"Historical books from the early/mid 70's" Topic

When I was a kid, I received a book as a birthday gift. It was about the ACW, and it was profusely illustrated with photos of miniature dioramas that followed the course of the battle of Gettysburg.

From what I recall, there was also a volume on the 300 Spartans.

Does anyone recall these? They were definitely aimed at the children's market. I know this is sparse information, but it's all I can remember!

It was color throughout, and had a color hardbound cover. It was the size of your typical children's book. I do recall there was a chapter entitled "The Devil to Pay", with an accompanying photo of a diorama of a Union field hospital, complete with saw!

Any help would be appreciated. I have searched for this for quite some time now with no luck – I'm beginning to think I was hallucinating about the book!

Regards,
GregS

No you aren't I vividly remember it as well. I think that there was one that dealt with Trenton.

Nathan

Sounds familiar …

I recall seeing a book like that at a bookfair at my son's school. I have often regretted not buying it. My recollection is that the fiures were mostly painted Marx civil war figures, presumably 54mm.

I don't recall these specific books, but I saw a TMP discussion some weeks back on the same topic of miniatures being used to illustrate chapter books on famous battles.

My first exposure to this was the Time Life book on Rome; it had that famous siege of the Gauls (spacing the name just now) and that famous elephant assault on the Macedonians (spacing the name of that battle too): but the miniatures were COOL.

I've asked everyone I can think of – even some of the used booksellers in Gettysberg itself. All I get are blank stares!

From what I can recall, the photos were mostly 54mm, toy soldier type miniatures. None of them were overtly mounted for gaming. But they did seem to be of several different scales. I also recall a really great photo of zouaves charging into a field and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. That photo alone is what fueled my interest in the ACW.

Thanks for all of the input so far!
GregS

The TimeLife books used photos of the dioramas at the West Point Museum. Last time I checked they were still there.

Could it have been produced by a museums which has extensive diorama settings of Gettysburg? The scenes you describe don't sound like the sort of thing you would get in many private collections.

If anybody knows of any such museums, it might be worth asking them if they have any knowledge of the book.

The Time-Life one featured Alesia and also Pontus using Rose 25's I think. You can buy it on abebooks.

esssayons7,

I believe I have the book you're talking about. It was one in a series of books that used toy soldiers to illustrate famous battles in history – Trenton, Gettysburg, the Battle of the Bulge are all the ones I remember in my hometown library.

The series is called 'Great Battles of History'. The book you want is entitled 'Gettysburg' and the chapter you're referring to is entitled 'Morning of the Second Day: "The Devil to Pay". Publication information is: William O. West [author], World Publishing Company [publisher], New York, 1966. For the Gettysburg book they use the following "Diorama Corporation, at Dobbin House, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Mr. and Mrs. Curvin Heiss and their son, Corky, creators of the Battle of Gettysburg diorama.

What I wouldn't give for a damn editing function!! For the Gettysburg book they useD …. ah.. I'm getting old! Sorry.

"Great Battles of History", eh? My after-school wargaming class has the same title. Uh-oh---hope I don't get sued! :)

As for the grammar mistake, don't sweat it. At least you don't commit such heinous crimes as saying "loose" when you mean "lose", or "it's" when you mean "its", or using a plural pronoun ("they" or "their") when you have a singular noun. Oh well. Like it matters . . .

Just to be sure, I checked abebooks.com and they don't have the book but they did have Trenton and The Battle of the Bulge.

As far as the spelling mistake goes – what can I say? I'm getting too old and I forget to read my posts before hitting the Submit button!

Swampking:

I just finally revisited this posting, and to my astonishment found your information! That's it!!!

I found a copy, and will be ordering it shortly.

Thanks to you for helping me to restore a lost part of my childhood!

Regards,
GregS

Now I do recall a book that was about military history…..could be the Great Batles tome mentioned above. It had three battles using gaming figures….one ancient……Waterloo (?)….and definately Gettysburg was in there too.

hussarbob1746.webs.com/index.htm

Rob UK,

The book you're referring to is "The Art of Warfare on Land" by David Chandler. The battles that have gaming figures in it are: Daras 530 AD, Waterloo 1815 and Gettysburg 1863.

I always thought the choice of battles a little odd. Frankly, I'd love to see more books of this type that illustrate battles using figures but alas, they are few and far between, though with the advent of desktop publishing and digital photos I wonder how difficult it would be to publish one.

Swampking/madhatter66 [same guy, just different computer]

As I recall, Peter Young came out with a similar book, at roughly the same time. I think it included Adrianople, which is (honest to god) the first time I had ever seen pictures of an actual ancients miniatures battle!

I blogged on the Gettysburg book last month.

link

Check out the photos and cover art!