For the second week in a row events overtook my ability to post the only regular feature I do. This time it is a picture of my latest acquistion - a sizeable proportion of the magazine series by Purnell of the First World War. I have wanted this forever, but never thought to look on trade me or ebay. When I did - voila!
What is so wonderful about this? Well for me, it is the sheer comprehensive nature of the undertaking. Did you know about the savage repression of the Kazaks by the Imperial Russian government in 1916? There is an article in here about it. Ditto for a whole host of things you probably never knew about.
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| 94 issues of the 112 issues I need for the full collection. |
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| '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