94 issues of the 112 issues I need for the full collection. |
'Are you reading a copy of Purnell's history of the First World War?' |
So I've found a few of the issues I need online since, and I'll look into getting them next year.
There are a couple of downsides though. First of all - where do I put them? I don't have the original binders, and when I looked in to having them library bound I discovered it would cost me $75 a volume. Seven volumes later and I could have had a down-payment on a small house!
Secondly, and saddest for me, is the fact that on the 100th anniversary of the war nobody is considering undertaking a partwork publication like this incorporating all of the recent advances we have made in the scholarship of the conflict. I can only think that the powers that be consider such a project to be too highbrow for the consumption of joe public. Better to feed them some more throw-away glossy gossip trash.
Nate
Nate
Nate, I agree that it is a sad reflection on the state of academic study, or perhaps it is the state of the publishing industry, that no one has put out a scholarly work for the centenary of the Great War. I was rather hoping that Hew Strachan (no relation BTW) might have pushed out Volumes two and three of his planned trilogy, but alas we are left with Volume 1. I did enjoy the Max Hastings book last year and there is hope he may do something more yet.
ReplyDeleteOsprey has put a couple of great books by Ian Senior and Prit Buttar as well. But it is the lack of interest in the wider community for a magazine like this that I find sad. I'm not sure if it reflects the modern attitude that avoids intellectual discourse or publishers deciding that it isn't something that people would be interested in.
DeleteI have the Ian Senior work (still unread). i think that the real problem is that the publishing world has not yet got to grips on how to live in the digital world and still turn a profit. I am involved in technical publishing and the digital rights issue is a point of ongoing discussion. The protection of intellectual property and providing authors a way of eraning a living is extremely difficult in the age of the internet where everyone wants everything for free.
Delete