After my rather uninspired political commentary post, I decided to go back to the comfortable world of military history so as not to lose what little hair I have left.
I don't normally review magazines, but I was really compelled to compliment my recent favorite subscriptions.
As you may know, I recently mourned the demise of my favorite Civil War magazine, North and South. For over a decade, I faithfully looked forward to receiving my new issue every other month, and diligently ordered all the back issues (even the elusive Vol 1, No 5 issue!) so that I have the complete publication run faithfully stored in my library.
But now I had to fill that void, so I turned to a magazine I have been irregularly buying from the newsstand.
Strategy and Tactics....and it's modern spin off Modern War
I normally take a pretty skeptical view of "military history magazines." Most of them retread the same old subjects or pander to the lowest denominator of pop history. Not that there's anything wrong with that...I appreciate that there is a huge market of interested people that don't know ANYTHING about military history, but I wanted something a little more analytical and off the beaten path.
For the most part, these two magazines deliver. I especially enjoy the quality of their maps (I love maps) and the thoroughness of the articles. What's interesting is these magazines are actually published by a war game design company, so they are more oriented around a monthly war game format...but sadly that doesn't fit into my budget, so I just get the basic magazine....although there have been some months that I really did wish I could get the full version.
There is also a World War II version, but I could only afford two subscriptions (and one of them was a Christmas present)...so I chose these two. The World At War magazine is equally good and really covers some esoteric topics of World War 2 history.
There's a lot of pretty decent magazines...I also occasionally enjoy Armchair General, but although it has some pretty good columnists, it is not quite of the same caliber.
So, more book reviews soon...and maybe some other surprises.
I don't normally review magazines, but I was really compelled to compliment my recent favorite subscriptions.
As you may know, I recently mourned the demise of my favorite Civil War magazine, North and South. For over a decade, I faithfully looked forward to receiving my new issue every other month, and diligently ordered all the back issues (even the elusive Vol 1, No 5 issue!) so that I have the complete publication run faithfully stored in my library.
But now I had to fill that void, so I turned to a magazine I have been irregularly buying from the newsstand.
Strategy and Tactics....and it's modern spin off Modern War
I normally take a pretty skeptical view of "military history magazines." Most of them retread the same old subjects or pander to the lowest denominator of pop history. Not that there's anything wrong with that...I appreciate that there is a huge market of interested people that don't know ANYTHING about military history, but I wanted something a little more analytical and off the beaten path.
For the most part, these two magazines deliver. I especially enjoy the quality of their maps (I love maps) and the thoroughness of the articles. What's interesting is these magazines are actually published by a war game design company, so they are more oriented around a monthly war game format...but sadly that doesn't fit into my budget, so I just get the basic magazine....although there have been some months that I really did wish I could get the full version.
There's a lot of pretty decent magazines...I also occasionally enjoy Armchair General, but although it has some pretty good columnists, it is not quite of the same caliber.
So, more book reviews soon...and maybe some other surprises.
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