"The Three Battles of Waterloo: Same Conflict-Different" Topic

…Perspectives

"The battle involved a confrontation between an Anglo-Dutch force under the command of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, French forces under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and Prussian forces under the command of Field Marshall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

Most historians and scholars will agree upon these basic facts, but almost everything else is open to question. Like most significant historical events. it isn't just the raw data that's important here, it's also the context and the interpretation of these facts that define what we think we know…."
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Armand

It's been done already. I read this in about 1983:

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Done to death, I suspect, by now.
I think it can safely be said that it is generally accepted this was a combined Anglo-Dutch-Prussian victory. Equal credit.
I can't think of a single battle that has been so dissected as much as Waterloo.
There are some things, who said and did what, and when,that we will probably never know.

(smile)

Armand

I generally agree with Mr Forrester, except I think the battle of Gettysburg may have been even more dissected than Waterloo. Beginning with the participants themselves. Former Confederate officers spilled a lot of ink trying to apportion blame for why they lost.

Which is why I have such a love/hate relationship with these battles. On the one hand, they so dominate the literature of their respective periods that they don't leave a lot of room for all the other interesting battles that occurred. On the other hand, you can get deeper into understanding them because there are numerous sources from both sides. For example, Andrew Field's series of books on the French perspective of Waterloo are quite eye-opening, and there are now books discussing the Dutch-Belgian point of view (which I have only begun to dig into).

I believe that the more perspectives one can understand, the closer to the truth of what actually happened one can get. Which probably marks me out as some kind of romantic.

Thanks.

Armand