Dictionary of Wars

Contains summaries of all notable wars from earliest recorded history to the present day, spanning some four-thousand years.

Grade 10 Up—Aiming to present "clear, essential, and accurate historical information on major and minor wars, revolts, revolutions, rebellions, uprisings, invasions and insurrections," the third edition of this well-reviewed reference source (the second edition was published in 1999) contains some additions and other changes that reflect the upsurge of international and domestic terrorism and violence. About 50 of the 1850 entries have been modified. Each alphabetical section begins with a full-page black-and-white painting or drawing depicting an event or artifact covered in that section. Entries include the dates of events and a brief summary of their causes, effects, and consequences. The straightforward writing style emphasizes basic facts rather than arguments justifying or opposing each conflict. This, along with the occasional cross-references and helpful and complete general and geographic indexes, makes the encyclopedia accessible to most students. However, the work understates many of the genocidal campaigns and terrorist attacks that have taken place in history. For example, the Holocaust is only mentioned in one sentence in the entry on World War II, and the slaughter of two million Cambodians by Pol Pot's regime is deeply embedded in "Kampuchean Civil War of 1978–1998." Not a necessary purchase for libraries that have an earlier edition.—Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
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