Battleships: The First Big Guns: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War)

FIRST, this has absolutely nothing to do with the company that handled my purchase of this product. It arrived exactly when it was supposed to, and in excellent shape. NO..! This is about the actual book..!!! I have been an amateur naval historian for, well over, 36 years. Sure, I am not a professional, but dozens of history classes, literally thousands of books read, countless talks with actual naval personnel and I consider myself as a fairly good, well rounded student of the world's great navy's. So, please realize where this review is coming from. I buy and read countless books about naval history. Both new and used. There are so, so many truly awesome books on the subject. This book is sadly not one of those. No... This book has more pictures of movie actors and actresses than historical characters. The few actual pictures of Battleships within it are fuzzy, out of focus blurs. These are pictures I have in other books that are sharp and clear, so I know it's just lazy editing. The actual text is bland, and in many cases simply wrong. Movie references are rampant throughout this poor excuse for a historical text. I found the bulk of the books narrative written more like a children's book. Seriously... wow... If you've never read a book about 19th and 20th century naval history, you might get something out of this pitiful text, but anyone else will simply/facepalm through this sad thing. But, it's sold on the fact that, it's crammed full of rare naval photos, yet those photos are not rare, and so poorly presented that they're almost worthless. In the end, all I can say is, please don't get this book if you truly enjoy naval history... Take care all.

This book full of great photographs of the early battleships and is a very fascinating book. Would recommend this book to any fan of Warships of the last century.

very readable and some great photos

ok

This book is not particularly well-illustrated or well-written and does not live up to the "rare photographs from wartime archives" subtitle on the cover. It is a decent enough survey of the "battleship" from the first sailing ships armed with cannons to the modern battleship. There are many other books on battleships that are far superior to this one. I wish that I had read the earlier review from Robert E. Jacobs, Sr., and not purchased this book.

An immensely disappointing endeavor. Given the content there is little to distinguish this book from World War Two at Sea: The Last Battleships. There is no reason that there should have been any mention of the ironclads of the American Civil War; the chapter on the Battle of Tsushima and the one on the interwar years and the Second World War. I expected that, given the title, there would have been far more mention of the early dreadnoughts and their successor superdreadnoughts. For a series calling itself 'Images of War' there certainly could have been a lot more. As a naval historian I would not consider adding this title to any collection and would recommend looking for a much more serious and comprehensive work elsewhere. Osprey has released many recent titles covering the dreadnoughts of the Great War and the Second World War and they are everything this title is not and well worth the money. A terribly wasted opportunity.

Not interesting as its too brief about every thing and most of the photo are from old war films? as in not real but stills from Cinema

In questo periodo in offerta a prezzo fisso (un curioso 3,63 euro a volume) ma se comprate i libri originali li pagate 5-6 volte di più. Sintetici nei testi, riccamente illustrati. Per gli appassionati di storia militare una miniera d'oro.

Got this book for my boyfriend for Christmas and he loves it! He's picky with his history books too.