When my youngest one was four, he loved the movie Patton. He had a little plastic toy helmet like the one George C Scott wore in the movie.
We took a picture of him wearing it, standing in front of an American flag and sent it out at Christmas with the message “Greetings from the General”
He loved army guys and video games where he could map out the armies and the strategies. He sid he wanted to be a general, then be president and get his face on the rock (Mt Rushmore)
Then he got into medieval times and the crusades. He did a presentation in second grade on castles and said that when attacked, the people inside would throw dead cows over the wall. The teacher asked him why they did that and he said “Because of the stench.” He also explained how a trebuchet worked. And he could pronounce it better than I.
He also studied WWII in 5th grade. Got him several books on WWII for kids.
Still likes the Knights Templars, but a 16, he wants to write video game.
Anyway, I think the books are fine. Kids need to know history, all of history, not just sugar coated stuff. Heck, if you read the Bible to your kids, there’s a lot of violence and war in there too.
“the people inside would throw dead cows over the wall.”
Sounds like he may have watched some Monty Python also.