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Title: The Peninsular War: A New History by Charles Esdaile ISBN: 1-4039-6231-6 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best overall view
Comment: Esdaile's book is simply the best overall description of thePeninsular War. He realizes that war and battles do not exist in a vacuum from politics as well as the reverse, that war involves fighting. He thus spends much time on the intricacies of Cadiz government to show the limitations of the Spanish forces. His theses on the regular army and the guerillas are expanded from his early works as is the realtion of Wellington to the Spaniards. The Duke is not mythologised, but he is shown to be the outstanding personality of the war. Although his descriptions of battles are limited in scope and scale (see D. Gates "The Spanish Ulcer" for a better strictly military history), Esdaile places the war within the structure of the other conflicts at the time. This book is the definitive description of the entire war.
Rating: 3
Summary: Rather unbalanced
Comment: The author makes a worthy attempt to say something new about the war, but the start of the book is turgid to say the least. He tries to provide a full socio-economic context for the events in the Peninsula, but goes around and around in circles over spain. Undoubtedly it is good to use the underutilised Spanish sources, which are indeed interesting, but the fact is that the war begins in Portugal, yet is is scaracely given more than a few pages of background. The maps are useful, but there is little meat in a lot of what he says. As a beginner's book, this would leave a lot of confusion. As a definitive work, there is little new apart from the Spanish sources. Perhaps a more clear organization of the book, with appropriate chapter headings and a better index would help. By the time he gets to the Pyrenees, he, like so many other narrators, has long since run out of steam, yet it is in some senses the crux or end of the story, even if it did not take place in Spain. I wish authors dealing with this period would get over the annoying habit of mentioning what will happen later, and then giving only partial information, for example Zaragossa. Perhaps a detailed list of all the battles/main locations with key dates/events might, but as it is it makes everything seem very patchy and badly thought out.
Perhaps if he had confined himself to Spain in the Peninsular war he would have done a great deal better. Likewise, a volume on Portugal, and on the Pyrenees would make much more sense than what he has ended up with. Since he has used so many Spanish sources, some of the basic ones British ones are badly neglected.
Rating: 5
Summary: A highly critical history of the Peninsular War
Comment: Esdaile criticizes the mythological role of the partisans in the Peninsular War and the contention tht these irregular fighters had popular support. Esdaile believes the partisans were nothing more than draft dogers and bandits, who hindered rather than helped the Spanish cause. According to Esdaile the use of these guerrillas hampered the Spanish war effort because they took away valuable men from the army and committed numerous crimes against the civilian population. Esdaile states in this book that the guerrillas were motivated by personal profit and not by any sense of nationalism. In the concluding chapters of the book, Esdaile believes it was Napoleon blunders by asking his subordinates to launch offensives in eastern Spain which led to the western part of the country vulnerable to Welligton's offenisves that ultimately ended the war. I would reccomend this book to anyone who wants a new view of the Peninsular War.
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Title: The Franco-Prussian War : The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 by Geoffrey Wawro ISBN: 0521584361 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 25 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by ROBERT K. MASSIE ISBN: 0679456716 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Battle of Koniggratz: Prussia's Victory over Austria, 1866 by Gordon Alexander Craig ISBN: 0812218442 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans ISBN: 1594200041 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 05 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest by Peter S. Wells ISBN: 0393020282 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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