Product Description

A study of the Seven Years' War, reviewing the grand strategies of the combatants and the differing styles of warfare used in the many campaigns. The narrative is supported by official war papers, personal diaries and memoirs, and official reports.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166092 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

About the Author
Daniel Marston was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed both his BA and MA in History at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. The subject of his MA thesis was the performance of the British Army in North America during the Seven Years War. He is currently living in England, where he is working towards completion of a D.Phil in the History of War at Balliol College, University of Oxford

Customer Reviews

A Frustrating Disappointment
It is rare that a book makes me really angry, but this succeeded so effortlessly that I feel compelled to write this review to warn its potential future readers. If you are looking for an introduction to the Seven Years War look elsewhere.
At best the narrative is confused and fragmented. The language and editing are consistently shoddy. For example on page 29 one finds: "The naval conflict was chiefly between the British and the French". Then later the same page one encounters: " The naval war was chiefly fought between Britain and France". Such poor quality is nothing less than an insult to the reader.
Some of the maps will require investment in a high quality magnifying glass to be of any use. I imagine that most coming across the genius of Frederick's manoeuvring at Leuthen for the first time will remain none the wiser. There is nothing wrong with using period maps but reproductions must be of a practical size. More than once the maps are located far from the relevant text. The illustrations are of the usual high quality one expects from Osprey, but they appear to have been scattered throughout the text at random and are poorly labelled.

The sole redeeming feature of this book is that it reminds one of high standard that Osprey has set with its other publications.

Thorough and interesting
Speaking as a non-historian (and therefore one of the book's intended audience), I found this book to be an excellent general history of a conflict that I previously knew little about. The author did a good job of presenting the various participants and theatres clearly and concisely, as well as succinctly outlining the (potentially confusing) political context in which the war took place. The illustrations and maps provided interest and important supporting information. I thought that this was more than up to Osprey's usual standard of quality, and overall a thorough and interesting exploration of 18th-century history and warfare.