Anthony Beevor published by RAO

[sid guttridge]

Hi cnflyboy,

I am a fan of the "dry-as-dust" school. Without them, the likes of Beevor would be writing in a vacuum. If you read Beevor's books you get only a limited idea about the actual development of military operations - just enough to hang his anecdotal history upon.

Beevor has made virtually no original contribution to specifically military history largely because the ground work has long since been done by others. However, he is good at digging out anecdotes that enliven his rather sketchy military descriptions. He is possibly rather more of a popular social historian than an academic military historian. In any case, I would still recommend his books as useful introductions to their subjects.

Cheers,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

P.S. I had a look at the reviews in your link. It is interesting that most seem to be by prominent journalists with no specialist military knowledge and only two seem to be from military historians of any profile. Sid.