Diana Preston’s Boxer Rebellion:The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 was a primary source when I was researching scenarios for my Boxer Rebellion miniature wargaming project. The book reads like a novel, carrying the reader from one exciting event to another. While it doesn’t have the copious numbers and orders of battle so favored by wargamers, it more than makes up for this by providing dozens of raw ideas for good scenarios. Highly recommended.
Books
The Face of Battle By John Keegan
Keegan is an instructor at Britain’s Sandhurst Academy (the equivalent of West Point in the United States) who is writing some of the best military history today. He often is a commentator in documentaries on The History Channel. In The Face of Battle, Keegan writes about what war must be like for the common soldier at Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815, and the Somme in 1916. There are some striking similarities in their experiences.
The Face of Battle : A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
In this classic oral history, Stephen Ambrose follows Easy Company of the 506th Airborne from their training to the end of World War II. It’s an easy-to-read, compelling account of men at war. I came away from this book greatly admiring the men of Easy Company. This book was the basis of the hit HBO Television series “Band of Brothers.” In many ways, this book reminded me of the classic Cornelius Ryan works like A Bridge Too Far and The Longest Day. Ambrose has taken criticism for some factual errors in his work, but the reader must remember that this is an ORAL history, and the memories of the men involved may have dimmed with time.
Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer
The Forgotten Soldier is Guy Sajer’s memoir of his life as a young soldier on the eastern front in World War II. A member of the famed Gross deutschland division, Sajer fought in most of the major battles of the war against the Soviet Union: Minsk, Kiev, Kharkov, Donetz … Kursk. The book is an amazing work — exciting … and chilliing. His descriptions are as vivid as any movie I have seen. Even though I read it nearly ten years ago, I can still recall the final battles in east Prussia — as horrifying an experience as I can think of. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars By Byron Farwell
This is a book that should be on every Colonial Wargamers’ bookshelf. It is a brilliant study of the conflicts and personalities involved in a continuous series of wars for the British Empire between 1837 and 1901. It is by no means an exhaustive study of the period, but offers the reader a good slice of the times. If you don’t already play colonial miniature wargames, this book will make you want to.
