THE OXFORD BOOK OF MILITARY ANECDOTES

New York: Oxford University Press, 1966. First Paperback Printing . Illustrated Coated Cardstock. Very Good/No Jacket. 7 15/16" Tall. This selection is principally Brotosh and American, with occasional forays among fpreign armies. Although it begins in earliest times, it emphasizes the post-eighteenth-century period when anecdotage achieved the form we most readily recognize today. Many pages of the Old Testament, of course, are filled with bloodcurdling military history. Classical literature is rich in evocative battlefield experience. Yet searching the narratives of Xenophon, Thucydides, Caesar and others, I found surprisingly few passages that possess the quality of whimsey, and stand well enough alone to be characterized as anecdotes. Here, as throughout the book, I have compromised by including such memorable desrciptions as Hannibal's crossing the Alps and Caesar's first landing in Britain, while generally seeking a quality of drollness, even at the expense of passing by many great military moments." 384 anecdotes, 514 pages, with Sources and Acknowledgements, and Index of Principal Names and Places; plus x pages Contents, and Introduction. Covers have partial crease at rear, otherwise clean and sound; text is strong and clean, though coloring at edges.