 | A History of the Crusades: Volume One - The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Penguin History): The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem v. 1 by Steven Runciman
Buy new: £9.48 / Used from: £3.47 A bit dense at the start, but soon reads like a thriller. By perhaps the greatest writer on the period.
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 | Wellington by Elizabeth Longford
Buy new: £4.63 / Used from: £0.88 This is an abridged version of her 2 volume biography - if you can find the originals, even better
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 | Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign (Modern Library) by Shelby Foote
Buy new: £9.46 / Used from: £2.97 Or if you have a couple of months, read his entire 3 volume narrative. Makes a interesting contrast to Michael Shaara's superb The Killer Angels
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 | The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme by John Keegan
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £3.40 Definitive and immensely readable. Keegan's The Price of Admiralty and The Mask of Command are just as good.
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 | Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War by Robert K. Massie
Buy used from: £4.86 Massie's legendary study of Europe's long slide into the Great War. Epic. Try his Castles of Steel to see how the story continues.
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 | Stalingrad (French) by Anthony Beevor
Buy new: £6.44 / Used from: £9.89 Again, definitive and unputdownable.
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 | A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan
Buy used from: £5.99 A real life disaster story.
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 | The Origins of the Second World War by A.J.P. Taylor
Buy new: £7.18 / Used from: £2.68 You may not agree with him, you may even find yourself infuriated, but still a great mental workout, and you will not put it down.
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 | Napoleon and His Marshals (Lost Treasures) by A.G. Macdonell
Buy new: £6.48 / Used from: £3.74 A rip roaring history of the Napolieonic Wars in 300 pages - reads like Sharpe, only it's all real.
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 | In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire (Phoenix Press) by Adrian Goldsworthy
Buy new: £6.96 / Used from: £1.10 Short Biographies of the men who built and defended Rome. Read it then read Rober Grave's Count Belisarius.
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 | Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket by Richard Holmes
Buy new: £6.96 / Used from: £0.01 Looks at the men who wore the famous red coat. His recent Tommy and Sahib are also excellent.
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 | Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon by David Cordingly
Buy used from: £3.49 A lovely book. Patrick O'Brian would have adored it.
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 | The Great Siege: Malta, 1565 (Wordsworth Military Library) by Ernle Bradford
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £4.74 The story of one of the most remarkable sieges in history.
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