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Rating: 
Summary: For the weaponry fan
Review: "Weapons" brings together a wealth of common and rare weapons from all eras. While the book fails completely to mention either the weight, the style of use, or any other data (besides the dimensions) of any of the weapons, I was honestly surprised at the variety presented. Especialy pleasing are the section on pole-arms and older bladed weapons, which feature a nice array of obscure weaponry. The text is a pleasure to read, and, for some of the newer weaponry, the autors provide some of the strategies used with them (the air defenses, the Paris gun, and such things). An amazing compendium, find it wherever you can.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Information!
Review: A greta overview to the history of weapons. Really nice book. Plenty of diagrams, pictures, and really deep explanations. This is a great companion to every arm chair historian or anyone who is interested in military history. Teachers may well like to have a copy in the classroom to channel the fascination young boys have with guns, knives, swords and bombs into the learning process.Especially nice is the section on Nuclear weapons. A very detailed accoutn of the effects of nuclear weapons, thier tactical use and specifics including maps that show the how the blast radius of a 100 Megaton bomb could effectively put an end to a sizable portion of britain. Also given are details on radiation behavior and the effects of varying RAD doses as well as explanations as to the various terminology and accronyms such as ICBM, SLBM, IRBM, MIRV ect. It even has a nice table showing various blast yields and the corresponging blast radius and thermal effects. For instance a 10 Megaton bomb would give someone standing 35 miles away first degree burns! There is also a good section on Bio weapons and a very good section on Chemical weapons. information on more dated weapons of war are also very good, though not always with as much depth. But the scope is the strong point, everything from maces, to chain mail, to bronze swords, to wooden clubs, to pole arms and pikes, to bows and arrows, to flint lock muskets, to samuri swords to self proppelled artillery. It's ALL here. Dont expect to find a complete guide to every specific model of tank or fighter, or expect to find a complete covereage of every singe machine gun, but short of actually listing and covering every single weapon ever made, this really covers all of the history of man's quest to find better ways of destroying himself.
Rating:
Summary: Good All-Around Volume -- Great for Newcomers!
Review: For someone who is just getting into: "weapons, study of" this book is great. Those that already consider themselves "weapons-philes" will be able to see shortcomings here & there. This book'll introduce you to the world of weapons and is probably about the best reference for someone that isn't die-hard into weapons 24/7. For more indepth details or completeness, other sources might have to be consulted...but that's the way it is with any subject of interest.
Rating:
Summary: Good All-Around Volume -- Great for Newcomers!
Review: For someone who is just getting into: "weapons, study of" this book is great. Those that already consider themselves "weapons-philes" will be able to see shortcomings here & there. This book'll introduce you to the world of weapons and is probably about the best reference for someone that isn't die-hard into weapons 24/7. For more indepth details or completeness, other sources might have to be consulted...but that's the way it is with any subject of interest.
Rating:
Summary: A wealth of information presented concisely and affordably.
Review: I stumbled upon this book in the library, immediately found myself coveting it, and then desperately considered photocopying the entire thing front to back. Fortunately, I didn't have to resort to such extreme measures - as a softcover the book is surprisingly affordable. There are few books of this type that are thorough and so lavishly illustrated; those that are have an equally lavish price tag. This book is a gem for those interested in weapons and armor of ancient and medieval times. There are indexes by geographical location as well as time period - an invaluable source for anyone interested in ancient weapons!
Rating:
Summary: a good survey
Review: If you pick this book up expecting comprehensive detail on all the world's weapons, you'll be disappointed. You will, however, find a decent survey of many world weapons (with some bias toward the West), and sometimes short descriptions of where/when/how they were used. I find it most useful for looking up an unfamiliar weapon and for finding out what things look like. If you want more scholarly or detailed information, you'll have to hunt a little harder.
Rating:
Summary: a good survey
Review: If you pick this book up expecting comprehensive detail on all the world's weapons, you'll be disappointed. You will, however, find a decent survey of many world weapons (with some bias toward the West), and sometimes short descriptions of where/when/how they were used. I find it most useful for looking up an unfamiliar weapon and for finding out what things look like. If you want more scholarly or detailed information, you'll have to hunt a little harder.
Rating:
Summary: Well organized summaries of many weapons
Review: The Diagram Group's "Weapons" is an excellent quick-reference guide to all types of armaments. It consists primarily of line drawings arranged by functionality and drawn to scale. There are also pages of weapons silhouettes organized by area and time period that serve as a quick cross-reference.
As a sword collector, I've found this book to be invaluable when trying to identify an unfamiliar piece. While it doesn't have the depth of a reference like George Cameron Stone's encyclopedia of arms, if you know what the weapon looks like, you can find it quickly, instead of being stuck in the catch-22 of needing to know the piece's name to find out anything. It also includes short sections on weapon histories and theory (for example, the evolution of the cartridge, the uses of various explosives, ballistic trajectories) that make fascinating light reading.
This book should not be considered a definitive reference, but as a starting point, quick guide and pleasant overview it is superb and I recommend it highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as comprhensive as the title implies
Review: There are some excellent qualities to this book and I am glad I bought it. However, there are some aspects that are severely lacking. The book very well organized but far from comprehensive. For each category it gives only a small sample of the weapons to have been used. For example, the page on composite bows only shows the Turkish and Indian versions without mentioning that these are both splinter groups of the Mongol Empire that spread it's use into both those regions, nor does it mention the Hun bow which were asymmetric nor the ancient Scythians who used these bows around 2000 bce. In most other places the book does spend a small amount of space on the theory behind each weapons use and excels in its brevity - a volume almost as thick could be written for nearly every weapon. However, it also suffers from classic Euro centrism. Its explanation of the conflict between sword theories of cutting versus thrusting is in itself a European theory that does not appear in other cultures. The weapons are grouped by type (knives, missiles, guns, etc.) with an index by region in the back but it is not well documented as to time periods. Some instances such as American Civil War are well presented but most weapons have little more than a name and picture. The Chinese repeating crossbow is mentioned as being used in the 19th century ce but does reference its first appearance hundreds of years before. The pictures themselves are very clear line drawings. I would like to see a future edition with more statistics per weapon (size & weight) a more thorough historical listing and a more international selection of weapons as the title implies. This book has a place on my reference shelf but better serves my role-playing games than my historical research.
Rating:
Summary: 95%
Review: This book was very helpful to me in a great many areas such as civil war weaponry (did you know they had landmines that far back?) and was a great source for historical data, an all around great book. The only problem I had with it was a lack of certain weapons (elephant rifles were not explained or alluded to as well as the only picture of a roman sword was one which was badly damaged.) And non-violent weapons were really not discussed in any great detail. Otherwise it could have gotten 5 stars from me easily.
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