You scholars and historians have me paranoid!.... I used to buy my non-fiction books based on my interest on a certain subject. Now I'm looking at the author and even glancing at the sources and references at the back of potential purchases. My shopping time at Chapters (LBS) has now quadrupeled. With this said, I've come back with a couple of books, 'Armageddon, The Battle for Germany 1944 - 1945' by Max Hastings and the 'Oxford Companion to World War 2'. 'Armageddon' was purchased to enhance my meagre selection on late eastern front material,.... and for my sake, I trully hope it's not on the Armorama list of revisionist and/or inaccurate texts :-) .

Certainly not, Frank. Quite the opposite. 'Armageddon' is one of the best you can lay your hands on. If you want a parallel view of the fighting, but from the German staff point, read 'Panzer Leader' by Guderian.

:-) Not even slightly! Every so often a 'serious' book gets into the bestseller lists (Stalingrad for example), 'Armageddon' is an excellent example...

My hatred is for the dumbing down of history and the endless number of books which will give you a history of the world in nice, bite-size chunks... I'm also a Charter Member of the 'Steven Ambrose is NOT a Historian Support Group' ...Just kidding :-) ..Jim

I've only flicked through my copy of Armageddon and, after being rude about Hastings' work in the past, it is worth reading. Specially since I paid £4.99 for the hardback. At least he's realised that the German army wasn't the greatest fighting machine of WW2, something that made 'Overlord ' such a pain to read.

Anyway it's in the pile waiting to be read, just below Catherine Merridale's book on the Soviet Army in WW2 'Ivan's War'

Hi, As mentioned here, go for the books, esp. World War II, that has lots of great photos in them. The old saying "One picture is worth a 1,000 words" holds true.

As for earlier periods you'll kind of have to pick and choose. At certain local book stores here--Barnes and Nobles, The Book Company-- they have areas where customers can sit and read some on certain books before buying so one can get a 'feel' for a certain book to see if it's worth getting for themselves.

Good luck and take care, Larry