chrach7  | 16 Jun 2012 4:21 p.m. PST |
Can someone please recommend a "grand overview" book about the Napoleonic wars? I've read Napoleon's Wars by Esdaile, but it doesn't cover the military aspects very well. I'm now reading The Spanish Ulcer, but it is a bit more detailed than I want (it seems to cover every skirmish and march that occured on the peninsula). I'd love a book of about 500 pages that covers the major engagements (Austerlitz, Wagram, Friedland, Borodino etc). Thanks in advance. |
| corporalpat | 16 Jun 2012 4:31 p.m. PST |
The campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler should be exactly what you are looking for in an overview. It has been years since I studied Napoleonics so there may be a better book available now, but Chandler got me started. |
| 14Bore | 16 Jun 2012 4:44 p.m. PST |
Me Too. As a overveiw don't know of anything better. |
 Extra Crispy | 16 Jun 2012 5:06 p.m. PST |
Chandler is great but very long. Very, very long. And it only covers Napoleon's campaigns (so it ignores theaters where he was not present, like Spain and Italy). I can think of several other books but they are all about the same scope/detail as Esdaile. |
| nsolomon99 | 16 Jun 2012 6:31 p.m. PST |
Chandler's work is the book probably almost everyone starts with. Its a reference book, you dont need to read it cover to cover, you read the parts you want. You start with Chandlers discussion of the tactics, weapons, etc and then you choose the campaigns you want to study first. |
| artaxerxes | 16 Jun 2012 6:40 p.m. PST |
Gunther Rothenberg, The Napoleonic Wars (in various imprints and reprints). |
| chrach7 | 18 Jun 2012 6:07 a.m. PST |
I just ordered a used copy of Chandler from amazon- jeez those are expensive! $70 USD used, $250 USD new. They had a kindle version for about $65 USD but I find kindle hard to navigate if I want to jump around to different chapters. |
| RudyNelson | 18 Jun 2012 8:42 a.m. PST |
If you are in the USA, you could have used your local library's Inter-library loan program. My little library for 7,000 people can get me books from anywhere, especially old used books. I am in Alabama and have gotten books from the Universities of Hawaii, Ohio State and Alabama. |
| chrach7 | 18 Jun 2012 9:49 a.m. PST |
True, but I want to keep it as a long term reference also. |
| NedZed | 18 Jun 2012 8:34 p.m. PST |
Back in the late Sixties I had Chandler in one hand for broad coverage, and the West Point Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars by Esposito and Elting in the other hand for the maps and commentary. In the four decades since that time I know there have been excellent books, perhaps even many more accurate books – but these made a great pair to inspire and to get one started, and to have a basic reference to refer back to again and again. |
| Keraunos | 25 Jun 2012 6:48 a.m. PST |
$70 USD ? you got robbed. First hit on Abe books has it for under ten pounds (that about twenty bucks), which is what I would expect. its been reprinted so often and was a staple of the history book clubs for so many years, I'm astonished anyone thinks they can sell it for that much. having said that, its easily worth 40 quid / 80 bucks as a resource – its just that you shouldn't have had to pay that much for it. cost and value, I guess |
