Book Description
Copy This!, Paul Orfalea's inspiring, personal story of turning lemons into lemonade, may be the most unusual business memoir ever published.
Paul Orfalea struggles mightily to read, to write, and to sit still through a business meeting. So what's the problem? By working with the obstacles life dealt him—he calls his dyslexia and ADHD "learning opportunities"—he grew a 100-square-foot copy shop named Kinko's into a $1.5 billion-a-year company that
Fortune named one of the best places in America to work.
This is the story of a boy who flunked out of second grade—a boy who was fired by a gas station for writing illegible receipts. But it's also the story of a boy who learned from the world directly, who was brave enough to fail, who knew he had to rely on other people. A boy who developed empathy, a particular gift of his dyslexia that gave Orfalea the crucial insight into what makes Kinko's work. When Paul Orfalea first looked out on the worried, hopeful faces of his customers, he knew that he was in the problem-solving business—at four cents a page. Kinko's doesn't so much handle paper as it handles dreams.
Paul Orfalea really did do it his way. With humor, wisdom, and compassion, he shares his invaluable experiences and unorthodox business lessons with the millions of those who are just a little bit "different," and who wonder if there's a place for them in the world. There is: at the top.
Customer Reviews:
"Our primary objective is to take care of our customer...".......2007-08-18
BUT...
"...you can't take care of your customers unless you take care of your people." (- Paul Orfalea)
"Copy This!" is a book that illustrates the enduring idealism and sincerity of Paul Orfalea. Orfalea's enthusiasm is infectious. His optimism and energy vibrate through the narrative as he explains how his values were challenged over the years by various partnerships, a corporate reorganization and the eventual decision to leave the company he built and guided for over 30 years.
Those of us who lived the "Kinko's experience" can vouch for the effectiveness of Paul's leadership and his approach to team management.
Long ago, I took a job at my local Kinko's working the overnight shift as a machine operator. On my first day of work, my branch manager handed me a wallet-sized, white plastic card with something called "The Kinko's Philosophy" printed on one side. Up to that point in my life, working for a company was all about punching a clock and biding your time until you could punch it again and get on with your real life. I assumed this card, talking about things like "The coworkers are the foundation of our success" and "we trust and care for one another" were just marketing lip service by some faceless corporate human resource office.
But my manager took time with me, said that he wanted me to keep the card with me explaining, "We really believe in these things here. I can't force anyone to be anything more than a clock-puncher, but we can do everything we can to support how you want to work out your days with this company. Your only real job here is to take care of the customer."
Over the next several years I moved up in the company and dealt with dozens of coworkers. I worked with and for the kind of employees you've encountered of heard about who contribute to a miserable experience as well as those who stopped everything to solve your emergency and save the day for you. Paul's philosophy (his "commitment to communication") made it easier to manage the daily operation of a store of 15-20 people on three non-stop, busy shifts
As Paul pointed out on more than one occasion, each coworker -- regardless of their aspirations, ambition or approach to the job -- deserved to be treated with respect and gratitude ...because their performance was the only true measure of my own success. Discipline was to be bundled with coaching and retraining. Even in an "at-will" employment environment, Paul was dedicated to making sure we did all we could to help every coworker succeed.
Understanding and providing for your customer requires understanding your employees and their own needs. While they carry out the necessary tasks to get the job done, your job as a manager is to make that job fun, safe and efficient. The challenge of the organization is to create an environment where managers can do their job. In the case of Kinko's, that meant great opportunities for advancement, solid training programs, profit sharing and excellent wages. Many of those values (and benefits) changed with Paul's departure, but there are still hundreds if not thousands of team members who maintain that positive, supportive attitude toward their most valuable resource on the sales floor.
Most businesses treat their employees (human assets, labor force, whatever form they take) like a herd of sheep to be managed as though they have neither the skill nor experience to contribute to the business process. This book explains how each member of your working team is not just a salary on a P&L chart, but the REASON your operation is successful. It explains that you can have your heart firmly invested in taking care of your customers, but if you don't have the drive to take care of your own PEOPLE, you will be hard-pressed to achieve that goal consistently or at all.
Small business owners, department heads, and CEOs could learn much from Paul's dedication to his team members and perhaps begin to understand that their own success isn't tied to a few lines on a spreadsheet and the demands of a board of MBAs, it begins and ends with the people who run the cash registers, take care of the daily operation and make it possible for executives to spend time pondering "bigger picture" issues for their organization.
Copy THIS? Caveat that! .......2007-07-29
Paul Orfalea is the type of boss we call a "Crazy-Maker." Type triple-A. In your face. A new idea every minute. Little or no boundaries between personal time and work time. I suspect he was an exhausting (if occasionally) exhilarating boss to have.
This business autobiography offers a revealing portrait of an unlikely business tycoon. Orfalea overcame dyslexia to found Kinko's, which he grew into a multi-billion dollar business before selling it off. It is now an American icon.
The section on how games - especially poker, Monopoly and Risk - are better predictors of business success than grades is interesting.
Otherwise, Orfalea at times seems to make it all about Me. Me. Me. See me the generous philanthropist! See me creatively teaching business classes to students at UC Santa Barbara! See me lament what the new corporate suits have done to Kinko's. Of course, he has multi-millions to assuage his pain. Dude - when you sell it off, you relinquish that right to call all the shots!
Orfalea took a quirky, albeit courageous, path to his fortune. Whether many others can "copy this" as a template for success is debatable. Like him or love him, the Kinko's founder has written an engaging autobiography.
Interesting Read.......2007-04-24
I found this book to hold my interest. It provides an intriguing and inspirational view inside the start-up of a business, as well as honest, personal revelations.
He's an excellent reader (of people, that is).......2007-03-25
Orfalea opened his first copy shop while still a student in college. Over the next 30 years, he built the world's premier copyshop business, then cashed out for $1.5 billion. Not a bad run, especially for a kid who was so dyslexic that he was virtually illiterate.
He says he got the idea for the business while working on a term paper with a team of fellow college students. He was unable to contribute any research or writing skills to the team, so he offered to do the photocopying. The lines at the school's photocopier were so long that he realized that there was money to be made in copying. In short order he scouted a location, borrowed $5K from his father, and launched his business.
He makes the point that, as a functionally illiterate person, he was extremely dependent on other people. He argues that this forced him from a very early age to assess people accurately and find ways to make use of them. As a youngster, this meant choosing someone to sit next to whose work he could copy. As an adult, it meant choosing people who could help him run his business.
He says that straight-A students tend not to develop the ability to read people the way a dyslexic can. He says further that straight-A students tend to do what's safe and what's asked of them, whereas a dyslexic tends to be highly creative in getting things done or at least convincing authorities that things have been done.
In short, he feels that his dyslexia was a critical ingredient in his success.
This gives him an interesting perspective on school. He feels that no assignment is so valuable as to be worth extinguishing a student's spark of self-confidence and excitement about learning. He points out that, in school, most students are made to feel like failures in something. By contrast, in adulthood we are allowed to specialize. If math explodes in our heads, we can seek work that requires little or no math. Students aren't so lucky, and some of them are so handicapped that their spirits are entirely crushed by the experience of going through school.
The Orfalea family had a long tradition of entrepreneurship, and Paul grew up believing that one should earn one's way through life by the sweat of one's brow only long enough to accumulate some savings and then, by investing wisely, gradually transition to a point where one's way is financed entirely by rent and dividends.
Today Orfalea teaches at the University of California and one of the questions he asks his students is, "What's more important: good grades or saving money?" The correct answer is saving money.
He's an excellent reader (of people, that is).......2007-01-26
This is a spectacular book.
Orfalea opened his first copy shop while still a student in college. Over the next 30 years, he built the world's premier copyshop business, then cashed out for $1.5 billion. Not a bad run, especially for a kid who was so dyslexic that he was virtually illiterate.
He says he got the idea for the business while working on a term paper with a team of fellow college students. He was unable to contribute any research or writing skills to the team, so he offered to do the photocopying. The lines at the school's photocopier were so long that he realized that there was money to be made in copying. In short order he scouted a location, borrowed $5K from his father, and launched his business.
He makes the point that, as a functionally illiterate person, he was extremely dependent on other people. He argues that this forced him from a very early age to assess people accurately and find ways to make use of them. As a youngster, this meant choosing someone to sit next to whose work he could copy. As an adult, it meant choosing people who could help him run his business.
He says that straight-A students tend not to develop the ability to read people the way a dyslexic can. He says further that straight-A students tend to do what's safe and what's asked of them, whereas a dyslexic tends to be highly creative in getting things done or at least convincing authorities that things have been done.
In short, he feels that his dyslexia was a critical ingredient in his success.
This gives him an interesting perspective on school. He feels that no assignment is so valuable as to be worth extinguishing a student's spark of self-confidence and excitement about learing. He points out that, in school, most students are made to feel like failures in something. By contrast, in adulthood we are allowed to specialize. If math explodes in our heads, we can seek work that requires little or no math. Students aren't so lucky, and some of them are so handicapped that their spirits are entirely crushed by the experience of going through school.
The Orfalea family had a long tradition of entrepreneurship, and Paul grew up believing that one should earn one's way through life by the sweat of one's brow only long enough to accumulate some savings and then, by investing wisely, gradually transition to a point where one's way is financed entirely by rent and dividends.
Today Orfalea teaches at the University of California and one of the questions he asks his students is, "What's more important: good grades or saving money?" The answer is saving money.
He's quite a guy. You'll enjoy reading about his success.
Average customer rating:
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Copy This!
Marsh, Paul, Ann Orfalea
Manufacturer: audible.com
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Binding: Audio Download
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ASIN: B000AWGXDQ |
Amazon.com
Russian author Boris Akunin clearly delights in literary experimentation. The Winter Queen, his first novel to win U.S. release, was a police procedural, introducing a young but brilliant detective named Erast Petrovich Fandorin, serving in 1876 Moscow. However, Murder on the Leviathan (actually the third entry in the Fandorin series, but published second in the States) was quite different--an homage to formulaic Golden Age whodunits, taking place on a luxurious steamship. Now comes The Turkish Gambit, which is more a combination of war novel and romance, rather than crime fiction, with the majority of its mysteries so transparent as to barely merit the label.
The action here takes place in 1877 and 1878, on the Balkan front of a military conflict pitting tsarist Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Into this realm of posturing commanders and the foreign journalists whose florid prose makes those officers look better (or worse) than they really are ride Fandorin, now with the diplomatic corps, and Varya Suvorova, a strong-willed 22-year-old telegraphist hoping to reunite on the battlefield with her "future fiancé," an army volunteer. But Varya's efforts are frustrated when her intended is accused of espionage. His release can only be won by identifying the real informant-cum-saboteur, in which task Varya is willing to cooperate with Fandorin, despite her dislike of the stuttering and apparently "cold, disagreeable" former policeman. Amid profuse digressions concerning Turkish politics, female suffrage, and the harem system ("without it many women would quite simply starve to death"), Varya--trailed by lustful correspondents--investigates a suspicious colonel in Bucharest, only to become party to a deadly duel. A pair of officers are subsequently murdered, a guilt-ridden soldier hangs himself, and a British plot against Russia is alleged.
Akunin (the pseudonym of Grigory Chkhartishvili) nimbly portrays the tumultuous atmosphere of 19th-century combat, complete with ear-splitting cannon blasts and hard-charging cossacks. His dialogue is frequently clever, and in Varya he has created a woman fully capable of steering yarns and stopping hearts. Yet The Turkish Gambit is so laden with expendable exchanges, trivial players, and hieings off to hither and yon, that the reader's interest may wane well short of this story's dramatic climax. --J. Kingston Pierce
Download Description
It is 1877, and war has broken out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian front resounds with the thunder of cavalry charges, the roar of artillery, and the clash of steel on steel during the world’s last great horse–and–cannon conflict. Amid the treacherous atmosphere of a nineteenth–century Russian field army, former diplomat and detective extraordinaire Erast Fandorin finds his most confounding case.
It’s difficulties are only compounded by the presence of Varya Suvorova, a deadly serious (and seriously beautiful) woman with revolutionary ideals who has disguised herself as a boy in order to find her respected comrade– and fiancé–Pyotr Yablokov, an army cryptographer. Even after Fandorin saves her life, Varya can hardly bear to thank such a “lackey of the throne” for his efforts.
But when Yablokov is accused of espionage and faces imprisonment and execution, Varya must turn to Fandorin to find the real culprit… a mission that forces her to reconsider his courage, deductive mind, and piercing gaze.
Filled with the same delicious detail, ingenious plotting, and subtle satire as The Winter Queen and Murder on the Leviathan, The Turkish Gambit confirms Boris Akunin’s status as a master of the historical thriller–and Erast Fandorin as a detective for the ages.
Customer Reviews:
Rollicking Story of Spies and Betrayal.......2007-09-03
Even though this is the third "Erast Fandorin Mystery" to be published in English translation, it was the second written by "Akunin". Because of the way the series is written, the occurances in "Murder on the Leviathan" do not in anyway suffer from this out of chronology publication. Nothing that happens in 'Gambit' change the way you would read 'Leviathan'.
Once again our intrepid young (twenty-one) adventurer is working for the 'third section' (diplomatic intelligence) during the Russo-Turkish War in 1878 helping to liberate Romania and Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. The war had been going well until the army arrived in front of Plevna where for some reason the 'Turks' seemed to know exactly what the Russians planned to do (sometimes even before the Russians did).
Erast has been ordered to find out if there is a traitor in the Army and if not, how the Turks are getting their information and from who. Our young man has been saddled with a young 'modern' Russian woman (Varvara or Varya) who had traveled to Bulgaria to be with her 'future fiance'. Erast doesn't lack for suspects and is led a merry chase by the actual culprit who constantly is able to remain one step ahead of him. But as in all great stories good triumphs and the bad guy is caught and brought to justice. Erast then goes off to Japan (where his sea voyage is the scene of "Murder on the Leviathan").
This series is in many ways a parallel to George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series. They both occur around the same time (mid- to late- nineteenth century) and use the "Great Game" in Asia between Russia and Britain for their background. The difference between the two series is that Fandorin is truly an intelligent man. He is articulate and well read, whereas Flashman is a comedic figure who is always finding the diamond in the manure pile he has fallen into.
Unlike Flashman, Fandorin is more historically tied into the period and much less broad in satire. Flashman is much more polemic in the way that both the main character and the British as a whole are treated, more of the Moliere type farce. Fandorin on the other hand is more of a Pinter or GB Shaw, tongue-in-cheek (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean) and is more subtle in it's skewering of the other characters. At this time only five of the eleven books have been translated, but it's worth looking out for each new volume as it comes out.
Turetskiy gambit (DVD 2005)...Turkish Gambit.......2007-05-06
Turkish Gambit directed by Dzhanik Faiziyev is an vivid film protrayal of this wonderful Russian noevl. The acting is great and the stars, Yegor Beroyev (as Erast Fandorin) and Olga Krasko (as Varvara Suvorova) play their roles flawlessly. I enjoyed the novel and was overjoyed to find this DVD which is in Russian language but has Chinese subtitles. I highly recommend watching this film. You will not be disappointed.
Akunin's Usual Delicious Twists and Turns.......2007-05-05
'The Turkish Gambit' continues the career of erstwhile Russian police detective Erast Fandorin in this the third in Boris Akunin's distinctive mystery series (which is wildly popular in Russia). The book is set during the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War (the Russian and Ottoman Empires fought some 11 wars altogether and this was the last one, excepting WWI).
Fandorin, now in the Russian Army, but still stunned from his tragic loss in 'The Winter Queen' (the first book in the series), takes a back seat for most of the book to the primary narrative voice of the young radical Varya Suvorova. As usual Akunin's tale twists and turns with delightfully chameleon-like characters. The book's denouement centers on the Siege of Pleven - was a traitor providing information to the Turks? Or perhaps a murderous spy was afoot? Or was it just bad strategy implemented with poor tactics by the Russians?
Actual historical characters such as the 'White General' Mikhail Sobelev mix with Akunin's inconstant inventions in a complex web of international warfare and intrigue. Highly recommended.
Fandorin and the Russo-Turkish War.......2007-04-16
The Turkish Gambit is the third Fandorin story published in English, but chronologically it is the second tale following on from the events of the Winter Queen and proceeding the voyage to Japan as detailed in Levithan.
One of the reasons that I enjoy the Fandorin series is that in each of the stories Akhunin seems to write in the style a well known mystery writer. Where the Winter Queen was for a me a homage to Ian Fleming and the James Bond series, and Levithan was drawn from Agatha Christie, for me the Turkish Gambit owes its style to Baroness Orczy and the Scarlet Pimpernel.
The story chronicles Fandorin's participation in the Russo-Turkish war of 1878-79 as an unofficial intelligence officer, assigned to capture a Turkish say operating within the Russian headquarters. The narrator/ view point character of the Turkish Gambit is not Fandorin but rather Varya Suvorov. A rather innocent and idea idealistic young woman ho has travelled to the front disguised as a man to be with her fiance and who is enlisted to act as Fandorin's secretary. As the story progresses Varya finds herself surrounded by active heroic men who are vying for her affection but is slowly drawn to the quiet unassuming and obviously emotionally damaged Fandorin a seemingly humble man who is governed by logic but who proves himself again and again to be the most perceptive and aware of the stories participants.
Great story, but flawed history.......2007-04-14
I picked up 'Turkish Gambit' while my stay in Paris. I have to admit, that it was a rather good book written on a subject (Russo-Turkish War) that I possessed a wealth of information about.
However, I was disappointed about the lack of historical accuracy this book demonstrated. The author, Akunin, underestimates the Turkish defence of Plevna by suggesting that it was because of the work of a spy that the Turks held out for so long. Any military historian would know that this was not true. Instead of developing an intrigue story with real facts around it, Akunin changes reality in order to adapt it to his plot.
The truth is, the Turkish defence held out due to: 1) better tactics on behalf of Osman Nuri Pasha 2) Better weaponry 3) Russian mistakes and 4) foreign support. Moreover, as Akunin suggests, the Turkish garrison DID NOT try to break out via the way it was stated in the book (attacking Russian besiegers with the deception of 'giving up).
So, if you want to read a good mystery novel, than go ahead and read 'Turkish Gambit'. However, keep in mind that there are many historical flaws and counter-historical bits to the novel. But I simply ask you to not take this novel as reality!
Average customer rating:
- worth buy it
- Good
- A Good Analyis of the Tsarist Army in Transition
- Outstanding work of institutional and operational history!
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Bayonets Before Bullets: The Imperial Russian Army, 1861-1914 (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies)
Bruce W. Menning
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0253337453 |
Customer Reviews:
worth buy it.......2007-03-30
Review of Russian army from 1856-1914 including any Russian army reform, organization and campaign history especially Russo-Turkish war of 1877 and its main disadvantage is inadequate of hard data eg more organization charts but good in analysing Russian army doctine. Worth buy
Good.......2001-12-30
This book examines the changes in organisation of the Russian Imperial Army from the period just after the Crimean War till the eve of the First World War.
Over that time tremendous changes occurred. During the Crimean War the Russians used mainly smooth bore muzzle loading weapons, firing black powder. Artillery was as rudimentary. Armies were reasonably small and a war would be decided by single battles fought over a day.
Over the next fifty years tremendous changes took place. Infantry were issued with rifled weapons that were breech loaded. This increased the fire rate and range of such weapons. In addition recoil springs were invented for artillery. This combined with breach loading meant that artillery could fire accurately and rapidly at distant targets. In addition the development of the railroad meant that huge armies could be put into the field and supplied for long periods of time.
These changes in weaponry led immense changes in the nature of battles. Because of the increased lethality of weapons battlefields became more dispersed. Instead of a battle taking place on a defined field of a few miles with closely packed infantry armies were more thinly spread over immense fronts. Battles instead of taking a day lasted months. This in turn meant that the modern armies had to be supplied with huge amounts of ammunition as well as food.
In the First World War the Russian armies in the end were defeated. However that was due not so much to the structure of the army but other things. The inability of the Russian state to be able to produce sufficient munitions for a long war and the fact that the state itself fell apart in 1917. The reality is that on the whole the Russians were able to build a reasonably efficient army in the period covered by the book.
Th book is fascinating and in addition to looking at issues around the development of the army it gives a history of two imporant wars. The Russo Turkish War and the Russo Japanese War. A must read for people interested in the subject.
A Good Analyis of the Tsarist Army in Transition.......2001-02-24
This is a very military-academic study of how the Tsarist Russian army evolved from the Crimean War, through the 1877 Russo-Turkish War and Russo-Japanese War to become the military that went into World War One. One big disappointment is that the author stops at August 1914 without analyzing the first month of the war. He points out Russian deficiencies but fails to show how they were able to defeat Austrians in Galicia but lose at Tannenburg. Although the emphasis here is on doctrine, technology and force structure issues, there are excellent chapters on operations in 1877-8 and 1904-5. There are definitely similarities with Russia's current military troubles: political and social instability, economic weaknesses, technological changes that threaten to leave Russia's military behind, uncertain threat environment and lackluster military leadership. The Russian army made several key mistakes in terms of force structure, some of which are currently being repeated: they made the army too big for peacetime, but it was low quality and had few reserves. Not enough was spent on civilian infrastructure, such as railroads and industry. Officer education was woefully inadequate. Training exercises were more like parades than tactical problems. On the other hand, the individual Russian soldier fought well in both wars and the army made good choices on simple, robust weapons like the 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle, the 76.2mm field gun and the Maxim machine-gun. Although only briefly mentioned in the book, it is apparent upon reflection that the Russian Navy was a waste of resources then, as now. Fully 25% of the military budget went to support a fleet that was annihilated in 1905 and inactive in 1914-7. This money would have been better spent building up an air force. The maps are hard to read and insufficient to follow major battles.
Outstanding work of institutional and operational history!.......2001-02-02
This is a first-of-its-kind work in English to review the Imperial Russian Army during its crucial period of modernization from 1861 (just after Crimea) to 1914 (the eve of the Great War).
The author is an instructor of strategy at the US Army Command and General Staff College and is an outstanding writer of military history.
The defeat in Crimea lead to changes in organization, doctrine and strategy for the Russian army. It's involvement in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 and the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 gave it operational experience from which to learn (or fail to learn) the lessons which a rapid change in military technologies taught on the battlefield.
Russia was one of the very few European powers to fight major, non-colonial wars in this period which saw the introduction of smokeless powder, magazine rifles, quick firing artillery, and machine guns. Contrary to popular belief, the Russian army did take active measures to adapt to the new military technologies along with improvements in transportation (railroads) and communications (telegraph, field telephones, and radio). The Russian army from Alexander II to Nicholas II was not a hide-bound, unintelligent mamoth as it is so often depicted.
The author divides the work up neatly by periods and his writing flows smoothly between doctrine, strategy, organization, and operational history. The politics of the Tsarist regime, the personality conflicts within the Tsar's army, and the technical changes on the battlefield are all woven together into a comprehensive whole. It is an excellent review of how the Russian predilection for reliance on "cold steel" held up during the changes forced by the Industrial Revolution.
I give it all five "bayonets".
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The Fool: Events from the Last Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78
Raffi
Manufacturer: Taderon Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 095351918X |
Book Description
Set at the time of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, "The Fool" provides invaluable glimpses into social conditions in western Armenia at the time. It portrays the development of an Armenian civil rights movement in Ottoman Turkey.
"The Fool" is an account of a heroic struggle to defend ordinary people from the depredations and avarice of Ottoman authorities, neighboring peoples, and a corrupt Armenian establishment. It is the story of a revolutionary struggle to establish a just and civil society in Armenia.
This historical novel has served as an "I have a dream" speech for generations of Armenians.
In the course of a romantic and hopeful novel, Raffi depicts in detail the way of life of Armenian peasants, their psychology, and the conditions under which they survived. He also portrays the central ideas that fuelled Armenian radical intellectuals of the day.
"The Fool" is arguably the single most important work of literature dealing with the Armenian Question in Ottoman Turkey. Raffi depicts many of the actual figures and settings involved in the events of the time. The classical clarity and drama of its dialogue, the Armenian aphorisms that play such an important role throughout the story, the philosophical depth and moral passion embodied in it all make this novel a remarkable encounter with one of the greatest creative minds in modern Armenian history.
Donald Abcarian's new translation includes extensive notes and a glossary.
Average customer rating:
- shoddy but tolerable
- Interesting
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The Russo-Turkish War 1877 (Men-at-Arms)
Ian Drury
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
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The Russian Army of the Crimean War 1854-56 (Men-at-Arms)
ASIN: 1855323710
Release Date: 1994-11-14 |
Book Description
On 24 April 1877 Tsar Nicholas II declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan had a battle-hardened army ready for war. For the Tsar, this was to be the first major conflict since the abolition of serfdom and the creation of a German-style military reserve system. Ian Drury details the campaigns fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, and the uniforms and organisation of the armies of both sides, in a text backed by numerous illustrations and photographs, including eight full page colour plates by Raffaele Ruggeri.
Customer Reviews:
shoddy but tolerable.......2003-10-26
The very first line of the book "On 24 April 1877 Tsar Nicholas II declared war on the Ottoman Empire" shows how shoddy and rushed this book was. Alexander II was the Tsar at that time. Nicholas wasn't crowned until 1894. The book is filled with maddening errors like that as well as ommisions and weaknesses like plate commentaries that don't describe the uniforms in the referenced plate at all.
But still a somewhat worthwhile attempt since there are so few books on the subject.
Interesting.......2001-12-11
This is one of the less known conflicts of the XIX century. Both sides used modern weapons and techniques learned from the American Civil War, but both still showed poor capacity to adapt themselves for the new kind of war, having a high cost of lifes for a relatively short conflict. Some historical mistakes found, take care.
If you are interested in the Balcans wars and the historical struggle between Russia and Turkey for the control of Black Sea and the access to the Mediterrean, you should get it.
Book Description
This fictionalized story, based on eyewitness accounts by journalists and others, and on his war letters and personal notes.
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The Greek islands and Turkey after the war
Henry M Field
Manufacturer: C. Scribner's sons
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B000857MMG |
Books:
- Cut to the Chase: and 99 Other Rules to Liberate Yourself and Gain Back the Gift of Time
- "Daddy's Gone to War": The Second World War in the Lives of America's Children
- Daddy Hugs 1 2 3
- Discovering Another Way: Raising Brighter Children While Haveing a Meaningful Career
- Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care
- Dry: A Memoir
- Duermete, Nino
- Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year
- Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements: The Essential Guide for Improving Your Health Naturally
- Fabulosity: What It Is and How to Get It
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits
- A Cat Named Darwin
- Butterworths Ireland Tax Treaties
- The Lowell Mill Girls: Life in the Factory
- The Pension Answer Book: Special Supplement Roth IRAs
The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value
iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business
The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time
Pour Your Heart into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time
One Tough Mother: Success in Life, Business and Apple Pies
