Thursday, October 22, 2009

The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns by Joseph Cummins


Maybe you are familiar with the wars involving the United States.  But have you ever wondered about the wars that were taking place in other parts of the world? "The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns" by Joseph Cummins contains short sections on all wars throughout the world from the French Revolution in 1783 to the Iran-Iraq War of 1988.

The book is organized with 21 chapters.  It gives the dates of the conflict.  You see who the principle combatants and the theaters of operations.  The casualties are given.  You get a succinct sketch of the entire conflict.  A timeline of events is shared. This followed by a narrative of the complete war in greater detail including a thorough description of the key battle.  A biography of the two principle leaders on each side is shared. This is followed by a profile segment which gives details of the structure, organization, and military hardware involved. 

Joseph Cummins does a masterful job as he describes each conflict with an attention-grabbing energy that brings the time, people, and crisis to life in a narrative history style.   I personally enjoyed his short biographies of the two principle leaders on each side.  What a great reference for secondary students having to do reports of the key war leaders.

This is more than a coffee table reference book.  It would make an excellent reference book for any military history buff.  It also would be an outstanding text book for an introductory military history survey course and would be a great addition to any school or community library.  Any soldier, sailor, airman, or marine would be proud to have it in their personal library.

This is a follow-up work to Joseph Cummins book "The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks: New Perspectives on the Two Thousand Years of Bloodshed That Shaped the Modern World."

Review by Jimmie Aaron Kepler

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