Gunfreak | 14 Nov 2014 11:56 a.m. PST |
Is this book that good? It gets good reviews. And its expensive ad hell. But I'm wary of oman. While never read him my self. He does get alot of flak for his medieval books(spreading the idea of out for glory single combat knights) and his books on the peninsular war also gets lots of flak. Did he simply do a better job on this one? I see its one of his last books. |
Daniel S | 14 Nov 2014 12:46 p.m. PST |
Good reviews by whom? Oman is fairly readable despite the age of the book but the text is deeply flawed due to Oman's lack of research and his biased views which in some cases result in fairly extreme distortions of the historical facts. A good example is how the contributions made by German landsknechts during the Italian Wars are often completely removed from Omans 'history'. |
enfant perdus | 14 Nov 2014 1:21 p.m. PST |
Ditto what Daniel says. It's an inspiring read, meaning it will fire you up to paint and play the 16C. If you could get it cheap I would say buy it for that reason. However, if you're going to be spending real money, look for better researched material. And ask questions here. There are some very knowledgable people (like Daniel) with access to pretty esoteric material. |
Gunfreak | 14 Nov 2014 2:05 p.m. PST |
Any good battle books. I come from napoleonics and we are blessed with hundreds of thousands of sources, from napoleon him self to lowly privates. Giving long great riveting reads. I've never quite found the same style and detail in other periods, except mabye awi 7yw. I know this is because sources gets much rarer as you go back , especially for small scale fights in bigger battles. |
Whirlwind | 14 Nov 2014 2:58 p.m. PST |
Shouldn't this book be about to go into public domain? |
lkmjbc3 | 14 Nov 2014 3:35 p.m. PST |
Good reviews by me. Oman's works are an impressive introduction into the history of warfare. They are all encompassing and readable. No one has approached the breadth of his work. He is a giant in the field That being said, the study of history is a process. Many of Oman's ideas and views have been replaced or refined by the very folks who stood on his shoulders. This is as it should be. Yes, buy his book. It is a wonderful start to the period. Just be sure to use it as a intro into deeper study. Joe Collins |
(Leftee) | 14 Nov 2014 4:00 p.m. PST |
If there were something like C.V. Wedgewood's book on the Thirty Years War then would be happy not to have bought Oman for Renaissance. But due to dearth of material I am glad I own this, flawed or not. You almost have to build understanding of the battles/wars based upon art, politics, law and diplomacy, and biographies and autobiographies available. Not very many books that deal, like Oman, on the Military History of the era. |
Daniel S | 14 Nov 2014 4:08 p.m. PST |
There are plenty of studies of the military events during the period and thanks to the internet many are far more accessible today than they were 10-15 years ago. Of course they do require the apropriate language skills to read but that is usually the case when studying military history outside one's 'native' history. |
20thmaine | 14 Nov 2014 4:56 p.m. PST |
Part of its reputation is down to there being very little serious competition when it was first published – 16th century military history? Who's going to want that ? I still think it's a good solid contribution – albiet some of the information is dated, but not really as much as you might think. I hadn't realised it was so expensive – I got my copy when it came back into print after many years out of print. All you need is a repeat of that (i.e. some entrepreneurial book publisher to reprint it again) and the prices will tumble. Can you wait though ? |
enfant perdus | 14 Nov 2014 5:12 p.m. PST |
Crickey! Checked prices on Amazon, and it's $79 USD for the paperback and $164 USD for the hardcover. |
Gunfreak | 14 Nov 2014 5:24 p.m. PST |
Those are just the cheapest ones, you get paperback for 160 top, and hardback goes up to 350 |
Rottcodd | 14 Nov 2014 5:54 p.m. PST |
I had in on my wish-list on Amazon, and picked it up from for abot $25 USD USD from a good-will store. Just had to be patient and checked in often. Sometimes you will find sellers who actually want to sell their books, as opposed to asking high prices for books that have such a small market. |
Sobieski | 14 Nov 2014 6:15 p.m. PST |
Better that privates should be lowly. The implication for clothing if they were higher up on the body would be alarming! |
Lazyworker | 14 Nov 2014 9:05 p.m. PST |
I bought my copy off of AbeBooks.com It might be a better deal for you or it might not. link |
Puster | 15 Nov 2014 4:15 a.m. PST |
2 years yet, and all of his works are in the public domain – thanks to the lex Disney. Some of his older works are already available on the net: link link |
Daniel S | 15 Nov 2014 2:51 p.m. PST |
Part of its reputation is down to there being very little serious competition when it was first published – 16th century military history? Who's going to want that ? There may not have been much competition from other works available in English but by the time that "A history of the art of war in the sixteenth century" was published in 1937 there was numerous works available in other languages, particularly in German. And many of these works had been available for decades by 1937, that Oman for unknown reasons made next to no use of this treasure trove of knowledge is one of the reasons why there are so many factual errors in his book. |
Whirlwind | 16 Nov 2014 3:29 a.m. PST |
There may not have been much competition from other works available in English but by the time that "A history of the art of war in the sixteenth century" was published in 1937 there was numerous works available in other languages, particularly in German. And many of these works had been available for decades by 1937, that Oman for unknown reasons made next to no use of this treasure trove of knowledge is one of the reasons why there are so many factual errors in his book. Sounds like a great opportunity for someone with the knowledge of those sources to write a new comprehensive and readable history of warfare in the sixteenth century. |
Daniel S | 16 Nov 2014 4:36 a.m. PST |
An impossible task for any single author given that research hasn't exactly stood still since 1937 not to mention the language skills such a work would require with sources in at least a dozen languages. And in order to compress it all into a single volume you would have to cut away so much history that there would only be snippets of fact left. Oman only managed to compress his work into a single volume by not writing about a lot of wars & battles. IMHO our understanding of 16th Century warfare would be much better served by more focused studies covering a particular war or campaign. |
Whirlwind | 17 Nov 2014 7:38 a.m. PST |
I do see what you mean, but I still think that means that Oman will hold the field until another 'historical popularizer comes forward and writes a more encompassing work. IMHO our understanding of 16th Century warfare would be much better served by more focused studies covering a particular war or campaign. Yes, but that implies a deep understanding. There is room for different levels I think, with different authors writing for all of them. |