" A n excellent account of the contribution of the newly formed (and short-lived) United Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Allied victory" ( HistoryO fW ar.org ).The Dutch-Belgians have been variously described as inexperienced, incompetent, and cowardly, a rogue element in the otherwise disciplined Allied Army. It is on...

A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, and the fateful clash of their armies in 1815 from "a remarkably good writer" ( The New York Times). It was the greatest of battles—the defining military engagement of the nineteenth century that forever ended one man's dreams of a European empire unified under his rule. This epoch-defining conflict would ultimately be remembered for the showdown between two of history's most legendary com...

This, the fourth volume in Andrew Field's highly praised study of the Waterloo campaign from the French perspective, depicts in vivid detail the often neglected final phase the rout and retreat of Napoleon's army. The text is based exclusively on French eyewitness accounts which give an inside view of the immediate aftermath of the battle and carry the story through to the army's disbandment in late 1815. Many French officers and soldiers wrote more about the retreat than they did about th...

At 11.00 hours on 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent across the battlefields of Europe. After the deadliest conflict the world had ever seen, peace had finally arrived. Since the withdrawal from the Somme and the repulse at Verdun, the Germans knew they could not win the war and had sought a negotiated end to the fighting. This was rejected by the Allies and the fighting continued until, almost two years later, with its economy on the verge of collapse, Germany had no choice but to acc...

One of the most decisive battles in military history, Waterloo saw the culmination of a generation of war to bring a definitive end to French hegemony and imperial ambitions in Europe. Both sides fought bitterly and Wellington later remarked that 'it was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life'.In this bloody engagement, more than 20,000 men were lost on the battlefield that day by each side, but it was the Anglo-Allies who emerged victorious. Their forces ...

From the author of Talavera, an extensive history of the Battle of Waterloo from the losing side's point of view.The story of the Battle of Waterloo—of the ultimate defeat of Napoleon and the French, the triumph of Wellington, Blücher, and their allied armies—is most often told from the viewpoint of the victors, not the vanquished. Even after 200 years of intensive research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on the battle, the French pers...

Much of the material available to readers in the English language interested in the exploits of the troops of Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau is in the form of dry official reports, which stick to the basic facts and avoid all sentimentality and emotion. However, unbeknown to virtually anyone in the English-speaking world interested in the more human aspects of these 'foreign' troops fighting alongside the British at Waterloo, there are a number of memoirs and sets of letters, which have bee...

The name Waterloo has become synonymous with final, crushing defeat. Now this legendary battle is re-created in a groundbreaking book by an eminent British military historian making his major American debut. Revealing how and why Napoleon fell in Belgium in June 1815, The Battle of Waterloo definitively clears away the fog that has, over time, obscured the truth.With fresh details and interpretations, Jeremy Black places Waterloo within the context of the warfare of the period, sho...

"As a piece of historical research, this is a force majeure . . . a must read for anyone interested in the Napoleonic Wars" by the author of Waterloo ( Federation of Family History Societies ).The Battle of Quatre Bras was critical to the outcome of the Waterloo campaign—to the victory of the allied armies of Wellington and Blücher, the defeat of the French and the fall of Napoleon. But it has been overshadowed by the two ...

A historian analyzes the Franco-Prussian War's Battle of Sedan, from its causes and effects, to the characters involved.The Franco-Prussian War was a turning point in the history of nineteenth-century Europe, and the Battle of Sedan was the pivotal event in that war. For the Germans, their overwhelming victory symbolized the birth of their nation, forged in steel and tempered in the blood of the common enemy. For the French, it was a defeat more complete and humilia...

Compelling fictional scenarios exploring how the Napoleonic Wars could have gone very differently.This compelling alternate history, brilliantly written by fourteen leading international authors, presents the great maybes of the Napoleonic Wars. It focuses on some of the pivotal episodes of these catastrophic wars, giving them a resounding twist, and explores in detail an alternative sequence of historical events.Rooted firmly in reality, and projected from...

At Waterloo, some 70,000 men under Napoleon and an equal number under Wellington faced one another in a titanic battle. Alessandro Barbero's majestic account combines British and French histories to give voice to all nations involved. The Battle is a masterpiece of military history.