NEW BOOK: THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS

Earlier this week I got a note from author Jerome Platt who wrote:

The English Civil Wars: Medals, Historical Commentary & Personalities
By Jerome J Platt & Arleen Kay Platt

Some three and a half centuries ago, Britain was convulsed by a series of civil wars which are still very much alive in the national consciousness. The names of its leaders, participants and major battles—Oliver Cromwell and Charles I, Cavaliers and Roundheads, Edgehill and Dunbar—are known to every Briton and many of the issues of that time still elicit strong reactions. These wars saw the introduction of medals as rewards for gallantry, campaign service and. This book, through the study of the events and personages for and by whom these medals were created, places them within the historical context of the times.

These volumes will be a welcome addition to the libraries of all who have an interest in the military rewards, personalities and events of the English Civil Wars. Building on earlier works on the subject, the present effort is a study of English Civil War medals in British museums or which have passed through major London auction houses as well as private collections. It provides detailed information which is indispensible for the collector, numismatist, auction house specialist and Civil War enthusiast as well as for the military or art historian with an interest in the period.

The detailed information on over 900 individual medals illustrating over 400 sub-types in both private and public collections, accompanied by more than 500 photographs and illustrations of medals, many in color, provides an important archival reference source. A comprehensive bibliography of the subject, including over 400 sources, will provide the reader with access to both antiquarian and contemporary scholarly references which were consulted.

Assembled from the first author’s findings and observations over thirty years of collecting and studying the medals of the period, this work places these ‘pieces of history’ within the historical context of the Civil War, the Interregnum and the Restoration, and brings alive those persons whose portraits are found on the medals as well as the events of the times. Through historical and biographical commentary on some 100 historical personages, the personalities of the figures of the period come into focus as human beings subject to many of the same views, feelings and motives, both selfless and base, as our contemporaries. Through the use of commentary and over 400 illustrations from the 17th through 19th centuries, we see the personages of the Civil War period as did both their contemporaries and those closer in time to the events of the English Civil War.

About the Authors:

Jerome J. Platt, Ph.D., before his retirement, was a medical school research director and the author of over a dozen books on drug addiction. Arleen Kay Platt, R.N. was a hospital nursing supervisor and manager of a research clinic for addicted adolescents. They are the authors, with Maurice E. Jones, of the well-received Whitewash Brigade: The Hong Kong Plague of 1894.

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web