"Best single-volume history of the Peninsular War?" Topic

Hi All,

Can anyone please recommend one?

Thanks much,

L

Gates: The Spanish Ulcer

Pete L +1 I second

Yep, that one. Easy to read. Covers the whole war and not just the Brits. Has plentiful decent maps.

+1 Gates

Thanks Gents!

I've recently started watching the Sharpe's flicks for the first time and thought I'd learn as I do.

L

Gates is good and I have it and use it.

However, Nick Lipscombe's Peninsular War Atlas has both excellent maps and an excellent commentary along with it which to my mind makes it the best single volume on the war.

And it covers both Wellington's campaigns as well as Suchet's in eastern Spain.

The book begins where it should, with the first French invasion of Portugal under Junot. Moore's campaign and the first and second French invasions are covered and the campaigns are all discussed, mapped, and overall very well done.

The orders of battle are included and the book is excellently sourced. It is highly recommended.

link

Apparently, an updated copy is being released this month:

link

As the above re: both Gates and Lipscombe, but Weller's "Wellington in the Peninsula" is a damn fine stand alone tome as far as his actions are concerned.

I have found it more hero-worship than history, but that's merely opinion.

Gates and Lipscombre are both good places to start. For something a bit more in depth, try Charles Esdaille's "The Peninsular War" (2003). He is better at the Spanish perspective than most authors (I think because one of his parents is Spanish?) and he's a good writer.

+1 for Esdaile. Spanish Ulcer is nearly as good but the maps are wretched

Kevin. You keep using the word "invasion" in regard to the French … expeditions in Spain and Portugal. Isn't that a rather judgemental word, implying that these visits were not justified?

I agree Gates and Lipscombre are both good places to start.

For a completely different view try "Napoleon's Cursed War – Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War" by Ronald Fraser.

Gates, Lipscrombe and about a dozen Ospreys

For the uglier realities don't forget to view Francisco de Goya y Lucientes' powerful engravings "Los desastres de la guerra."

…Isn't that a rather judgemental word, implying that these visits were not justified?

Why is it 'judgmental'?

And an invasion can be both justified and unjustified.

-Austria's invasion of Bavaria in 1809 was clearly unjustified and was done in revenge for past repeated defeats.

-Napoleon invading in 1806 was justified as Prussia had decided on war with France and Napoleon struck first.

-In more modern times, the Coalition allies invaded Kuwait in 1991 to liberate it and throw out the Iraqis.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Wellington in the Peninsula" when I read it about a year ago. Wellington had one heck of an awesome intelligence network – he knew every move that the French were making almost in real time.

Esdaille's book is the more informed on the War overall, rather that just the British bits – there was a lot more to it than Wellington.

He's well connected in Spanish historical circles and has written a number of other books on aspects of the War.

Esdaille's book is the more informed on the War overall, rather that just the British bits – there was a lot more to it than Wellington.

He's well connected in Spanish historical circles and has written a number of other books on aspects of the War.

Lipscombe's maps are good but as its an Atlas of the War they kind of should be!

Trajanus is correct that if you want a single-volume book more focused on Spanish politics and Spanish experience of war, then Esdaile has to be the one (plus he may be the only Anglophone author who proposes a quite radically different set up for Baylen). If you want a more military-focused book, then Lipscombe is the best (and the prettiest). Gates is still military history, but has enough of the politics and economics in for a very readable general overview (but is much less pretty).

Another good annotated atlas would be:
"An Atlas of the Peninsular War" by Ian Robertson.