Are these books by Rawson the same?

[PamG]

I just received a book on inter-library loan, called British Army Handbook, 1914-1918, by Andrew Rawson. (Sutton, 2006). I thought it quite useful, so I put it on my Christmas wish list.

But when I was look at various booksellers online, I realized there seem to be two titles that are very similar:

British Army Handbook, 1914-1918

The British Army, 1914-1918

There are both by Andrew Rawson. It's not just a bookseller typo - I've seen both book jackets. Is this the same book, with a slightly different title between editions, or are these two different books?

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Pam

[seaJane]

Hi Pam,

According to COPAC's union catalogue of British academic and special libraries http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/ 'The British Army Handbook' (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2006) has vii, 376 pages and 'The British Army' (Stroud: Spellmount, 2014) also has vii, 376 pages.

I don't think that can be a coincidence.

Spellmount and Sutton Publishing are two subsidiaries of The History Press (I'm sure Alan Sutton used to be independent). Cynical me wonders if The History Press is taking advantage of owning both to switch publishers and so earn a different ISBN (International Standard Book Number) which is a sure-fire way of confusing an inexpert bookseller into thinking there are two different titles.

It would be slightly less sneaky - in fact sensible - to re-issue the book for the centenary, but given that the pagination is exactly the same it can hardly be called a new edition, unless they've been very clever with the typesetting.

sJ

[PamG]

Thank you for your insight. I tend to agree. I have found both titles on the History Press website, so I've e-mailed the company.

Thanks also for the COPAC link I did try the British Library, but could only find the one title listed, which didn't help.

Pam