Written by Jeremy Black
Format: MP3 Written by: Jeremy Black
Narrated by: James Adams
Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins Format: Unabridged Release Date:12-28-11
Publisher's Summary Waterloo is Jeremy Black's brilliant attempt to set the famous battle in the context of warfare in the period, and not only that of Napoleonic Europe. Black also uses Waterloo to contextualise the changing nature of war, the rise and fall of Napoleon's empire, and the influence of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars on the nineteenth century. Waterloo was an iconic battle for the British, a triumph of endurance that ensured a nineteenth-century world in which Britain played the key role. It was also a defining moment for the French, bringing to the end both the reign of Napoleon I and also the second Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, a conflict that had started in 1689. Lastly, the battle was important for a host of other participants, from Prussia, the state that was to be the basis of modern Germany, to the Netherlands and Belgium, whose fate it decided until the Belgian revolution of 1830, and to minor German principalities such as Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau, each of which also sent troops to the Duke of Wellington's army. In Waterloo, Jeremy Black has the fullest measure of this most famous of battles. Its consequences can not be overstated and the inherent drama of the battle, which Lord Wellington immortally dubbed "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life"; make this an engrossing read. This masterly synthesis will stand as the definitive modern short book on the battle.
2.0 out of 5 stars One Big Shortcoming, May 20, 2010 By William Hopke (Titusville, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Battle of Waterloo (Hardcover) This is a short book on Waterloo at 217 pages of narrative. That is not a bad thing in itself. Some books are too lengthy and the reader ends up lost in the mass of details about which company, in which battalion, did what at 2:15, so much so that you lose the big picture. The big picture is well portrayed here. But the book has one glaring failure which leads to my low rating: there is not a single map of the battle in the book. I have always found good maps a great asset to grasping the interplay of events on a battlefield. Their total lack in this case is a surprise to me for someone of Jeremy Black's reputation and standing. Perhaps it was a publisher's decision to cut costs, but it affects the overall value of the book when you cannot look at a map to see the relationship of events being described in the narrative.4.0 out of 5 stars A Newer Waterloo Account, April 26, 2011 By Roger Kennedy "International Military Music S... (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) This review is from: The Battle of Waterloo (Hardcover)
The author goes to some length to make this a comparative analysis of the great battle. Making comparisons between 18th century and later 19th century warfare, the author tries to put Waterloo into perspective. While at times probing, with some good points, the author sometimes loses himself within the complexity of his own prose. Long, complicated statements makes for difficult reading and does have this 200 page book seem longer than it actually is. Nappy comes in for some harsh criticism here. Basically the author feels he had nothing to offer France and Europe by this point, and his whole attempt to regain power is just an ego trip. Even if he had won Waterloo the coalition set against him would have continued until his downfall. This was something Nappy could not seem to understand. He could not divide and conquer his enemies politically any longer. This left only the battlefield to decide things and here again Nappy miscalculated. By 1815 he was no longer the... Read more3.0 out of 5 stars Solid work on the Battle of Waterloo, October 17, 2010 By Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) This review is from: The Battle of Waterloo (Hardcover)
A nice telling of the story of Waterloo. Here, Napoleon, after returning from exile, scratches together an army, led by some of his old generals (such as Ney), in order to return to power. A massive coalition responds by creating a large set of forces--England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, numbering hundreds of thousands of troops. Of most immediate concern to Napoleon was the two armies converging in Belgium--Blucher's Prussian host and Wellington's mixed force (dominated by English, but including Germans and others). Napoleon tried to defeat the two armies in detail. The end result was Waterloo, where he slugged it out with Wellington's forces. It was not one of Napoleon's masterwork battles. He was detached and showed little of his flair from the Austerlitz era. The book does a nice job detailing the battle in a rather thin volume (about 200 pages). The book claims to have a somewhat different take on the key point of the battle. I will leave that... Read more