ISBN: 1 85532 7775 HB 112 pages Published by Osprey Military.
Martin Marix Evans is well known for his mini-histories covering various aspects of the Great War. He has again in this volume written a good account of the American armies involvement in the later stages of the First World War. Evans has to be commended on the research that has none into the work. The book is broken down into 7 distinct sections, each of which is a self-contained cameo of the later stages of the conflict.
One of the best features of the book is the use of numerous photographs, which originate from the US Army Military History Institute. All too often we see the same standard set of Imperial War Museum photographs. Evans is to be commended on this important aspect of the book.
As with all the Osprey Military publications this one is very well put together.
The blend of text and photographs is first class. The painted illustrations of the soldiers uniforms are excellent.
However there is one aspect of the presentation which greatly denudes from the overall presentation of the book, this is the poor quality of the Battle Plan maps. In Evans earlier works the maps were always first class. For some reason in this volume the copying is of a poor quality. Many of the maps are rather faded not by age but by poor photographic presentation. The details they hold are important in understand how the American Armies moved around the battlefields. The problem is that the size of the maps is too small. It would have helped to have whole pages turned over to the maps, and to zoom in on the relevant area of interest.
Over all this is an interesting book on the American involvement in the Great War. It would be best described as a coffee table volume. Martin Marix Evans has produced a worthy book of note.
Reviewer: Martin Hornby
