Another Osprey title with huge quality control issues. The author carries a giant anti-Austrian chip on his shoulders, I wonder why. His bias prevents him from performing a proper analysis of the three armies (In my view, he overvalues the Sardinian army and neglects the rift within the French army between the Colonial pros and the national army.).

Brooks neither cites nor includes German language sources which results in curious round-about ways to get to the information: A German account published in English in the United States about the Austrians (twice removed: Austrian to German to English). His ignorance of German and Austria leads to a large number of easily spotted typos and inconsistent spelling.

The mistakes are unfortunately not confined to Austria. He writes that Napoleon III lacked "formal military experience". This is completely untrue. Napoleon III attended the Swiss artillery school in Thun and was an active Swiss militia officer. Americans might know about the 1857 Napoleon gun, further testament to his interest in artillery. Consulting any proper biography about Napoleon III would have prevented this howler (not however reading the English Wikipedia entry which is still silent about this), Italy was not completely reunited in 1870 - Trieste remained an Austrian city (fueling Italian irredentismo) .

The author fails to include even a glimpse of the reasons, the history or an account of what led to the war. It jumps from the presentation of the forces to the start of the campaign. The account of the campaign is not bad. A comparison to earlier French Italian campaigns could have highlighted some of the differences between Napoleon I and III, as well as explained some of the Austrian fears. Henri Dunant and the Red Cross merit nearly a paragraph of their own. The bad luck of both victorious and defeated generals in future wars might have been explored.

The commissioned illustrations are well done if biased. Austrians appear (apart from a handful of soldiers) but as casualties. Given that Solferino is nearly synonymous with the suffering and horror of war, an illustration would have been fitting (even the author's supposedly efficient casualty-removing railroads, given that its nearest line was 10 km away from the carnage).

Overall, the book is a casualty of a lack of editorship and quality control. The editors at Osprey must have been too busy with "Zombies - A hunter's guide" (a General Military book, sic!). Those unfamiliar with the topic should stay away from this title, otherwise they risk contamination with misinformation. ( )