What is the concensus on Osprey books in regard to historical accuracy?
I have access to a very large library of them and they make an interesting read.
Before I continue reading any of them I want to know if I’m reading bunk, propaganda or history as best as it can reasonably be known.
They are pretty good for the most part. BUT… I have a couple on the North Vietnamese Air Force, obviously written from their perspective by a Hungarian who appears to take that view as gospel. I am curious to read the ones regarding the Arab Air Forces just to get that viewpoint. But some must be taken with a grain of salt. However most are quite well researched and written with appropriate historical accuracy.
What Stik said. Nothing is perfect, the ones I have are good.
Ye, what they said. I do like them and the colour profiles are handy, but like all colour profiles you can’t trust them 100%.
Where I’ve found them really useful is for information about uniforms and personal equipment. Sometimes that stuff is really hard to track down, compared to , say, aircraft.
I think they have maybe four books on the Boer War alone, for instance.
Back twenty five years ago- no internet, Osprey by mail order only, and the “in action” titles by Squadron were about it.
Thanks for the replies.
I wont be using them for color, markings, organizational information. Rather just the historical information about what happened.
I have a bunch, mostly Steve Zaloga, or Specific Campaign & Uniform Guides.
They are written by specialists with knowledge of the subject, such as Steve Z, But some are a bit less ‘experten’ than others.
On the whole pretty good, & a good size for reading in bed, or travelling, but not in the bath, (not fall asleep-proof!)