The West Point Atlas of American Wars: 1900-1918 (West Point Atlas of American Wars)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book About War
Review: If you are looking for a coffee table book about war, stop here. There is no need for you to continue. This one is as good as they come. However, this is not a book on West Point. (for that, I recommend "West Point", by Norman Thomas Remick). The title is somewhat confusing in that respect. But, don't let that stop you from looking at this great job done by the Dept. of Military Art and Engineering.

Rating:
Summary: Confused by Reviews
Review: Look I'm not actually reviewing this book - but I do have some comments about the reviews:

If the date is 1900-1918 in the title, how does this cover Bismarck's Germany, which would be before 1900? Similarly how serious is the league of nations coverage (which I would guess would be 1918-1939 approximately)

One of the reviews mentions WWII - but again, how does this fit in the 1900-1918 range?

Rating:
Summary: Not For Everyone
Review: This book is probably very good for a student studying war, but it's by no means an interesting coffee table type of conversational piece. It's more like a textbook , not not for me, and not for you either, I suspect.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent maps and narration.
Review: This is a reprint, along with its companion volume I (covering primarily the American Civil War) of works that went out-of-print in the early 1980's. It is not as big in size (i.e., as an atlas), but has all the great qualities of the original. Nothing is more annoying and infuriating then trying to read military history without being provided with maps and atlases--its useless to try! The title says "American wars" but this atlas contains almost every campaign of WWI & WWII whether the US participated or not (i.e., really an atlas of WWI & WWII in general). The maps are clear, concise, uncluttered and easy to read (can you believe it?!) and accompanied on the opposite page with simple, descriptive prose to describe the action, getting into the fundamental issues of each campaign/battle (i.e., command and logistical problems, weather, moral, etc.) and mostly fair in assessing a leader's performance. A joy to study, this (and volume 1) are a must for any serious military historian.