Black Sea Neal Ascherson for Vintage The historical equivalent of Sidney Sheldon novels - the travel-book-meets-history (impress women without trying, send me $20 and I'll tell you how) is usually the turf of Jan Morris. Neal Ascherson is a worthy follower of her. The topic is the meeting of barbarism and civilisation on the shores of the Black Sea. But en route we pass through lots of history and plenty of "topics". The collapse of multi-ethnic societies, the co-existence of steppe warrior and traders, the anoxic qualities of the Black Sea, the state of archaeology in Russia, why kurgans are still used as grave yards and the Sarmatism of the Polish szlachta. I was much taken with the Bosporan Kingdom founded by Spartocos (clearly a game opportunity here for "I AM SPARTOCOS"). [Ed: You're fired again]. More Book Corner: The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe The Battle of Hastings Infantry Warfare in the Early 14th Century The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century Black Sea The Bayonets of the Republic European Warfare 1660-1815 The Austro-Prussian War Warfare Under Anglo-Norman Kings Empress Matilda -and- The Reign of Stephen Prince Eugene of Savoy The Medieval Archer The First World War: Germany and Austro-Hungary 1914-1918 Pallas Armata titles Back to Perfidious Albion #94 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com