Douglas Porch’s new book Wars of Empire, Cassell and Co., 2000, $29.95 is wonderful. This book has some of the most useful maps I have ever seen for gaming purposes, even if that’s not what they were meant for. The text starts in 1700 and moves rapidly to the era we are most concerned with on to 1999. The British and French are best represented here with the US, Japan and Germany less so. There is a nice color drawing of the Hereros attacking a German outpost, unfortunately there is no one in correct clothing, a French Propaganda illustration.

The author puts colonial actions into a larger picture, not something I really would wish for but it makes it easier to understand some country’s motives for their actions. The book seems to suffer from some poor organization as things are not always in chronological order nor together. Other than that I can recommend this book most highly! This is a great book to start someone out in the colonial period.