This book surveys the medals awarded to British personnel for military service around the world and in two world wars. During the course of the twentieth century the role of Britain's forces changed considerably - from imperial conquest and peace-keeping to full-scale participation in two world wards; campaigns for the withdrawal from Empire and finally service as a prominent member of the United Nations and NATO. The campaign medals awarded for these military actions have become a popular field for collectors; since the majority of British awards were officially named; thus making it possible to research the military career of an individual or regiment. Collectors feel that the objects in their collection give them a vivid and personal link with the people and events of the past and with major incidents in Britain's military history.
#10000088 in Books 1993-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.50 x 6.50 x 1.00l; #File Name: 0745608736300 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Thorough; Meaty; Intellectual; ExcellentBy John D. ComegysI am slowly reading this book and savoring every paragraph. This is a meaty; scholarly work pitched at a highly intellectual and abstract level. It is very original according to other (scholarly) reviews by experts and raises the bar for explanations of the Spanish Conquest. (I am a serious amateur; not a highly trained scholar of things Meso-American or Mexican.) Gruzinsky carefully explains just what happened when the high civilization of Mesoamerica was conquered. How the common man and 'native elite' adapted; fought to retain their rights; positions; and culture is carefully and surprisingly fully explained. You might think of this as "La Otra Conquista" for intellectuals. The Aztecs; Mixtecs and Purepecha didn't just magically turn into to Spaniards. They didn't just role over and quit. They struggled; adapted; prevailed and slowly became modern Mexicans; and this book's excellent work shows how it happened.8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. An outstanding rethinking of the meaning of conquestBy F. P. BarbieriReally outstanding books of history almost inevitably have certain basic common features; in particular; long and patient work on immense amount of often obscure original sources. Therefore favourable reviews often tend to have similar features; in particular praise for the author's immense; or at least uncommon; learning and labour. I dare say that; from the reader's point of view; negative reviews may be more fun; since a book can be bad in infinite ways but good in only one of a few. In this case; I will have to be boring: since this outstanding revisitation of colonial Mexican history is impressively learned; with a strong grasp of basic sources across at least three centuries (and if you think that's easy; just try it); insightful; leaving a clear impression of native spirituality and world-view and of its difference with the Christian and European world of the invaders; and novel. That is the main point. Gruzinski comes to his material with a question nobody before him had asked: how did the natives; heirs of a complex if barbarous civilization and of a very large variety of cultures; react to the presence among them of what was at first; and for considerable time; an alien culture with largely different assumptions and a wholly different world-view? He traces the interaction of Spanish Catholicism and political power with the various local cultures (never failing to make clear that Mexico was not a single culture; but an empire dominating or overshadowing a large number of different tribes) across three centuries; showing that as late as the eighteenth centuries there were broad unassimilated areas - which however tended to fade - and suggesting a subterranean continuity; bubbling up in the unsettled world of pulquerias and colonial slums; between the failures of assimilation in colonial times and the strong anti-clerical currents of post-independence Mexico; which are still a factor in the country today.Gruzinski's writing is straightforward though not very plain - big words are not avoided and some sentences may take time for the ordinary reader to grasp. But he avoids the bane of the French intellectual - airy generalizations and general pretentiousness: he always has his eye to the object; and is most often accurate; fair; and careful. Some of his views may; I suppose; be challenged: for instance; he treats the enormously widespread problem of alcoholism in the seventeenth century as a by-product of failed assimilation; yet Bernal Diaz del Castillo (one of Cortez's own soldiers; who wrote a memoir at the end of his life) tells us that massive and vicious drunkenness; including details too revolting to mention here; was a feature of pre-Conquest society as he encountered it. Gruzinski; being a pioneer; may have got some things wrong; as pioneers do. But he has given us a completely new and very valuable way to look at an old issue; and done so in a very well-organized; capable and professional way.
