Hunt Janin
Auteur van Culture Shock! Netherlands
Over de Auteur
Hunt Janin is an American writer living in southwestern France. He has written numerous nonfiction and scholarly books on a range of subjects, including medieval history and cross-cultural studies.
Werken van Hunt Janin
Fort Bridger, Wyoming: Trading Post for Indians, Mountain Men and Westward Migrants (2001) 8 exemplaren
Claiming the American Wilderness: International Rivalry in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1528-1803 (2006) 7 exemplaren
Four Paths to Jerusalem: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Secular Pilgrimages, 1000 BC to 2001 CE (2002) 5 exemplaren
Trails of Historic New Mexico: Routes Used by Indian, Spanish and American Travelers through 1886 (2009) 4 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geboortedatum
- 1940-08-16
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- USA
Leden
Besprekingen
Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk
Statistieken
- Werken
- 16
- Leden
- 196
- Populariteit
- #111,885
- Waardering
- 3.2
- Besprekingen
- 16
- ISBNs
- 53
First things first - in my opinion book is solid 3.5 stars but due to the no option when it comes to half stars I rounded it to four. It is not four but definitely ain't three for me. Will explain why.
As I said it is a strange book.
I have read several books on ancient Greek, Roman, Middle Ages, in general Asian, European [from everywhere, if I start wont stop] warfare written by authors that kept the pace and tone of their books on par with standard academic literature. Lots of archaeological findings, discussions on various surviving written works and sources etc., not to mention hard-core discussions on the armies, commanders, organization, weapons, training, society, finance and so on, so on. So, very thorough, very academic and, oh man, detailed to the t. After going through these books there are wonderful bibliographies to read further and expand the knowledge.
I am in love with this, believe me. Investigating further works, chasing down books ..... ah, the rush.
But here is the point - it takes time and ... did I say time :) which is something I understand but for the most people reading about wages for Greek mercenaries (cannot cite the work, need to find it but I think title is Greek mercenaries) for three chapters is something that would drive the entire endeavor to the ground. Of course I am saying this will happen in case of general reader not so interested in historical elements but interested in the topic, learning something new without spending semester chasing down gazillion books about metal structure of spears and weapons of period before finally getting to few words about the actual topic (in this case mercenaries).
What authors achieve here is to make a book friendly to somebody who just wants to inform oneself on the topic - rise of professional armies, mercenaries, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Europe up to a point where national armies began to take precedence. In a very informal way (this surprised me a lot to be honest, but it was a good experience) reader is presented information on a variety of people, nations and very eccentric warlords (mercenary captains) that have marked some of the deadliest periods in Europe's history and that have caused such loss of life it took Europe long time to recover.
Authors truly take time to explain all the terms (even when quoting from other sources) and present lots of facts. Now when you read this book (when compared to the above mentioned more academically oriented books) lack of footnotes is glaringly obvious but only until you reach to the end of the book and find all the references to the notes. Second thing is, quoted sources come from all over the place - contemporaries, modern scholars (say from 18th century to modern days), but also from the Internet. Now, quoting Internet sources is not something you come across too often, and that is for the reason (reliability in today's world is ..... lets say questionable for majority of posted materiel), but as a quick guide to other works (considering the authors intent with the book) it works just fine. Also it is not just Internet references, lots of books referenced in the bibliography are excellent follow up reads for those who get hooked on topic. And they do quote quite a few specialist for the topic and time period.
So as a true academic work, this book is three stars. But for bringing to the light some of the weirdest and eccentric people that marked the conflict in Europe, various nations and groups that took professional soldiering as their trademark but got forgotten in the meantime, and by doing that in very popular way, without too much specialist terminology (and taking time to explain terms that do come up) this book deserves solid half star which translates to 4 stars.
It is very hard these days to find books that try to bring any of the subjects in a layman terms. Once upon the time books like this were more accessible and present. Most books I come across today just simply do not act as initiation tools but try to be handy manual to be used without further research, they try to be very poor readers digests that usually degrade to picture book formats and very little information on how to learn more.
I think that authors have succeeded in creating an entry level book that will definitely interest readers and enable them to use it as a reference guide to start further studies and exploration of this most interesting (and if you look at war as a disaster, then also unfortunate but nevertheless integral part of every society) subject that, once it has risen its head, it never disappeared from the battlefields of past, today or even tomorrow.
Recommended.… (meer)