great - Alan Palmer. [Biog.]
Frederick the Great - Nancy Mitford. [Not read. BTW, contrary to the popular belief that all the Mitford girls were devout fascists, Nancy was vehemently anti-fascist and denounced Mosley in satirical print].
The Military Experience in the Age of Reason - Christopher Duffy. [Good.]
Nothing But My Sword - Sam Coull. [Biog of James Keith.]
Die Infanterie-Regimenter Friedrich des Grossen 1756 - 1763 - Gunter Dorn & Joachim Engelmann [German text, beautiful uniform and flag prints. A gift from Steve S. following a re-fight of Chotusitz].
Die Cavallerie-Regimenter Friedrich des Grossen 1756 - 1763 - Gunter Dorn & Joachim Engelmann [German text, beautiful uniform and flag prints. A gift from Steve S. following a re-fight of Chotusitz].
Die Schlachten Friedrichs des Grossen - Gunter Dorn & Joachim Engelmann [German text, beautiful prints of the actions, great battle maps. A gift from Steve S. following a re-fight of Chotusitz].
Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns 1713 - 1786 - W. Oppenheim. [Interresting little book.]
Anatomy of Victory - Brent Nosworthy. [Evolution of tactics - I like this book a lot.]
Peter the Great - R. K. Massie. [Biog]
Marlborough As Military Commander - David Chandler. [Excellent read.]
Crucible of War - Fred Anderson. [A big volume history of Britain's Empire building.]
Wolfe - Stuart Ried. [Biog.]
The Road to Colloden - D. Preston. [Covers the subject well enough.]
Battle for Empire - Tom Pocock. [British Empire building.]
Empires Collide The French and Indian War 1754 - 63 - Published by Osprey. [New and not read.]
Redcoats and Rebels - C. Hibbert. [AWI history - not read.]
The Seas of the Mighty - Gilbert Parker [published 1896, not read, I think it's a biog of an officer of Amherst's Regiment.]
Horace St Paul and the Campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War - Neil Cogswell. [Eye witness diaries of Horace - an English gentleman volunteer - plus additional material. Two Vol: Vol. 1 Lobositz to Leuthen; Vol. 2 Olmutz to Torgau. 1,400 pages of material with excellent maps].

Ospreys [if you like that kind of thing.]

Kolin 1757
Zorndorf 1758
Quebec 1759
Louisbourg 1758
Ticonderoga 1758
Plassey 1757
Rossbach and Leuthen 1757
Russian Army of the Seven Years War (2vols)
Frederick the Great's Army (3 vols)
The Austrian Army 1740 - 1780 (3 vols)
Louis XV's Army (5 vols)
British Redcoat
George Washington's Army
Wolfe's Army

Other uniform guides. I have a lot of 'painting guide' pamphlets - too many to list - but the following are highly recommended:

Historiche Uniformen - Funcken. [All in one volume, 18C through Franco Prussian War, German text, published 2000, £10 new in a German 'remainder book' shop! If you can find a copy the plates are excellent. The 'words' were always rubbish in Funcken anyway!]
Greenwood and Ball, Uniforms of the Seven Years War (2 vols). [Prussia and Austria, out of print and pricey for size but very highly recommended.]

6 comments:

Ed said...

Interesting post.

Given your interest in the SYW and the "Eastern Front" have you tried the new Duffy books on Austria? They are quite good, although I preferred the "action" book which is "By Force of Arms." The first was "Instrument of War."

You might also enjoy Duffy's "The Wild Goose and the Eagle: A Life of Marshal von Browne, 1705-1757."

Ed

JAMES ROACH said...

Thanks Ed, I'll put the last one on my list. I've seen the Austria book (the 1st vol) and didn't find much in it of great interrest, perhaps vol2 is better.

James

Ed said...

By Force of Arms is far more interesting. It is essentially a year-by-year description of the Austrian army during the war. It includes several lesser known actions and gave me a completely different "feel" for why the Austrians acted as they did.

Highly recommended.

Ed

Painted Soldier said...

Actually the Greenwood and Ball uniform guides are in print and available at www.18thcenturypress.com and we have added one on the Russian army as well as updating the Prussian and Austrian ones.

JAMES ROACH said...

Nigel, I'm not sure they were in print when this post was written.

I paid £15 for my 1st edition Prussian copy - which I think is pricey for a 24 page booklet. I hope you are selling them more cheaply. As I said, in my book list, they are great little books. They are well laid out and brilliant as painting guides. I use my Austrian one and Prussian ones as a 'Bible'. Recommended.

Fedja Galperin said...

Interesting you don' t have anything by Dr. H. Bleckwenn about Prussian army uniforms - at least here in Germany he is something like the holy grail of uniform-experts as regards the Prussian army. Actually it is a must-have for syw-collectors. Highly recommended!

Cheers Fedja