Osprey Essential Histories is a 21-book series with 21 released primary works first released in 1989 with contributions by Daniel Marston, Carter Malkasian, Nigel Bagnall, Anne Curry, Efraim Karsh, Waldemar Heckel, Philip de Souza, Andrew Wiest, Gregory Fremont-Barnes, Adrian Goldsworthy, Kate Gilliver, Stephen Turnbull, Alastair Finlan, Peter James Cottrell, and Mark Galeotti.