There are tens of thousands of military history books out there so it's impossible to give anything like the whole picture even if it were desirable to do so and I will not attempt such an undertaking. What I have done though is to list some books below I have read and found useful that may be of interest to others. Some of these titles will be in print and others out of print. To obtain them try eBay, local independent booksellers, second hand bookshops, Amazon, Waterstones, Borders etc...And of course there is your local library where sometimes it is easier to find older titles that are harder to find in the bookstores. Books are listed by period. I have included reference works, narratives, biographies, novels etc...anything that may be of interest. My hobbies include collecting, wargaming, painting, visiting battlefields and museums, modelling and reading - so these books will have come into my orbit as a result of meeting my needs for one or more of those pastimes. Therefore it's likely that if you have similar hobbies some of these suggestions may be useful to you also.

I have listed just author and title for speed. Also over time and in different global markets publishers change as do the formats (eg hardback, paperback) and isbn's (the identifying code on every book). The information provided should be enough to track a title down. Periodically I hope to return to this guide and embelish it with some commentary as to why I like a particular publication, but for now it will be more of a straightforward list. Only ten small pictures are possible in these guides so sorry there aren't more jacket covers. I'd welcome tips from readers as to their suggestions that I have not mentioned below as I am always on the look out for new books to add to my ever growing "to read" pile! As I look at this list which is not short I see very little on aerial or naval warfare or major conflicts such as the English Civil War, Seven Years War or the Franco-Prussian War for example so plenty of areas yet to explore. Contact me via eBay messages - user id: flagbearer101.

As well as being interested in the hobbies mentioned above I also run an eBay store specialising in toy soldiers with the occassional book cropping up, this is: Drum & Flag . Prior to heading out of the rat race and setting up my own business I worked in publishing for 15 years or so which enabled me to collect more books than was good for my floorboards! Happy reading.

Last Updated: April 2008

* WW2

Stephen E. Ambrose - Band of Brothers, Citizen Soldiers, D-Day, Pegasus Bridge, Wild Blue

Antony Beevor - Stalingrad, Berlin

Evgeni Bessonov - Tank Rider. Into the Third Reich with the Red Army

Bodleian Library - Instructions for British Servicemen in France 1944

Paul Brickhill - The Great Escape

Alan Bullock - Hitler. A Study in Tyranny / Hitler & Stalin. Parallel Lives

Bob Carruthers - Servants of Evil

Lothar-Gunther Buchheim - The Boat

Alan Clark - Barbarossa

Michael L. Cooper - Japanese Americans and World War II

Len Deighton & Max Hastings - Battle of Britain

Chris Ellis - Tanks of WW2

Liddell Hart - History of the Second World War

Max Hastings - Armageddon. The Battle for Germany, 1944-45 / Nemesis. The Battle for Japan, 1944-45

Jack Higgins - The Eagle Has Landed

Alistair Horne - To Lose a Battle. France 1940.

Jarrold - Winston Churchill.Quotations.

Thomas Keneally - Schindler's Ark

Ian Kershaw - Hitler. Hubris & Nemesis

Kenneth Macksey - The Hitler Options. Alternate Decisions of WWII.

von Mellenthin - Panzer Battles

Kurt Meyer - Grenadier. The Story of Waffen SS General Kurt "Panzer" Meyer

Martin Middlebrook - Arnhem 1944

James Owen - Nuremberg. Evil on Trial

Richard Overy - Russia's War, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich

Christopher Hibbert - Arnhem

Routledge - Who's Who in World War II

Cornelius Ryan - A Bridge Too Far, The Last Battle, The Longest Day

Michael Smith - Station X

Albert Speer - Inside the Third Reich

Spielberg & James - Saving Private Ryan

Franz Steidl - Lost Battalions

Frederick Taylor - Dresden.

John Toland - The Battle of the Bulge

Gordon Williamson - The Blood Soaked Soil

Patrick Wilson - Dunkirk. From Disaster to Deliverance

Charles Winchester - Ostfront. Hitler's War on Russia 1941-45

* WW1

Max Arthur - Forgotten Voices of the Great War

Alan Clarke - The Donkeys

Martin Gilbert - The Routledge Atlas of the First World War

Liddell Hart - History of the First World War

Philip J. Haythornthwaite - The World War One Source Book

Nigel Jones - The War Walk

John Keegan - The First World War

* COLONIAL ERA

Byron Farwell - The Great Boer War

Donald Featherstone - Victorian Colonial Warfare - Africa

Donald Featherstone - Victorian Colonial Warfare - India

Donald Featherstone - Weapons & Equipment of the Victorian Soldier

Philip J Haythornthwaite - The Colonial Wars Sourcebook

Rayne Kruger - Goodbye Dolly Gray. The Story of the Boer War

Howard Whitehouse - Battle in Africa 1879-1914

P.C. Wren - Beau Geste

* CRIMEAN WAR

Denis Judd - The Crimean War

Paul Kerr - The Crimean War

Julian Spilsbury - The Thin Red Line

* AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Combined Books - Great Campaigns Series - eg Appomattox, Antietam, Gettysburg etc...

William C Davis - The Battlefields of the Civil War / The Commanders of the Civil War / The Fighting Men of the Civil War

Shelby Foote - The Civil War Trilogy. Legendary narrative of the war

Thomas Griess - West Point Atlas for the American Civil War

Paddy Griffith - Battle Tactics of the American Civil War

Cozzens Hartwig - On Campaign - The Civil War Artwork of Keith Rocco

William B. Holberton - Homeward Bound. The Demobilization of the Union and Confederate Armies 1865-1866.

Tony Horwitz - Confederates in the Attic

Andre Jouineau - H&C Officers and Soldiers of the American Civil War series

Philip Katcher - The American Civil War Source Book

Frances H. Kennedy - The Civil War Battlefield Guide

Knickerbocker - Civil War Battleflags

Kunstler & Robertson - Jackson & Lee. Legends in Gray. The Paintings of Mort Kunstler

Benson J Lossing - Matthew Brady's Illustrated History of the Civil War

Mark Llyod - Combat Uniforms of The Civil War

Ronald F. Maxwell - Gods & Generals. The Illustrated Story of the Epic Civil War Film.

James M. McPherson - Battle Cry of Freedom. Probably the best single volume on the ACW. Also see Ordeal by Fire.

McPherson & Kunstler - Gettysburg. The Paintings of Mort Kunstler

John Macdonald - Great Battles of the Civil War

O'Shea & Greenspan - Battle Maps for the American Civil War

Pelican  - Flags of the Civil War

David Phillips - Maps of the Civil War. The Roads They Took

Jeff Shaara - Gods & Generals, The Last Full Measure. (Michael Shaara's son)

Michael Shaara - The Killer Angels. Fact based fictional novel of the Gettysburg campaign. A classic.

Sterling - Uniforms of the Civil War. Great pocket guide for figure painters

Craig L. Symonds - A Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War

Don Troiani - Don Troiani's Civil War. Brilliant and luxuriant ACW artwork

Ward et al - The Civil War

* NAPOLEONIC

Mark Adkin - The Waterloo Companion

Roy Adkins - Trafalgar. The Biography of a Battle

Georges Blond - Le Grand Armee

Jack Cassin-Scott - Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars in Colour. 1796-1814

David Chandler - The Campaigns of Napoleon / The Military Maxims of Napoleon / Waterloo - The Hundred Days

Rene Chartrand - Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon's Army

Bernard Cornwell - The Sharpe Series

Esposito & Elting - A Military History & Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars

Ian Fletcher - Fields of Fire.Battlefields of the Peninsular War / Wellington's Regiments / Napoleonic Wars. Wellington's Army

Michael Glover - Warfare in the Age of Bonaparte / Wellington's Peninsular Victories

Thomas E Griess - Westpoint Atlas for the Wars of Napoleon

Philip Haythornthwaite - The Armies of Wellington / The Napoleonic Sourcebook / Wellington's Military Machine / Napoleon's Military Machine / Uniforms of Waterloo / Uniforms of Napoleon's Russian Campaign / Uniforms of the Peninsular Wars 1807-1814

Christopher Hibbert - Corunna / Waterloo

Peter Hofschroer - 1815. The Waterloo Campaign. The German Victory / 1815. The Waterloo Campaign. Wellington, his German Allies and the Battles of Ligny & Quatre Bras / Wellington's Smallest Victory - The Duke, the Model Maker and the Secret of Waterloo

Richard Holmes - Wellington. The Iron Duke

F G Hourtoulle - L'Epope Napoleonienne / Borodino / 1814 / Wagram / Jena-Auerstadt / Austerlitz

Alistair Horne - How Far From Austerlitz? Napoleon 1805-1815

David Howarth - Waterloo. A Near Run Thing. / Trafalgar. The Nelson Touch / Nelson - The Immortal Memory

Andre Jouineau - H&C Officers and Soldiers Series

Elizabeth Longford - Wellington. The Years of the Sword

Michael O'Mara - Ship's Miscellany

Col. F N Maude, C.B. - The Jena Campaign

Mikhailofsky-Danielefsky - History of the Campaign in France in the Year 1814

Baron Carl von Muffling - The Memoirs of Baron Carl von Muffling. A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars

Frederick Myatt - British Sieges of the Peninsular War

Paget & Saunders - Hougoumont. The Key to Victory at Waterloo

George Nafziger - Imperial Bayonets

Jonathan North - The Napoleon Options. Alternate Decisions of the Napoleonic Wars / With Napoleon in Russia. The Illustrated Memoirs of Major Faber du Faur, 1812

Brent Nosworthy - Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies

Roger Parkinson - The Napoleonic Wars

Partridge & Oliver - Napoleonic Army Handbook. The British Army & Her Allies / The French Army & Her Allies

F Loraine Petre - Napoleon'c Campaign in Poland 1806-1807

Bruce Quarrie - Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature. A Wargamers' Guide to the Napoleonic Wars 1796 - 1815

Gunther E. Rothenberg - Napoleon's Great Adversary. Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army 1792-1814 / The Napoleonic Wars

Captain W. Siborne - History of the Waterloo Campaign

Digby Smith - The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Databook. Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards and Artillery, 1792-1815 / Borodino

John Terraine - Trafalgar

Uffindell & Corum - On the Fields of Glory. The Battlefields of the 1815 Campaign

Mark Urban - Rifles. Six Years with Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters

Jac Weller - Wellington at Waterloo

Windrow & Embleton - Military Dress of the Peninsular War. 1808-1814

* AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (AMERICAN REVOLUTION)

Hugh Biceno - Rebels & Redcoats

Jeremy Black - War for America. The Fight For Independence 1775-1783

Mollo & McGregor - Uniforms of the American Revolution

Craig L Symonds - A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution

W.J. Wood - Battles of the Revolutionary War 1775-1781

* WAR OF SPANISH SUCCESSION

Correlli Barnett - Marlborough

Charles Spencer - Blenheim

* ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL

Scott Anglim et al - Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World

Nigel Bagnall - The Punic Wars

Peter Connolly - Greece & Rome at War

Leonard Cottrell - Hannibal

Michael Crichton - The Eaters of the Dead. Novel. Viking myths

Gibbon's - Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire

Adrian Goldsworthy - The Punic Wars, Cannae

Peter Harrison - Great Battles of the Ancient World. Tie-in to the TV Show Time Commanders

John Matthews & Bob Stewart - Warriors of Medieval Times

John Drogo Montagu - Battles of the Greek & Roman Worlds

Ernest K. Gann - The Antagonists. Novel of the Roman siege of Massada

Dewey Gram - Gladiator

Victor Davis Hanson - The Wars of Ancient Greece

Peter Harrison - Great Battles of the Ancient World.

John Haywood - The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings

Valerio Massimo Manfredi - The Alexander Trilogy. Fantastic novel.

Angus McBride - Warriors & Warlords - The Art of Angus McBride

Robert Morkot - The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece

Tim Newark - Warlords. Ancient - Celtic - Medieval.

David Nicolle - Medieval Warfare Source Book

John Peddie - Hannibal's War

Chris Scarre - The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome

Ridley Scott - Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven

Michael Wood - In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

* SERIES, GENERAL TITLES AND ALL OTHER PERIODS

Antony Beevor - The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936-39

Dee Brown - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

David Chandler - A Guide to the Battlefields of Europe / Atlas of Military Strategy

David Chandler & Ian Beckett - The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army

Childrens Books - Some illustrated books aimed at older children are very useful for gamers and model makers. See publications from Dorling Kindersley, Usborne, Hamlyn, Kingfisher etc...

Carl von Clausewitz - On War

Concord - Excellent range of illustrated books usually featuring Tim Newark and/or Alistair McBride. eg. Ancient Celts, Imperial Rome at War, Ancient Armies, Barbarians, The Mongols, Age of the Crusades etc...

Robert Cowley - What If?

Dan Cruickshank - Invasion. Defending Britain from Attack.

Dupuy & Dupuy - The Collins Encyclopedia of Military History

Donald Featherstone - Bridges of Battle

L & F Funcken - Uniform books - excellet references.

Tony Geraghty - March or Die. France & The Foreign Legion

Michael Glover - Warfare from Waterloo to Mons

Phil Grabsky - The Great Commanders

Max Hastings - Going to the Wars

Richard Holmes - War Walks

Mr & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guides (To the Somme, Ypres Salient, Normandy etc...)

Alan C Huffines - The Alamo Siege & Battle

Hutchinson - Atlas of Battle Plans. Before and After

John MacDonald - Great Battlefields of the World

Charles Messenger - The Century of Warfare. Worldwide Conflict from 1900 to the Present Day

Simon Murray - Legionnaire

Tim Newark - Where They Fell. A Walkers Guide to the Battlefields of the World

Osprey - See their excellent and vast range of different series - Campaign, Men at Arms, Elite, Warrior, Fortress etc...

John Parker - Commandos

Geoffrey Parker - Cambridge Illustrated History - Warfare

Bryan Perrett - The Battle Book

Geoffrey Regan - Great Military Blunders

Routledge - Who's Who in Military History

Lon Tinkle - 13 Days to Glory. The Siege of the Alamo

Don Troiani - Don Troiani's Soldiers in America 1754 - 1865

Arthur Ward - Airfix. Celebrating 50 Years of the Greatest Plastic Kits in the World

Ray Westlake - English & Welsh Infantry Regiments. An Illustrated Record of Service 1662 - 1994

* TOLKIEN

Okay so it's not military history but I wargame Tolkien scenarios from Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and the Silmarillion, love his books and thought some folk may share my interest so tagged some suggestions on at end of this guide.

Tolkien - Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit / The Silmarillion / Unfinished Tales / History of LOTR / The Children of Hurin / The Monsters and The Critics

Astin - There and Back Again. An Actor's Tale. A Behind the Scenes Look at the Lord of the Rings.

Brodie - Lord of the Rings Location Guide Book

Carpenter - JRR Tolkien / The Letters of JRR Tolkien / The Inklings

Coren - JRR Tolkien

Curry - Defending Middle-Earth. Tolkien: Myth & Modernity

Day - The World of Tolkien / Tolkien Illustrated Encyclopedia

Duriez - Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings. A Guide to Middle Earth

Fisher - Lord of the Rings Visiual Companion

Fonstad - The Atlas of Middle Earth

Garth - Tolkien and the Great War. The Threshold of Middle-Earth

Hammond & Scull - Tolkien Artist & Illustrator

Harper Collins - Realms of Tolkien

Harper Collins - Tolkien's World

Hildebrandt - The Tolkien Years

Howe - Myth & Magic (More than just Tolkien in here)

Russell - The Art of Lord of the Rings

Shippey - JRR Tolkien. Author of the Century

Sibley - Shadowlands. About CS Lewis but of interest to Tolkien fans

Smith - Lord of the Rings Weapons & Warfare

Strachey - The Journeys of Frodo

Tyler - The Complete Tolkien Companion

Wenzel - The Hobbit. In fully illustrated comic strip format.