The Russian Patriotic War of 1812: The Russian Official History Volumes I and II. Modest Ivanovich Bogdanovich, translated by Peter G. A. Phillips Helion & Company Limited, 2024. Volume I Pages: 392 Images: 15 maps ISBN: 9781804514320 Volume II Pages: 424 Images: 9 b/w maps, numerous tables ISBN: 9781804514337 Helion & Company Limited […]
The Napoleonic Wars: A Medical History Martin Howard Pen & Sword Military, hardback ISBN: 9781399046169 Pages: 280 Illustrations: 30 colour illustrations This work is a masterly overview of the large and complex medical history of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The preface, acknowledgements and bibliography are a testimony to the depth of research and […]
So Just and Glorious a Cause – Britain and the Liberation of Portugal – Rolica and Vimeiro, 1808 Robert Griffith Helion Books (From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 No 131) 2024 ISBN 9781804514399 Pages: 516 Images: 34 b/w illustrations, 31 b/w photos, 12 maps, 25 tables The first thing to note about this book is […]
King George’s Army, British Regiments and the Men who led them 1793-1815: Volume 2: Foot Guards and 1st to 30th Regiments of Foot. Steve Brown Helion & Company Limited (2024) ISBN: 9781804514382 Pages: 378 Images: Tables throughout There are few books that can claim to be a vital reference resource for the entire Napoleonic period, […]
Wellington’s Light Division and the Defence of Portugal: The Battles of 1811 Robert Burnham and Ron McGuigan Frontline Books (2024), hardback ISBN978-1-39906-057-8 256 pages, 16 black & white illustrations This is the second volume in what is promised to be a five-volume set tracking the services of the Light Division during the Peninsular War. The […]
The British Army 1783-1815 Kevin Linch Pen & Sword Publications (2024), hardback ISBN 9781526737991 286 pages and 11 colour illustrations. Knowing the specialised knowledge Dr Kevin Linch possesses on the organisation of the British Army of the Georgian period, its culture and its place in society, I looked forward to reading this book and I […]
Feeding Wellington’s Army From Burgos to Waterloo. The Lively Journal of Assistant Commissary General Tupper Carey Volume II. Gareth Glover (Ed.) Pen and Sword (2024), hardback ISBN978-1-39904-146-1 280 pages, 16 colour illustrations Reviewing the first volume of Gareth Glover’s edition of the memoirs of Tupper Carey, I used the phrase ‘instant classic’ and noted that […]
The Napoleonic ‘Dad’s Army’: The British Volunteer Movement 1794-1814 Paul L. Dawson Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd. (2024), hardcover ISBN 978-1-39903-772-3 246 pages Illustrations: 16 black and white This book covers a much-neglected area of British military life, the birth and rapid expansion of the auxiliary forces of […]
Feeding Wellington’s Army in the Peninsula. The Journal of Assistant Commissary General Tupper Carey Volume 1 Glover, Gareth (ed.) Pen and Sword (2023), hardback ISBN 9781399041416 257 pages Although there has been a steady stream of new Napoleonic memoirs or letter collections making it into print in recent years – in […]
1806-1807 Tsar Alexander’s Second War with Napoleon The Russian Official History Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky Helion & Company (2023) ISBN: 9781804511930 Pages: 232 Images: 23 maps This is the first translation of Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s Official History of the second war between Tsar Alexander and the Emperor Napoleon, Brought to the anglophone readership by Peter G.A. […]
The Waterloo Campaign in 100 Locations John Grehan with Dominique Timmermans Frontline Books (Pen & Sword) (2023) ISBN: 9781526746917 Pages: 240 Illustrations: 100 black & white When I first picked up this book, I thought it was going to be another guide to the battlefield of Waterloo but was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is […]
The Danish Army of the Napoleonic Wars 1801-14: Volume 3 Norwegian Troops and Militia David A. Wilson, Helion Books (From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 series No. 95), 2022 ISBN: 978-1914059810 Page: 222 Images: 62 colour illustrations, 3 tables I have already reviewed the previous two volumes of this admirable work and was therefore very happy […]
‘The Soldiers are Dressed in Red’: The Quiberon Expedition of 1795 and the Counter-Revolution in Brittany Alistair Nichols Helion & Company Limited (2022) Paperback ISBN: 9781915070432 Pages: 310 Images: 15 colour & 12 b/w illustrations, 8 maps, 2 diagrams, 29 tables Following the excellent regimental study of the Damas Legion, For God and […]
The Changing Face of Old Regime Warfare: Essays in Honour of Christopher Duffy Alexander S. Burns (ed.) Helion & Company Limited (2022) Hardback ISBN: 9781915070388 Pages: 344 Images: 5 illustrations, 6 maps, 8 tables For students of War Studies in the Anglosphere there are a generation of scholars who have left an indelible mark upon […]
To Conquer and to Keep, Suchet and the War for Eastern Spain 1809-14 Volume II 1811-1814 Juhan Kim Helion Books (From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 No.108) (2023) Paperback ISBN: 9781804513965 Pages: 312 Images: 14 b/w illustrations, 18 colour illustrations, 16 colour maps, 4 tables Having reviewed the first volume, I was very much […]
Berezina 1812: Napoleon’s Hollow Victory Alexander Mikaberidze Osprey Publishing (2022) (Campaign Series CAM 383) Paperback ISBN: 9781472850188 Colour illustrations throughout, including battle scene artworks, maps, 3D diagrams and photographs. Berezina 1812 is the latest release from Osprey Publishing covering the Napoleonic era. It brings together two expert sources – Osprey respected for its great campaign […]
To Conquer and to Keep: Suchet and the War for Eastern Spain 1809-14 Volume 1 1809-1811 Yuhan Kim Helion Books 2023 (From Reason to Revolution Series No. 107) ISBN: 9781915070470 238pp, 27 illustrations, 11 coloured maps and 11 appendices listing various orders of battle – both French & Spanish. Despite a great deal having been […]
The Battle for the Cape 1778 to 1806 Ian van Oordt A4 hardcover portrait format 546 pages of which 28 are in colour and 55 references. 20 chapters containing 1,730 references and over 770 people. Limited edition of 80 signed copies. In 2006, at the anniversary event of the little known Battle of Blaauwberg near […]
The Men of Wellington’s Light Division Gareth Glover and Robert Burnham Pen & Sword Books (2022) Hardback ISBN: 9781399099080 Pages: 240 Illustrations: 8 colour pages I once questioned, tongue firmly in cheek, ‘how the Light Division ever managed to find time to fight the French, when so many of its members were apparently engaged in note-taking […]
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War Jeremy Black Rowman & Littlefield (2022) Hardback ISBN: 978 1 5381 6369 6 234 pages Jeremy Black’s latest work offers an overview and reinterpretation of the strategic decision making of the key players – including the Great Powers of Europe – during the French […]
The Army of the Kingdom of Italy 1805-1814: Uniforms, Organisation, Campaigns Stephen Ede-Borrett Helion & Company (2022) Paperback ISBN: 9781804512753 Pages: 246 Images: 40 b/w, 12 b/w photos, 16 colour ills, 16pp colour plates, 1 map In this comprehensive study, Stephen Ede-Borrett examines the army of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, focusing on the individual […]
Fighting Terror After Napoleon: How Europe Became Secure after 1815 Beatrice De Graaf Cambridge University Press (2020) Hardback ISBN: 9781108895873 In this book Beatrice de Graaf focuses on the closing days of the Napoleonic wars and how the states of Europe, in particular the great powers including Great Britain, the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Empires, […]
The Campaign of 1815, Volume 2: 15th June 1815 Pierre de Wit Published by Glimpse Editions (2022) ISBN 9789464509182 Hardback, 235 pp., 114 pages of learned notes, 16 pages of bibliography and 20-page index. I have now read Pierre’s second volume, dealing purely with the 15th June 1815 (and early hours of the 16th) in […]
The Campaign of 1815, Volume I ‘Preambles’ Pierre de Wit Published by Glimpse Editions (2022) https://www.waterloo-campaign.nl/volumes/ Hardback, 555 pp. Any one who has delved into the waterloo-campaign.nl website over the last decade or more, will know of the wealth of material accumulated from all armies, by the renowned historian Pierre de Wit. Pierre has now decided […]
Wellington’s Waterloo Allies: How Soldiers from Brunswick, Hanover, Nassau and the Netherlands Contributed to the Victory of 1815 Andrew W. Field Pen and Sword Military (2022), hardback ISBN: 9781399090377 Pages: 296 Illustrations: Integrated maps As the author of this work points out, the last few decades have seen an increasing number of non-English accounts of the […]
Scharnhorst: The Formative Years, 1755-1801 Charles Edward White Helion & Company (2020), paperback ISBN: 9781913118990 Pages: 436 Images: 12 b/w maps Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755-1813) is recognised for his tireless efforts rebuilding the shattered remnants of the Prussian army after the crushing defeat of Jena-Auerstedt (1806) and his mentorship of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) and […]
For God and King: A History of the Damas Legion (1793-1798): A Case Study of the Military Emigration during the French Revolution Hughes de Bazouges and Alistair Nichols Helion & Company (2021), paperback ISBN: 9781913336608 Pages: 348 Images: 4 b/w illustrations, 17 colour illustrations, 11 b/w maps, 19 tables Helion & Company have published another […]
The Battle of Znaim: Napoleon, The Habsburgs and the end of the 1809 War John H. Gill Greenhill Books (Pen & Sword), 2020 Hardback ISBN: 9781784384500 Pages: 512 Illustrations: 80 black and white illustrations and 10 maps In 1809 a resurgent Austria, encouraged by French reverses in Spain, decided to renew its struggle against Napoleon. The […]
Marching, Fighting and Dying: Experiences of Soldiers in the Peninsular War Gareth Glover Pen & Sword Military, 2021 ISBN 9781526760227 Hardback, 299 pages, 16 illustrations Gareth Glover knows his way around the memoirs of British soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars. Many were written long after the event and often embellished for their potential audience, […]
Vilnius 1812: Ghosts of Napoleon’s Grande Armée through their Artifacts Paul Richardson and Stephen Summerfield Ken Trotman Publishing, 2021 Hardback, 160 pages Illustrations: 500 In 2001 a mass grave of at least 3,269 skeletons was unearthed at Vilnius in Lithuania, identified as belonging to Napoleon’s Grande Armée that invaded Russia in 1812. The authors […]
The Gentlemen Danes: The untold story of Danish and Norwegian Prisoners of war on parole in Reading between 1807-1814 John A. Nixon Soaring Kite Publications (self-published), 2021 ISBN 9781838266400 Hardback, 231 pages Between 1793 and 1815 over 200,000 prisoners of war of many nationalities, not just French, were brought to Britain to reside in […]
Massena at Bay 1811 Tim Saunders Pen & Sword Books (2021), hardcover ISBN 9781399001328 264 pp, 178 B&W images As the reader would expect of a Tim Saunders book, the subject is handled with some depth and by somebody who thoroughly understands troop movements of the period and has covered every inch of the terrain […]
French Light Infantry 1784-1815. From the Chasseurs of Louis XVI to Napoleon’s Grande Armée Terry Crowdy Helion & Company (2021), softcover ISBN: 9781914059780 Pages:198 Images: 66 b/w illustrations, 24 pages of colour plates, 23 tables Terry Crowdy has set himself the task of describing the history, organization, growth, and tactics of the French army’s light […]
Napoleonic French Uniforms 1798-1814: As Depicted by Horace and Carl Vernet and Eugene Lami Guy Dempsey (Editor) Helion & Company (2021), soft cover ISBN: 9781914059872 Pages: 184 Images: 103 colour illustrations This is a delightful book. Guy Dempsey has rendered all students of the French army of Napoleon a great service by preparing a new […]
In the Words of Wellington’s Fighting Cocks: The After-Action Reports of the Portuguese Army During the Peninsular War 1812-14 Moises Gaudencio and Robert Burnham (foreword by Rory Muir) Pen & Sword Books (2021) ISBN 9781526761682 Hardback, 338 pages & 16 pages of B&W illustrations, no maps. All historians of the Peninsular War are painfully aware […]
Securing Europe After Napoleon: 1815 and the New European Security Culture Edited by Beatrice de Graaf, Ido de Haan and Brian Vick Cambridge University Press (2019) Hardback, 325 pages ISBN 9781108428224 Those interested in the Napoleonic Era will be familiar with the terms Allied Machine or Holy Alliance, each referring to the ongoing cooperative […]
Egypt 1801: The End of Napoleon’s Eastern Empire Stuart Reid Pen and Sword (Frontline, 2021) ISBN: 9781526758460 Hardback, 248 pages Illustrations: 16 colour plates It is a brave historian who tackles the subject of Britain’s campaign in Egypt in the closing months of the French Revolutionary Wars. Although first published nearly four decades ago, Piers Mackesy’s […]
Wellington and the Vitoria Campaign 1813: ‘Never a Finer Army’ Carole Divall Pen and Sword Military (2021) ISBN: 9781526774026 Hardback, 256 pages Illustrations: 30 black and white Five years ago, I was asked by the Society for Army Historical Research to contribute to their annual list of book recommendations, which required me to pick my five […]
Britain’s Rise to Global Superpower in the Age of Napoleon William Nester Frontline Books (2020) ISBN: 9781526775436 Hardcover Pages: 376 Illustrations: Central eight-page mono plate section In Britain’s Rise to Global Superpower in the Age of Napoleon, Dr William Nester attempts to chart the rise of Britain, through the many false starts and setbacks in the […]
Their Infantry And Guns Will Astonish You The Army of Hindustan and European Mercenaries in Maratha Service (1780-1803) Andy Copestake Helion and Company. 2021 ISBN: 978-1-914059-77-3 Softcover Pages: 218 Illustrations: 21 black and white images, 8 maps, 13 colour images Contents: Preface, Introduction, Chronology […]
Napoleon’s Peninsular War: The French Experience of the War in Spain from Vimeiro to Corunna 1808-1809 Paul L. Dawson Frontline Books (2020) ISBN: 9781526754097 Hardcover Pages: 336 Illustrations: 32 black and white In his latest book historian Paul L. Dawson offers us an insight into the French experience of the first year of the Peninsular War […]
Wellington and the Lines of Torres Vedras, The Defence of Portugal during the Peninsular War 1807-14
Wellington and the Lines of Torres Vedras, The Defence of Portugal during the Peninsular War 1807-14 Mark S Thompson Helion & Company (Book No. 75 in the ‘From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 Series’) Softback Pages: 224 Images: 28 colour and 50 b/w illustrations, maps and diagrams Sitting down to review a book on […]
Waterloo Archive: Atlas Gareth Glover and Stephen Summerfield Ken Trotman Publishing (2021) 220 pages, illustrated throughout with colour maps & contemporary sketches, portraits etc. With today’s ability to access satellite imagery, GPS, and digital maps, it is hard to imagine how soldiers in the past were able to operate over unfamiliar terrain or in a […]
Napoleon’s Stolen Army: How the Royal Navy Rescued a Spanish Army in the Baltic John Marsden Helion and Company (2021) ISBN: 978-1-913118-98-3 Paperback Pages: 200 Images: 6 b/w illustrations, 8 colour plates, 9 b/w maps, 8 tables Contents: Chapter 1: Napoleon Demands the Assistance of Spanish troops in the Baltic Region. Chapter 2: The Story […]
Coastal Defences of the British Empire in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Eras Daniel MacCannell Pen and Sword Military (2021), hardback ISBN: 9781526753458 Pages: 240 Illustrations: 70 colour In this book the author looks at the various methods Britain used to defend itself and its empire. It covers of course the Martello Towers, not just in […]
The Sword and the Spirit: Proceedings of the first ‘War & Peace in the Age of Napoleon’ Conference Zack White (Editor): Helion & Company (2021), paperback Pages: 178 Images: 1 b/w illustration, 5 tables, 1 diagram The origins of this book lie in a two-day international conference ‘War and Peace in the Age of Napoleon’ […]
At the Point of the Bayonet: The Peninsular War Battles of Arroyomolinos and Almaraz 1811-1812 Robert Griffith Helion & Company (2021), paperback Pages: 204 Images: 58 b/w photos & illustrations, 8pp colour plates, 9 b/w maps Robert Griffith is of course well known as the author of the deservedly highly praised book Riflemen: The History […]
Nouveau Dictionnaire de la Grande Armée Alain Pigeard (Editor) Heimdal (2019) ISBN 978-2-84048-542-1 Hardcover, 614 pp., illustrations. French text This beautifully designed book is the second edition of a work first published in 2002. The editor, Alain Pigeard, an expert about the First Empire (4 dictionaries, 66 publications and 400 articles) felt that the […]
Wellington’s Favourite Engineer John Fox Burgoyne: Operations, Engineering, and the Making of a Field Marshal Mark S. Thompson Helion and Company (2020) (No. 56 in the From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 Series) ISBN 9781913118938 Pages: 336 Images: 14 b/w illustrations, 50 b/w maps, 7 b/w diagrams Mark Thompson is a renowned expert on the Engineers […]
Napoleon’s Women Camp Followers Terry Crowdy, illustrated by Christa Hook Osprey Publishing (Men-at-Arms No.538), 2021 ISBN 9781472841957 Paperback, 48 pages Osprey Publishing produce a wide range of titles covering all periods of history that provide us with slim but often detailed histories, and I am sure that most of us have a few of their […]