War Games And Their History

Despite my recent conversion to the Kindle, I still like to buy proper printed books, and this one was recommended to me by two of my friends ... so I bought a copy ... and I am so glad that I did!

Before I even opened the book I was knocked out by the cover illustration! It was a section from the famous image from the 'Illustrated London News' that showed POLEMOS being played at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in 1888, and as regular blog readers will know, I have been trying to gather sufficient information about POLEMOS to recreate it. I was very interested to note that the author has a copy of the 'boys' edition' of POLEMOS (an edition that I was previously unaware of!), and it is featured in several illustrations in the book, one of which is reproduced below.

This serves to indicate the nature of the numerous illustrations in this book, which could easily have been described as being an 'illustrated history'.

In fairness to anyone who expects this book to contain a detailed history of figure or miniature wargames, I should point out that Mr Lewin concentrates almost exclusively on the history of published map and board wargames from the early nineteenth century onwards.

The book contains the following sections:

• Foreword (by Major General Patrick Cordingley DSO, DSc, FRGS
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Ancient and Medieval Games
• Chapter 2: Games Played between 1600 and 1800
• Chapter 3: Games for Military Training
• Chapter 4: Games for Naval Training
• Chapter 5: Games for the Public: 1800 – 1900
• Chapter 6: Games for the Public: 1900 – 25
• Chapter 7: Games for the Public: 1925 – 50
• Chapter 8: Modern Games for the Public
• Chapter 9: Official War Games in the Nuclear Age
• Appendix 1: List of War Games
• Appendix 2: Bibliography
• Endnotes
• Index

I have only managed to have a quick skim through this book, but I can see that reading it is going to be a very informative, very enjoyable, and very thought-provoking experience. I think that anyone with an interest in the history of wargaming in all its forms will find this book well worth buying, and I suspect that over time it will find a place on the bookshelves of most wargamers.

WAR GAMES AND THEIR HISTORY was written by C G Lewin and published by Fonthill Media (ISBN 978 1 78155 042 7). It is priced at £25.00 but may be available online for less.