A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times by George Cameron StoneMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
A flawed but classic study.
My high school library had a copy of this book and I spent many hours poring over the descriptions of odd weapons and staring at the hundreds of photographs. When I grew up and started researching and writing military history, I consulted it again. What a disappointment! This book is filled with mistakes. Stone was an expert on Asian arms and armor but makes countless errors when he writes outside his area of expertise. He should have had a coauthor!
That said, you can still learn a lot about Asian militaria from this book, and the photos are a goldmine of information no matter what region you study. I suggest buying The Complete Encyclopaedia of Arms and Weapons, edited by Tarassuk and Blair, instead of Stone's work. If you have deep pockets, buy both.
NOTE: This review is of the original 1961 edition. I haven't seen the later facsimile edition. Another reviewer said the photos are poor quality in the facsimile. They weren't too good in the original, although they were clear enough. I suppose they may have lost some quality in the reprint.
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Nice to see this book up and being reviewed. I also used to read this back in high school and later, college. In the pre-internet days, it was a treasure. Once the 'Net offered a number of different venues and I matured somewhat as a researcher, I noticed that the book is indeed dated (a lot of archaeology and misconceptions have been discovered in the last 50 years).
ReplyDeleteI would like to land a copy at some point and keep it on the shelf as a nice reference now and then, but it is definitely showing its age and more.