The Cambridge Ancient History: Plates to Volumes 1 and 2 Book

A most enjoyable book. One which corrected misconceptions of some history I had learned, and really provided a better backdrop for ancient european history than I've had in the past. That may speak as much to the quality of education as quality of book. It is layed out strangely, with each chapter lasting about a 1-1.5 pages, followed by several pages of "excursis", followed by a page or two of foot notes. The translation is a little bit strange also (originally german), and you can definitely hear the German/Prussian in the prose. If you like ancient history, this is interesting due to methods and changes in warfare. He only rarely touches on political, social, or even military upheavals; focussing on how how people fought changed. I find particularly fascinating how over the centuries the maneuver unit has shrunk as we get better at communicating and better at killing.