It seemed to me that reader Russell Murray, in the June Newsletter was expressing a long felt need, pointed out many times in past issues, for some bibliographical instruction to wargamers. I am surprised that no professional librarian has written an article like this years ago; I worked in a public library when I was at school, and even at that level I was amazed at the services which are offered now if any people ASK. Firstly, has Mr. Murray asked his librarian for a reading list of the type he requires? After all, the librarian is trained for just this; unless the branch is very small he is likely to have an arts degree as well which may coincide with our interests. Even if the librarian-at the branch cannot undertake tasks like this, he can forward the request to his Central library or County H.Q. and there a specialist in History literature will be very likely to deal with it. The Library of Congress, for example, has more than 50 million items in stock. This means, I would estimate, about 15 million books. The Central Library is likely to have a copy of its catalogue, which has a subject index (as does the catalogue of the British Museum Library). The entries for subjects in either of these catalogues, in an over-written field like ours, could be more than one could read in a lifetime. The A.C.W., for example, is one of the most written-about subjects ever and it is now impossible to read all its literature in several lifetimes. One should also follow up references in books one has. The National Central Library has access to vast stocks of periodicals, and if, for example, one wants to read a reference to the Journal for Army Historical Research, 1924, just ASK. It will be photocopied and sent to you. Even if ones, system cannot undertake tasks like this -- and there are, it must be admitted, still some very poor library systems in Britain, but not many -- the average reader, by using a little thought, can find much bibliographical material for himself. I have limited myself to an example, that of a literature search for A.C.W. material in a small branch library which can get requested books for readers. 1. Ask your librarian whether a bibliography of the subject exists. He will look in Winchell -- Guide to Reference Books", which lists several reference books on the ACW including the incomparable Dyer "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion". There is in fact a bibliography of the A.C.W., a very full (but not comprehensive) volume. If the enquirer ordered this he need look no further; most of the hundreds of thousands of the books on the Civil liar are listed and it takes little intelligence to work out one's own reading list from here; this is probably best, because, as I shall point out later, magazine reviews are seldom guides to quality. 2. Look the subject up in each encyclopaedia possessed by the library, especially the American encyclopaedias like "Brittanica." They have very full, sometimes annotated, bibliographies. 3. Ask the librarian for the American bibliographies he has. He will almost certainly take you to volumes of the "Cumulative Book Index" going back to 1928 and if one looks under subject a full bibliography of all books on the A.C.W. written in English since then will be formed. 4. Order a sample of the literature. Copy out the items one is interested in from their bibliographies and order these; repeat the process each time you require more material. There are many other moves, depending on the size or leaning of your library. Most will have the "British National Bibliography", "British Books in Print", "Subject Guide to Books in Print" -- even an index to these if you wish to go that far. All these can be used for a subject search. All in all, although I agree that the Newsletter should give brief details title, author, publisher -- of new books I disagree that lengthy reviews of books, or reading lists, are necessary. I would be happy to supply reading lists, as I have worked out my own and this would just mean posting them off to Don, but I do not see in view of the above that they are necessary. Regarding reviews, most of them in wargames periodicals are useless. The Newsletter is better than most in this respect, John Risdon's being outstanding. Usually, however, the editors simply copy out the publisher's "blurb" wholesale. How many times did we read that Batsfords "Military Commanders" series were remarkable for "superb cartography?" Batsford put this phrase in their adverts and it was repeated in most reviews I saw. It is not superb; the rough sketches provided show little or nothing of the terrain and are by and large completely useless. Fortesque's maps are what I call "superb cartography" -- and compare the pathetic Waterloo maps of 'Napoleon' and 'Wellington' to those of Fortesque. In addition, compare 'Stonewall Jackson' to Henderson's classic. The maps are far poorer, the text is, as Selby admits, an outright precis with lumps of "Battles and Leaders" and the "Official Records" thrown in. Now this is not an attack on Batsford -- I bought and enjoyed all three of these books I am simply pointing out that if we are to have reviews it would have been far more valuable to have said the above than to have regurgitated Bateford's own glowing praise for their own publications. Incidentally, read "History Today's" reviews each month. They are really good, and David Chandler's reviews of Napoleonic material are, as one can imagine, extremely good and the final authority as far as my purchasing goes. There is bound to be controversy in the Newsletter as to what will gain a place in its crowded pages; if the consensus of opinion is that reading lists are necessary I offer to write them as this will prove that they ARE necessary; or perhaps just that we prefer to have a short-list put in front of us with minimum trouble, and do not mind it being composed by someone not fully aware of our tastes, or needs. I hope the above helps Mr. Murray and other readers in their literature searches. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 95 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1970 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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