Battles Map by Map

by Smithsonian Institution, Peter Snow (Foreword)

Experience the world's most significant battles through bold, easy-to-grasp maps.

Includes a foreword by Peter Snow, broadcaster and historian. Covering everything from the battlefields of the ancient world to the bomb-scarred landscapes of World War II and beyond, this book is packed with engrossing maps telling the story of history's most famous battles. Using brand new, in-depth maps and expert analysis, see for yourself how legendary military milestones were won and lost, and how tactics, technology, vision, and luck have all played a part in the outcome of wars throughout history. Additionally, historic maps, paintings, photographs, and objects take you to the heart of the action; famous commanders and military leaders are profiled; and the impact of groundbreaking weapons and battlefield innovations is revealed.

Bursting with lavish illustrations and full of fascinating detail, Battles Map by Map is the ultimate history book for map lovers, military history enthusiasts, and armchair generals everywhere.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Military History, World History, Reference, Civil War

288 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2021

About the author

Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution or simply the Smithsonian is a group of museums, education and research centres created by the United States federal government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge"

Reviews

[Chris Chester · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a pretty enough coffee table book with an extremely broad generalist look at historic battles of interest mainly to a Western audience.

It's... fine. The explanations lose a lot for jumping around so much without much context.

But the real sin and the reason I rated it two stars is the maps are not good! Completely flat and lifeless, they look like they were created in photoshop with rudimentary symbols. Probably because they were!

Maybe my bar was too high after reading The Civil War, which had absolutely marvelous paintings of battles that gave a real sense of movement and narrative utterly lacking in this book.

[Rick Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love Maps

This could be given to middle-school & high-school children.

I appreciate Maps so much, when narrating history.

Although misses Asia, I was specifically looking forward about EIC in India

Waterloo & World War 2 were my favorites

Deus Vult
Gottfried

[Alex Whigham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice pictures

[Jimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books where its value to the reader really depends on how much detail you want. The selection of battles seem almost random and detail is kept to a minimum, no more than two pages for each battle. For some battles, only period maps are used (such as for Little Bighorn).

Still, I might have been willing to give it three stars, except that it used "BCE" and "CE" throughout the book for dates, instead of the correct "BC" and "AD".

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published only about four years ago now, this is a pretty recent survey of military history in less than 300 pages featuring an extensive collection of battlefield images and maps of how various battles proceeded. The selected battles range from Kadesh (1285 BCE) through the 2003 invasion of Iraq, grouped into about five different historical periods reflecting the styles and technologies of warfare in each. Each historical period is introduced with a brief summary of the warfare of the period and then followed by a series of descriptions of individual battles spanning the subject period. The supporting imagery includes photographs of period weaponry and artwork as well as maps showing troop movements and battlefield actions at key moments during the battle. The battle maps generally use color shading to depict terrain and silhouettes of soldiers to reflect the movements of the various elements of the contending army. Personally, at times I found the battle accounts a bit complicated when layered on a single map, vice the use on other occasions of multiple maps reflecting different moments of the battle. The accounts of the various eras of warfare as well as the different combats recounted are usually simple without a lot of extra details and embellishment, certainly one of the limits of the effort to compress almost 5000 years of military history into less than 300 pages. As noted at the beginning , this is a survey of history and a rather introductory one at that even if attractively presented, it is not really a reference source.

[Alexandru · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am biased in rating this book since it reminds me of the first book I've read in my life when I was five.

It describes very shortly the main battles in human history. It is too short, but I am obsessed with battle maps and the movement of the troops. The old battles are more interesting to visualize, because these lack the complexity of modern battles. I liked the shots of real historic maps used in battles.

The book contains minor errors and is really short on the descriptive part of the chosen battles. Unfortunately human history needs a larger book to include more battles. A good idea, but needed more battles and more maps.

[Mary Vogelsong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a coffee table quality book, hardcover with glossy pages and lots of maps and pictures.
The battles are arranged by date within a range of years.
This is not a comprehensive reference. Select major battles are included. If you look for American Civil War battles, you will find only Antietam and Gettysburg, as well as a brief article on Arms of the Civil War.
A nice glossary/index is included.

[Mrs Boyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically maps of loads of battles throughout history. It starts with Ancient Egypt and ends with the Korean War. I like the fact that it doesn't just focus on battles in the Western civilisation.

[Donald Yann · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book titled Map by Map the maps were not well done. They were confusing and provided little information about the terrain or tactics.

[Colin Thorson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely like history map by map better but this one was great too..I hope they make more

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

good overview of several important historical battles done from the perspective of a civillian, but a good summary

[Paweł Rusin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations, great in-depth descriptions of most important battles in history.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A visualization of the effect of battles across the world. Perfect for those interested in historical cartography and the cause and effects of events through history.