Tank; a history of the armoured fighting vehicle,

"Tank" was part of a Ballantine series of large-format, heavily illustrated books on the history of key 20th century weapons. Other volumes in the series included "Fighter," "Bomber," and "Artillery." Now out of print, they are well worth seeking out because--allowing for the passage of nearly 30 years--their combination of authoritative text and copious illustrations is still valuable. This is NOT another one of those high-gloss "coffee table" books on military hardware (big, bright glossy pictures; minimal, breathless text) that pile up on the discount tables at your local mega-bookstore. It's a serious history of the tank from its beginnings to the early 1970s, illustrated with historical photographs, and large numbers of black and white (as well as some color) drawings. The advantage of using drawings is that they can illustrate *exactly* what the author wanted them to illustrate: how a turret mechanism works, what a hollow-charge shell does to armor, or what the inside of an M4 Sherman looks like. All this does wonders for helping readers who've never set foot in a tank understand what they're all about. I read "Tank" with interest when it came out, and continue to refer back to it today. Then I was 13 and reading it for fun; now I'm 41 and using it to prep lectures on the history of military technology (though it's still fun to read). It's stronger on tanks-as-machines than on tanks-as-weapons, but there are many good books out there about tank battles. Thirty years on, there's still no book as good as this one about the evolution of the tank itself.