Acquisitions

Ann Curthoys and John Docker. Is History Fiction? Sydney: UNSW Press, 2006.Sic. On truth in history; seems to be attempting a third way between, or at least taking the good bits from both postmodernism and empiricism. My glib answer to the question in the title would be, not if you're doing it right! (Which probably tells you where my sympathies lie.)

Philip Eklund. Airships at War 1914-1941. Sierra Madre Games, 2003. Not a book but a wargame, simulating a Zeppelin mission in the First World War or in a hypothetical war between the US and Japan (including the American flying aircraft carriers Macon and Akron). There seems to be a lot of info packed into this game: it even simulates things like onboard sailmakers (for repairing tears in the hydrogen cells), and tossing the wireless overboard in order to gain lift! I'll write a bit more about this game when I have had a chance to play it; for now here's the company's product page for a bit more information. (I'm really annoyed to see that the game listed there now has updated rules and components compared to the one I ordered a whole week ago. They could have at least mentioned the fact that an update was due soon!)

Philip Eklund. Riesenflugzeugabteilungen. Sierra Madre Games, 1997. An expansion for Airships at War which features the giant German, Italian and Russian bombers of WWI. Product page. (Again, a newer edition than the one I've just received ...)

Jay Winter and Antoine Prost. The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Writing (and to a lesser degree, filming) the Great War across time and space (mainly Britain, France and Germany). The structure looks fruitful: it slices the narrative by 'experience' (eg soldiers, workers, civilians).

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