Ballantines Illustrated History of World War II

[Stealhead]

*Seeing as there is only a section for the discussion of naval related books I have posted this in general topics*


I just wanted to post a little well OK a lot about 'Ballantines Illustrated History of World War II" a volume of 154 books each being around 160 pages in length.(BIHWW2)

Each volume covers a specific subject be it a battle or campaign(elite units are also covered in this category) and there are also volumes about military leaders and weapons systems.The quality is fairly good they are paperback and printed on a fairly sturdy stock of paper and the ink has held up well on the copies I have.The photos and illustrations are all in black and white the binding is fairly good as well with the copies I have which of varying condition.

They began publishing them in 1968 and I am not sure when they stopped.I believe that they published at least 12 volumes per although I am not certain.

At any rate I happened to notice them in a used book store a few months back they had boxes full of them sometimes multiple copies in varying condition and they interested me and I bought two volumes.A few days ago I picked up two more.

I have seen them online at Amazon and Ebay though I feel that you get a better deal at a used book store in my research I found that every seller wanted the same price as the book stores but with the addition of shipping. There is also something more enjoyable about searching though a box filled with volumes that makes buying them in person more fun not mention that it allows you to truly determine if the price is fair or not.I have been to several used book stores in FL,GA,and AL that have at least one large box full of BIHWW2 volumes.A side benefit of my job is that it allows me to find used book stores that sell old military books to feed my addiction to military history.

Depending on the condition you can pay as low as $4.00 or 5.00 all the way to $25.00 for a volume depending on it condition and rarity.Anyway I recommend BIHWW2 books for any WW2 buff they cover alot of interesting topics and of the ones I own and the ones I have scanned over they are very well written.The volumes should be easy to find in the US,Canada and the UK.

Does anyone else have/read these books?


Here are a few shots of my small but growing collection myself I am not so interested in having the most mint copy I just want to read it.



My current collection I do not yet have any of the leaders or weapons books yet I almost picked up "U-Boat The Secret Menace" the other three are in fairly good condition and feel brand new still nice and crisp "The Raiders" is in lower condition but still is not shabby:



Photo of the inside of campaign book No.2 "The Raiders: Desert Strike Force" to show the quality of the print my copy was printed in November 1968 I only paid $4.00 for this copy as you can see from the above photo the cover is a little ratty but the inside is just as good as the other three.



UPDATE:
I found a webpage that lists each volume published:

http://stonebooks.com/archives/970911.shtml

Based on this list I would say that the "Politics" and "full color" volumes are the most rare as I have not seen any of those
in used book stores so far and some of the "Weapons" volumes are rare though I have seen the U-boat and the ME-109 volumes often(not surprising).
Looks like they also delved a little into WWI there is a volume about T.E. Lawrence and Churchill that or someone got a different series confused with this one
as Ballantine also published a series on WWI and also on modern warfare which would be where "Six Day War" belongs so this list may not be 100% correct.

Anyone else that has any of these volumes post some photos of what you have or list what you have maybe some trades could be arranged.