Product Description
Artefacts is a book series in which the editors encourage authors to use objects as evidence for their studies of the history of science and technology. In "Materializing the Military", with its focus on military technology, the results are innovative and provocative. Topics as diverse as fourteenth-century Burgundian artillery and twentieth-century US Army Air Corps sextants, uniforms for volunteers and prosthetics for the disabled, the material culture of warfare and the cultural implications of the material relics of warfare are all given new meaning through interpretation based on examining the objects themselves, as witnessed by the generous use of photographs of the artefacts. Also included is an essay on the specific problems of presenting military history through the use of objects in military collections, together with an annotated list of selected military, naval and air museums. Authors, who are from academic institutions and museums, bring a variety or perspectives to these writings from such disciplinary backgrounds as archaeology, museum studies, military history and the history of medicine, as well as the history of science and technology.This book will appeal to serious students of military history, to curators and others in all museums of the history of science and technology, as well as specifically military museums. Nevertheless, the level of writing and the subjects covered should also make it valuable to a range of amateur historians interested in these subjects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the military and military history from perspective of objects and artifacts
This work is a part of the series named "Artefacts" associated with London's Science Museum, whose editors "encourage authors to use objects as evidence for their studies of the history of science and technology." The eleven chapters of this volume were written by authors from universities and museums. The topics vary widely, from 15th-century Valois Burgundian artillery, World War I U.S. women's uniforms, the display of arms in museums, artifacts of the German occupation of Britain's Channel Islands in WWII, to the use and image of U.S. submarines in the Cold War. The essays get at what can be learned about the respective military forces of the time and also what can be learned about the relationship between such forces and the society of which they were a part. ... Read more

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The First World War was won and lost on the Western Front. Covering the whole war, from the guns of August 1914 to the sudden silence of the November 1918 Armistice, the IWM Book of the Western Front reveals what life was really like for the men and women involved. With first-hand accounts of off-duty entertainments, trench fatalism, and going over the top, this is an extremely important contribution to the continuing debate on the First World War. Malcolm Brown has updated this edition, introducing new evidence on sex and homosexuality, executions, the treatment or mistreatment of prisoners and shell shock. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Personal Details Based on Letters from the Front
I would have never bought this book on Amazon.com since the sales rating is so poor. I came across the book at our local large bookstore where I discovered that the author Malcolm Brown has written four other WW I books. It struck me as one of the more interesting books on the war. It is not too long - about 350 pages of text - with many photos, maps, but more importantly lots of stories and tales about the personal life of the troops. That is what differentiates this book from the competition.

It covers the four years of the war all along the Western Front and it covers all the western troops fighting and gives a very detailed and up close picture of what it was like to be a soldier, physically, the dangers, and the psychology. In looking at all the WW I books, it would actually be one of the first I would buy.

It is not a monumental work like say the Hew Strachan books now coming out of Oxford (5 volumes now planned at a minimum) but it is interesting, and one fully appreciates the stupidity and massive human tragedy that was the war. He uses many letters sent home by the troops as a structure and to provide the source material for the book and then he writes mini biographies about various people in each battle or event, describes their letters, and then describes the outcome. For example one captain about to become a scientist writes home, and then is killed almost the next day.

We read of the very optimistic outlook of the troops facing death. They are really in denial that they will not be killed, while the troops acknowledge and understand that there will be many casualties, but somehow they (personally) will be spared. One soldier confesses that while exiting a trench and facing machine gun fire, he was more concerned about keeping his pipe lit than death.

This is a very interesting book and in many ways a compelling read that translates the war into personal terms often in the soldiers own words.

I made up a Listmania list of 25 good or the best WW I books and I put a few of Brown's books on the list.

4 or 5 stars.
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Illustrated with examples of helmets, shields, swords, crossbows, firearms and other items from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, this volume traces the history of European arms and armour from antiquity to the 18th century. It explores themes such as medieval warfare, tournaments, the process of making and decorating armour, and the Renaissance culture of arms. There is also discussion of various forms of weapons, and the illustrations include paintings, tapestries and engravings which show how the objects were used and worn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A well-written, accessible guide to armor, with minor flaws.
Although this book specifically catalogues the armor collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art -- issued to commemorate the Museum's splendid renovation of its legendary Armor Court -- this is a fine, intelligent, andcomprehensive overview for anyone interested in how arms and armor weremade, used, and venerated from the Middle Ages through the Baroqueperiod.

The only reservation I have about this book is the author'scurious reluctance to fully acknowledge the real purpose of these items. Yes, arms and armor can be beautiful -- and the examples provided heresurely are -- but it cannot be forgotten that they are at their coreinstruments of war, meant to kill, maim, or at the very least, intimidate.This book implies that arms and armor are merely fashion statements, muchas we venerate the clothing designs of Versace, Armani, Ralph Lauren,Geoffrey Beene, etc. today. It's pretty to think so, but an overlyromanticized viewpoint.

This reservation, however, is not enough toprevent me from highly recommending this book. ... Read more

Product Description
During the occupation of Paris, the Nazis confiscated nearly 100,000 artworks frommore than 200 collectors, transporting most of the spoils to Germany, where Hitlerand Goering enjoyed first pick. The Lost Museum dramatizes the pillage of the mostextensive and valuable of these collections, which belonged to five renownedJewish families: Rosenberg, Rothschild, Schloss, David-Weill and Bernheim-Jeune.After the war, many works that were found were returned to their owners. But a largenumber had disappeared, been destroyed or spirited out of Europe into theunderground art market.

Drawing on recently declassified government archives and information providedexclusively to him by the heirs of these great collections, Feliciano traces the fate ofthe artworks as they passed from the hands of top German officials to unscrupulousFrench and Swiss collaborators and dealers, then on to prestigious U.S. andEuropean auction houses. Two thousand of these stolen artworks have beenidentified by Feliciano in the Louvre and other French national museums, fomentinga scandal that has received front-page coverage throughout Europe and spurred aseries of new claims and suits by heirs. In this updated and enlarged Americanedition, he reveals the location of stolen works hanging in major U.S. museums aswell.

Illustrated with more than 70 photographs, most depicting paintings that havevanished forever, The Lost Museum is the thrilling story of one man's persistentinvestigation of a 50-year-old mystery and revelation of a shameful internationalconspiracy.Amazon.com Review
Pillage is one of the traditional perks of warfare. But it took Adolf Hitler to systematize the decimation and despoiling of cultures, and it took Hector Feliciano seven years to track five famous art collections stolen by the Nazis. He uncovered not only Nazi schemes but also a well-oiled machine of collaborators, informants, moving companies, and neighbors, all with their fingers in the pie. The Lost Museum reads like a good detective story. Inspired by a fascination with the theft of five prominent Parisian Jewish families' art collections, it focuses on the beneficiaries of the thefts and justice for its victims. Filled with family photos of the art, some never before seen by the public, The Lost Museum tracks the pieces as they passed through the hands of German officials, unscrupulous art dealers, and unsuspecting auction houses. That the network was so deviously intricate illustrates the enormous challenge of restitution.

The relationship between Nazi higher-ups, keen to advance their own collections, and non-Jewish dealers bodes well for the Parisian art scene. A Picasso for a Titian; two classics for eleven late-19th-/early-20th-century moderns? Such wheeling and dealing reduces art to tug-of-war commodities, and Feliciano's The Lost Museum at times seems to question nothing less than what art serves, and who profits from it. If you like a good detective story and can tolerate the frustration of justice impaired by greed, then this thoroughly documented dark tale is for you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A Big Hit in France? Go Figure...
This was a big hit in France when itcame out, but as an English-language book it suffers by comparison to Lynn Nicholas's magisterial 'Rape of Europa,' a vastly better book on the same topic--better written and better researched. Feliciano takes what is, in and of itself, a fascinating, profound story and cheapens it with his overheated writing style. Also, he claims to have made a lot of new documentary discoveries--the Schenker papers, documenting the shipment of looted works within France--which aren't so new, as anyone who reads Nicholas's book knows. Those documents have been publicly accessible since the late 1970s. On the whole I would not recommend this book, but would recommend the Rape of Europa instead.

a narrow perspective
The title of this work should have been something like "Knaves of Art: The complicity of the Paris art market in Nazi theft of Jewish art in World War II.". As such it is well enough told in an episodic way, highlighting through description the moral and ethical positions taken by many people who surely knew what was happening. The pictures of the art galleries disposed of and the pieces of art still missing bring forth both sadness and indignation. This book is not anything like a comprehensive study of the overall Nazi plunder of art which needs to be sought elsewhere. With a more honest title this book might have deserved four stars. Fault the publisher more than the writer.

The most important art book in a decade
Other books may relate how the Nazis plundered art, but this book actually led the world to do something about it. You know how you read in the paper all the time that some heir of a Holocaust victim is in a lawsuit to get back valuable paintings? It's directly a result of The Lost Museum. For fifty years, nothing happened in terms of restitution. Feliciano's groundbreaking investigative research is what led museums to examine the provenance of their artwork, caused governments to change their statutes of limitations, and urged heirs to pursue artworks they assumed had long ago vanished.



I wish I could give it more than five stars.

A fascinating story poorly told
Those of you who read Lynn Nicholas' astonishing The Rape of Europa will be disappointed by this book, which is in many ways a necessary supplement to Nicholas' spine-tingling work.The record of greed, fear, coercion andbarbarism visible behind the glittering surface of the Parisian art worldin the 1940's is a truly moving human story.The photographs, all ofnow-vanished works of modern art, provide a valuable record for thehistorian, as many of the lost works have never been published. Unfortunately, the book is nearly ruined by a flat and pedestrian writingstyle.The author may have taken years to write this book, and conductedhundreds of interviews, but one would never know that.Feliciano writes asif he were a USA Today reporter - utterly superficial treatments of seriousissues and no sign whatsoever of any personal investment in the story.Theart and personalities of the period deserved a better historian than Mr.Feliciano, I am sorry to say.Useful for the documentary information only.

German arrogance and art dealer greed in WWII.
A repititious summary of art work confiscations by the Nazis, particularly from Jewish galleries, during World War II. Plentiful accusations of greed by cooperating art dealers, including some famous names, during and after the war.The French government to this day has performed questionably in returning works by famous artists to their pre-war owners.The Swiss government, in harmony with its management of Jewish refugee bank deposits, has performed even worse.Over-all, a depressing litany of evil deeds in a poorly structured account of art world activity during the German occupation of France. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Great book for a maritime fan
I recently bought this book and as a avid maritime fan, I enjoy it.There are plenty of items in the book and the photos are great.Short of going to the museum, this is as good as it gets! ... Read more

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Experience the thrill of flying some of the world's most important airplanes and spacecraft. Best Of The National Air And Space Museum provides unprecedented access to the most popular museum in the world.

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum hosts more than 9 million visitors a year, and the newly opened Dulles Center –three football fields long and ten stories high – is a phenomenon in its own right: in the first week it was opened, some 250,000 people came through the doors.

Best Of The National Air And Space Museum features the best of both museums, from the Challenger space shuttle and the Wright flyer to the Spirit of St. Louis and the stealth bomber. Bob Van der Linden, curator of aeronautics, has selected the most historically important, popular, and just plain impressive aircraft and spacecraft from the collections of both museums to be captured in the book's beautiful full color layouts. Each layout includes intriguing facts of the item's design, use, mission, specifications, and dimensions. It's like your own guided tour!

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Guide to the National Air & Space Museum
I recently visited the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. It was the first time I'd been there since they moved into their current facility in the mid-1970's. It was breathtaking. The best way to describe the effect of walking in the main entrance is to envision the bedroom of a boy who hangs model airplanes from the ceiling. Only at the NASM, the "models" hanging from the ceiling are full-size. I was a model-building boy in the 1950's, and my favorites were planes I'd built from kits. Unfortunately, the museum was undergoing some of its regular updating and a few of my favorite planes weren't on view, such as the F89 Super Saber. Fortunately, that plane and most (if not all) the permanent collection are profiled in the Best of the National Air and Space Museum. If at all possible, visit the museum. If you can't get there, buy the book. Actually, buy the book in either case. You won't be disappointed.

Nat'l Air & Space Museum review
Great photograghs with well written copy. This book makes me want to go to this museum and see first hand the items displayed. Highly recommend!!!

Great photo essay, history of aviation and space
i'm an engineer- worked rocket motors, and various satellite programs.this book was recommended by associate after visiting the museum at Langley.The pics are super, with short descriptions, and moderate on the tech.It's an amazing pulse of this wild history, and mostly is from America's lineage.St. Louis, Mercury, Atlas, and up to current Shuttle.There's also the SST, and unique turn of the century early birds.A fine read to be shared with a youngster (my son 10, digs it), or for the historyor engineering buff.amazon has it cheaper than at the museum. ... Read more

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A dramatic history of the Royal Navy, from the Middle Ages to World War II.

Ranging from the Middle Ages through the defeat of the Armada, the triumphs of Nelson to the battles of World Wars I and II, this is a sweeping account of how the Royal Navy made Britain the world’s greatest sea power. More than a battle account, this work shows how the Royal Navy’s technological innovations revolutionized their military power, from broadside gunnery to submarines and aircraft carriers. We also see how the navy played a key role in exploration, from Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe and Cook’s voyages of discovery to Fraser’s search for the Northwest Passage. Abounding in colorful characters, this is a thrilling chronicle of one of the most fascinating chapters in British military history. ... Read more

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Imperial War Museum: Churchill at War reveals the many sides of this remarkable man at war: army officer, war correspondent and political leader. This book covers his entire 50-year involvement in British warfare from his first army commission in 1895, through his participation in one of the last British cavalry charges at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and his active service in the First World War right up to his wartime leadership as First Lord of the Admiralty, and then as Prime Minister. Containing over 150 photographs, the majority of which are taken from the Imperial War Museum's remarkable archives and supported by informative and authoritative text Churchill at War focuses above all on Churchill's inspirational leadership during the Second World War and the final overthrow of Nazism in 1945. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Soldiers Magazine, published by Soldiers Magazine on February 1, 2005. The length of the article is 474 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The National Army Museum.
Author: Heike Hasenauer
Publication: Soldiers Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2005
Publisher: Soldiers Magazine
Volume: 60Issue: 2Page: 37(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Between the two World Wars, particularly in the 1930s, the relations between the French civilian government and the Army went through a series of devastating changes. These turbulent developments culminated in the refusal of the Army’s leaders to obey their civilian superiors during the catastrophe of June 1940, the first such insubordination in modern French republican history. The author examines every aspect of this disastrous process, pursuing his analysis largely through the activities and thought of General Maxime Weygand, who, although deeply affected by the loss of civil–military trust, contributed importantly to it and eventually led the Army in its disobedience.

Mr. Bankwitz finds the seeds of the disaffection between the French civilian authorities and the military in a variety of interconnected elements. During the early 1930s, for example, the soldiers became convinced that the Government’s policies concerning service time, military appropriations, and disarmament were pushing the Army to the brink of ruin. The Third Republic was highly unstable politically, as was shockingly demonstrated in February 1934 when the Government leaders resigned in the face of violent disorders in Paris attendant on the Stavisky Affair which climaxed two years of internal strife. Among soldiers, aware of the Government’s weakness, suspicious of its alleged antimilitarism, and fearful of the approaching conflict with Nazi Germany, there was a growing and almost unconscious tendency to think in terms of the possible need to extend the protection of the Army to the nation in its difficulties. In this way, important elements in the officer corps began, psychologically and emotionally, “to prepare for eventual intervention in national political affairs.”

General Weygand, whom the author interviewed on numerous occasions, held the personal conviction that the distrust between the civilian and military establishments was the root cause of French defeat. Mr. Bankwitz is convinced that this opinion of Weygand’s is possibly the single most important clue to the puzzling connection between the civil–military relationship and the collapse of June 1940. Granting all the other factors contributing to the defeat, it would be impossible to exaggerate the historical importance of Weygand’s disobedience—an act which also opened the way for later military saviors and for the ascendant role of the Army in French politics.

This is the first scholarly study in depth of the crucial prewar phase of the French army’s development into a disruptive force in national life. A chapter from the portentous twentieth–century story of the soldier in politics, it has relevance now to situations already formed or forming in other western societies. The value of the book is greatly enhanced by an encyclopedic bibliography of writing on French political history in this century.

Customer Reviews (1)

An informative look at a misunderstood figure
I read this book as part of the required reading list in a college course on European history taught by Dr. Bankwitz, its author.General Weygand commanded the French Army when France fell to Germany in 1940, and it's no surprise that he has been considered one of the modern era's least competent generals.But as the book points out, he was thrust into the command to replace General Gamelin after much of the damage had been done, at a point when even the most brillant strategist might have found it too late to save the nation.Dr. Bankwitz did a good job of salvaging the General's reputation, to a degree. ... Read more

Product Description
All Deluxe Notecards have the following specifications: Slipcase with Velcro closure, 5-1/4 x 6-3/8 in., 20 blank folded cards (5 images), 20 envelopes, Rights: W, except where otherwise indicated. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

beautiful
these are beautiful high-quality notecards.and the velcro-close box makes them seem even more fancy.i gave them to my mom for christmas and she loved them.

beauty and quality
I enjoy nice stationery and notecards.These notecards are beautifully different and are of high quality paper.Even the envelopes are nice and thick (not flimsy) and are lined with a green color. I was very pleased with this purchase.

Excellent Quality, Beautiful Pictures
These cards are a fabulous choice for any stationary lover.The pictures are clear, moving, and different.Most satisfying is the thickness of the cards and envelopes-like that of fine stationary, not something you would buy at Hallmark.If you are look for high quality note cards that are beyond the ordinary, you've found them!

CAN 2 WHITES MAKE A WONG?
Imagine impressionists such as Claude Monet and Pierre Renoir painting flowers Oriental style. Although I had looked carefully at the photos available online, when I opened the box I was very surprised at how beautiful the paintings were.

I don't uncritcally like everything I pick out.For example, I also got the Blossoms notecards (photographs by Schenck) and was very disappointed. ... Read more

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The shadow of the Somme has lain across the twentieth century. For many it is the ultimate symbol of the folly and futility of war. Others see it as a hallmark of heroic endeavour and achievement. This book offers a remarkably fresh perspective on the bitterly fought 1916 campaign; it also describes the later battles of the Somme in the Great War's final year, 1918. Using hitherto unpublished evidence from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, it tells its powerful and dramatic story through the letters and diaries of those who were there. Distinguished military historian Malcolm Brown has woven the many and varied accounts by well over a hundred participants - mainly British, but with not a few Germans - into a rich tapestry of experience. "Admirable ...If you can buy only one book on the Somme, it should be Malcolm Brown's powerful and scholarly account." - Richard Holmes, "Times Educational Supplement". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

ExcellentAccount of the Somme
I recently purchased this author's latest book: `The Imperial War Museum Book of 1918: Year of Victory' and was prompted to do so because I enjoyed his book on the Somme. I first read this book when it was released inhardback some years ago and I am somewhat surprised that it has notreceived any reviews of yet.

I have a passionate interest in bookscovering the Western Front during the Great War. I found this book to be awell researched and presented account of this terrible battle. Having readquite a few books on this battle I have no hesitation it placing it alongside such great books as Lyn MacDonald's `Somme' and Martin Middlebrook's`The First Day on the Somme'.

Malcolm Brown has utilised numerous firsthand accounts from diaries, reports, newspapers and interviews and usesthese in a manner that brings life to this terrible battle. Somewhatsimilar in style to Lyn MacDonald and just as good, I thoroughly enjoyedreading this book. The author tells the battle through the experiences ofthe ordinary (I should say extraordinary) soldier; British, Australian,Canadian, German and the many others who fought during this terriblecarnage.

The narrative flows along smoothly and the personal accounts ofthe soldiers seem to blend in effortlessly. Malcolm Brown has used theresources of the Imperial War Museum to present a detailed and accuratestory of the Somme which I am sure that most people would enjoy and findrewarding. If you can no longer find a copy of Lyn MacDonald's `Somme' orMartin Middlebrook's `The First Day on the Somme' grab this book instead,you won't be disappointed!

Of interest to other readers this book wasrecently hailed as "a valuable addition to First World Warliterature". ... Read more