Reviewed April 25, 2005 by Akiva K. Segan The bulk of Military Uniforms are four chapters of text and photographs. They offer a perverse history of military uniforms between 1900 and 1939, military uniforms worn by the Allies and Axis Powers soldiers during WWII, and uniforms since 1945. It's the worst children's book I've read in some time, not for it's gory images, as there aren't any, but because its omission of any and all contextual relationship between the clothing it focuses on and the human component of the soldiers who wore the clothing dealt with in the book and what they did or didn't do during the war. Chapter 3 (p. 35 - 49) contains an appalling text and photographic history of "World War II Axis Forces."  The chapter begins with this sentence, and sums up the style of what follows: "Both Germany and Italy took pride in their uniforms, but as warfare became more sophisticated and varied, there arose a corresponding need for innovations in clothing and equipment." On page 37 there is a black and white photo of Hitler with paratroopers in 1937, glorifying him to youngsters who will have no knowledge of his war crimes. The two-page color photo on pages 37-38 depicts four SS infantry troops in uniform pointing their rifles (at probable unseen targets or civilian victims). The text includes extensive commentary on swastikas, helmets, epaulets, buckles, boots, even gas mask designs. The authors troubled themselves to mention that Panzer (armored) troop units with their "skull-and-crossbones collar often led to confusion between them and the SS." There is no mention that the Wehrmacht (WWII era German-Austrian army) nor the SS engaged in round up civilians, murdered millions of Jews, Roma, Russian civilians, Russian POW's and others deemed unworthy of life by the Nazis with their racial supremacist theories. I came across the book at the Seattle Public Library. Later I showed it to an African American friend. She initially thought the book okay, as it bills itself as a children's "fashion and costume history book." I made a better case for it's obscene omission of contextual history with this analogy to my friend: As an African American, how would she feel about a children's book depicting clothing styles of the American south, ca. 1900 to 1970, with a chapter devoted to Ku Klux Klansmen robe and hood colors, designs, cross styles? Would such a book  bother her if it didn't mention that the Klan engaged in terrorism and murder? Shootings, lynchings and violent murders and beatings of blacks (and white and Jewish civil rights supporters), cross burnings were and are part of the Klan wardrobe. The Military Uniforms book is awful. I would recommend to any school or public library librarian that they search for alternative titles. If none are available, there's a good subject for a children's book author to work on.