The Sunday Times Number 1 Bestseller 'A fabulous story, superbly told ... cannot be bettered' Max Hastings 'Some battles change nothing. Waterloo changed almost everything.' On the 18th June 1815 the armies of France, Britain and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days the French army had beaten the British at Quatre-Bras and the Prussians at Ligny. The Allies were in retreat. The blood-soaked battle of Waterloo would become a landmark in European history, to be examined over and again, not least because until the evening of the 18th, the French army was close to prevailing on the battlefield. Now, brought to life by the celebrated novelist Bernard Cornwell, this is the chronicle of the four days leading up to the actual battle and a thrilling hour-by-hour account of that fateful day. In his first work of non-fiction, Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting account of every dramatic moment, from Napoleon's escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the battlefields. Through letters and diaries he also sheds new light on the private thoughts of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington, as well as the ordinary officers and soldiers. Published to coincide with the bicentenary in 2015, Waterloo is a tense and gripping story of heroism and tragedy - and of the final battle that determined the fate of Europe.

The Office of Ordnance has been ill-served by previous accounts of its role in arming the Royal Navy during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Cole offers an in-depth examination of its organizational structure and demonstrates how the department responded to the pressures of war over an extended period of time.

With a new introduction by Andrew Roberts. 'A penetrating interpretation...No one with a serious interest in the Napoleonic period can afford to ignore it. ' - Times Literary Supplement Whether viewed as an inspired leader or obsessed tyrant, Napoleon has divided opinion for over 200 years. Few individuals have left such a mark on history. Georges Lefebvre's classic work, published in Routledge Classics in one paperback volume in English for the first time, is a definitive portrait of the Napoleonic era. Lefebvre's history sweeps us from the lightning coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire in 1799 to his final downfall amidst the wheatfields of Waterloo. More than a biography, it is a brilliant survey of the turbulent age Napoleon inaugurated in his attempt to redraw the map of Europe, from the Peninsular War to the invasion of Russia. The cast includes his antagonists - Pitt the Younger, Wellington, Metternich and Tsar Alexander - and his allies - the wily Minister of Police Fouche and Talleyrand, the 'Prince of Diplomats'. Lefebvre's account is equally clear-eyed about Napoleon's genius and his flaws. Napoleon's determination to emulate Caesar and Augustus condemned Europe to more than a decade of war and economic crisis, but he also built an empire, introducing educational, administrative and financial initiatives that are still in place today. Georges Lefebvre (1877-1959) One of the foremost historians of the Twentieth Century and known as the 'historian's historian', he held the chair of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne . His The French Revolution is also available in Routledge Classics.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Soviet philologist, literary dissident, and university professor Viktor Duvakin made it his mission to interview the members of the artistic avant-garde who had survived the Russian Revolution, Stalin's purges, and the Second World War. Based on archival materials held at the Moscow State University Library, Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors catalogues six interviews conducted by Duvakin. The interviewees talk about their most intimate life experiences and give personal accounts of their interactions with famous writers and artists such as Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergei Eisenstein, and Marina Tsvetaeva. They offer insights into the world of Russian emigrants in Prague and Paris, the uprising against the Communist government, what it was like to work at the United Nations after the Second World War, and other important aspects of life in the Soviet Union and Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Archival photographs, as well as hundreds of annotations to the text, are included to help readers understand the historical and cultural context of the interviews. The unique and previously unpublished materials in Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors will be of great interest to anyone who wants to learn more about this fascinating period in Soviet history.

One of the great writers of the nineteenth century, Nikolai Gogol was born and raised in Ukraine before he was lionized and canonized in Russia. The ambiguities within his subversive, ironic works are matched by those that surround the debate over his national identity. This book presents a completely new assessment of the problem: rather than adopting the predominant "either/or" perspective - wherein Gogol is seen as either Ukrainian or Russian - it shows how his cultural identity was a product of negotiation with imperial and national cultural codes and values. By examining Gogol's ambivalent self-fashioning, language performance, and textual practices, this book shows how Gogol played with both imperial and local sources of identity and turned his hybridity into a project of subtle cultural resistance. Ilchuk provides a comprehensive account of assimilation and hybridization of Ukrainians in the Russian empire, arguing that Russia's imperial culture has depended on Ukraine and the participation of Ukrainian intellectuals in its development. Ilchuk also introduces innovative computer-assisted methods of textual analysis to demonstrate the palimpsest-like quality of Gogol's texts and national identity.

The men who fought in Napoleon's Grande Armee built a new empire that changed the world. Remarkably, the same men raised arms during the French Revolution for liberte, egalite, and fraternite. In just over a decade, these freedom fighters, who had once struggled to overthrow tyrants, rallied to the side of a man who wanted to dominate Europe. What was behind this drastic change of heart? In this ground-breaking study, Michael J. Hughes shows how Napoleonic military culture shaped the motivation of Napoleon's soldiers. Relying on extensive archival research and blending cultural and military history, Hughes demonstrates that the Napoleonic regime incorporated elements from both the Old Regime and French Revolutionary military culture to craft a new military culture, characterized by loyalty to both Napoleon and the preservation of French hegemony in Europe. Underscoring this new, hybrid military culture were five sources of motivation: honor, patriotism, a martial and virile masculinity, devotion to Napoleon, and coercion. Forging Napoleon's Grande Armee vividly illustrates how this many-pronged culture gave Napoleon's soldiers reasons to fight.

The Sunday Times bestselling account of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and eventual retreat from Moscow, events that had a profound effect on the subsequent course of Russian and European history. Moscow has both fascinated military historians and captured the imagination of millions on an emotional and human level. 1812 tells the story of how the most powerful man on earth met his doom, and how the greatest fighting force ever assembled was wiped out. Over 400,000 French and Allied troops died on the disastrous Russian campaign, with the vast majority of the casualties occuring during the frigid winter retreat. Adam Zamoyski tells their story with incredible detail and sympathy, drawing on a wealth of first-hand accounts of the tragedy to create a vivid portrait of an unimaginable catastrophe. power. His intention was to destroy Britain through a total blockade, the Continental System. But Tsar Alexander of Russia refused to apply the blockade, and Napoleon decided to bring him to heel. ramifications on Russian, French, German and, indeed, European history and culture cannot be understated. Adam Zamoyski's epic, enthralling narrative is the definitive account of the events of that dramatic year.

In contrast to every other book about the conflict Andrew Lambert's ground-breaking study The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia, 1853-1856 is neither an operational history of the armies in the Crimea, nor a study of the diplomacy of the conflict. The core concern is with grand strategy, the development and implementation of national policy and strategy. The key concepts are strategic, derived from the works of Carl von Clausewitz and Sir Julian Corbett, and the main focus is on naval, not military operations. This original approach rejected the 'Continentalist' orthodoxy that dominated contemporary writing about the history of war, reflecting an era when British security policy was dominated by Inner German Frontier, the British Army of the Rhine and Air Force Germany. Originally published in 1990 the book appeared just as the Cold War ended; the strategic landscape for Britain began shifting away from the continent, and new commitments were emerging that heralded a return to maritime strategy, as adumbrated in the defence policy papers of the 1990s. With a new introduction that contextualises the 1990 text and situates it in the developing historiography of the Crimean War the new edition makes this essential book available to a new generation of scholars.

The Office of Ordnance has been ill-served by previous accounts of its role in arming the Royal Navy during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Cole offers an in-depth examination of its organizational structure and demonstrates how the department responded to the pressures of war over an extended period of time.

A proverbial cellar find brought to light a remarkable source for Napoleonic uniformology, which due to its artistic design but also high level of detail offers valuable support in the research of the military dress of Napoleonic mounted troops. A total of 56 large-format hand-coloured watercolours depict cavalry, artillery and train troops of the French Imperial period from 1804 to 1812, the Neapolitan army of 1812, and the Polish uprising of 1831. The work itself is introduced with a foreword by art historian Dr. Hans D. Baumann, commenting on the artistic representation and especially the provenance of the portfolio. It turned out that the watercolours by unknown artists were originally part of the library of the Royal Theatre in Berlin and finally reached Kassel via the salt mines of Thuringia in the course of the Second World War. From there they went to a private collector and then disappeared in the afore-mentioned cellar. The reference to the Royal Theatres in Berlin as well as the posture and presentation of some of the depicted cavalrymen quickly led to Richard Knoetel's famous Grosse Uniformenkunde. This is because this doyen of German uniformology cited "coloured hand drawings from the library of the Royal Theatre of Berlin" as the source of some of his plates on the French army. His plates on the Neapolitan army are also partly based on the original source presented here for the first time. Even though the artist (or artists) probably did not produce the 56 watercolours until the late 1830s or 1840s, they are captivatingly accurate and have been assessed by Markus Gartner and Markus Stein for their historical accuracy. Each plate is accompanied by a brief commentary, which usually classifies the depiction as correct - especially the rarer depictions, such as French carabiniers around 1812 in the sky-blue uniforms, underline the artist's sound knowledge of Napoleonic military costume. As evidence of the painting's contemporary origins, some plates are accompanied by illustrations by early 19th century military artists such as Martinet or Weiland, which obviously served as sources. Some illustrations are also supplemented by Knoetel's plates, enabling readers to verify for themselves the impact these watercolours had on the creation of a work of such fundamental nature as the "Grosse Uniformenkunde". Thus this book spans 19th century uniformology from the early years to its perfection around 1890. In addition to the commentaries, the plates are also accompanied by historic details outlining the development and wartime deployment of the unit depicted, as well as the standards carried. These additions were made on the basis of rarer works of French military history, while modern works by military historians Markus Gartner and Markus Stein were also consulted. Since the paintings depict mounted units throughout (both of the Guard and the Line), the reader is able to obtain a comprehensive picture of the splendour of Napoleonic cavalry turned out in their colourful uniforms. The artistic charm of a previously unpublished source and the wide range of units represented will surely make this book a highlight of any library.

Placing the creation of Westphalia within the context of the larger German story of the Napoleonic Wars, this groundbreaking book offers the only complete history of Napoleon's grand experiment to construct a model state in Germany. In 1807, in the wake of two years of victories over the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians, Napoleon redrew the map of central Europe by fashioning a new German state. Dubbing it the Kingdom of Westphalia, he appointed his 23-year-old brother Jerome as its king. Sam A. Mustafa shows how Westphalia became a proving ground for the allegedly liberating and modern concepts of the French Revolution, brought by foreign conquest and enforced by a powerful new centralized state. Over the next six years, the inhabitants of this region experienced fundamental and often jarring changes in almost every aspect of their lives. They witnessed a profound clash of French and German culture, as well as new ideas about law, nationality, and politics. And yet, for all of its promise on paper, Westphalia ended up despised by most of its people, who cheered at its collapse and in many cases helped to bring it down. What went wrong with this early example of what we would today call "nation building" and how did Germans react to the changes? Napoleon's Paper Kingdom is the first book in the English language to provide a comprehensive investigation of this fascinating chapter of the Napoleonic Wars.

Women played a major part in the French revolution of 1789, but have received very little recognition for their contributions. The many claims and protests put forth by women at that time were suppressed, women's clubs were banned, and Olympe de Gouges, a leading contemporary advocate for women's rights, was silenced. De Gouges, author of the "fundamental Declarations des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne" ("Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen"), has been left out of dictionaries and history books. But in 1993, French women demanded that she be interred in the Pantheon. Sophie Mousset's is the first biography of this astonishing woman. De Gouges dared to write and publish her "Declarations" in 1791, and was sent to the guillotine for having had the courage to mount the rostrum on behalf of women. Despite her contributions, she remains an obscure figure, even in France. Unlike many who have captured posterity's attention, de Gouges had great sympathy but no indulgence for her sex. Instead of considering her female colleagues as eternal victims, she understood that they were to some extent responsible for their misfortunes, and that if they united and devoted themselves to changing their image, they could become great. De Gouges called for the advent of a new woman, one who would relinquish cupidity and the "nocturnal administering" of men. She demanded education for girls, the prevention of arranged marriages and forced vows, the right to divorce, and the legitimization of children born out of wedlock. She advocated the feminization of professional titles, wrote a social contract between man and woman that foreshadowed other legislation, and reflected upon the problem of prostitution and the violence inflicted upon women. She also actively opposed slavery. Olympe de Gouges rightly deserves the title of pioneer, prophet, and heroine. This long-overdue biography pays her due homage. It will be of interest to students of the French Revolution, women's studies, and biography.

The Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars profoundly affected German Central Europe. Thousands of German and Austrian soldiers fought as enemies and allies of France in military campaigns that stretched from the sierras of Spain to the snowfields of Russia. Meanwhile, German and Austrian civilians found their lives touched by warfare in a way not seen for decades. The political geography of area was transformed as the thousand-year Holy Roman Empire collapsed and Napoleon redrew state borders. Millions found themselves forced to adapt to the political and military reality of French domination. This book traces the individual and collective experience of these momentous events in the letters, diaries and memoirs of contemporaries. It explores how soldiers and civilians wrote about both the horrors and pleasures of warfare and how these experiences were mediated by social status, sex, religion and geography. It suggests that despite the trauma of a generation of warfare, older, pre-Revolutionary interpretations of armed conflict remained important as eyewitnesses sought to explain and understand the turmoil around them.

The mid-nineteenth century's Crimean War is frequently dismissed as an embarrassment, an event marred by blunders and an occasion better forgotten. In The Crimean War and its Afterlife Lara Kriegel sets out to rescue the Crimean War from the shadows. Kriegel offers a fresh account of the conflict and its afterlife: revisiting beloved figures like Florence Nightingale and hallowed events like the Charge of the Light Brigade, while also turning attention to newer worthies, including Mary Seacole. In this book a series of six case studies transport us from the mid-Victorian moment to the current day, focusing on the heroes, institutions, and values wrought out of the crucible of the war. Time and again, ordinary Britons looked to the war as a template for social formation and a lodestone for national belonging. With lucid prose and rich illustrations, this book vividly demonstrates the uncanny persistence of a Victorian war in the making of modern Britain.

On War (1832) is a treatise on the philosophical aspects of warfare by Prussian general, scholar, and strategist Carl von Clausewitz. Published posthumously by the author's wife-who edited his manuscript and wrote the book's introduction-On War is one of history's most important works on warfare and military strategy, and continues to be studied to this day. With a background in art, culture, and history, and with extensive experience as a combat veteran, Clausewitz sought to understand the military success of such figures as Napoleon and Frederick the Great. What interested Clausewitz the most was how these leaders effectively mobilized entire nations to launch military campaigns larger and more violent than any in European history. Although he initially began with the theory that war was one aspect of a population's struggle for survival, he eventually came to believe that war was a method of imposing the will of one state on another. By privileging politics and philosophy in his study of warfare, Clausewitz changed the way military figures, politicians, and scholars thought of and perpetrated the process of war. Most crucially, Clausewitz suggests that war serves no purpose in and of itself, but rather acts as an instrument of a political party or group. In addition, Clausewitz believed that strong moral and political motivations-especially in the case of defense-greatly increased the chance of victory. On War was read and interpreted by Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Dwight Eisenhower, and has, for over a century and a half, continued to shape the concept and conduct of war. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Carl von Clausewitz's On War is a classic of history, philosophy, and military theory reimagined for modern readers.

This is an illustrated analysis of the world war between Napoleon and the 6th coalition in 1813, covering operations in Central Europe, Spain and North America. Brigadier Riley examines the differences between successful alliances and coalitions, comparing the long-term international relationships in alliances and the short-term union of coalitions. He points out how, given political and military situations today, it is essential to study coalition war as an historical phenomenon: what conditions bring coalitions together, and what tends to pull them apart; wat are the peculiar difficulties which distinguish them from the wars of nations or established alliances? This examination is made through the momentous year of 1813. With a detailed look at these aspects of coalition warfighting, Riley details the inner relationships of coalitions and their strategic advances by refering to Napoleon's and Wellington's campaigns.

This analysis of the world war between Napoleon and the 6th coalition in 1813 covers operations in Europe, Spain and North America. It examines the differences between alliances and coalitions, comparing the long-term international relationships in alliances and the short-term union of coalitions.

Individually and collectively, the essays in this cross-disciplinary collection explore the impact of the revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars on European visual culture, from the outbreak of the pan-European conflict with France in 1792 to the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Through consideration of a range of media, from academic painting to prints, drawings and printed ephemera, this book offers fresh understanding of the rich variety of ways in which warfare was mediated in visual cultures in Britain and continental Europe. The fourteen essays in the collection are grouped thematically into three sections, each focusing on a specific type of visual communication. Thus, Part One engages with historically specific ways of transmitting messages about war and conflict, including maps, prints, silhouette imagery and war games produced in France and Germany; Part Two considers popular and elite imagining of war between 1793 and 1815, encompassing readings of paintings by Turner, Girodet and Goya, Portuguese anti-French drawings and British satirical book illustrations; while Part Three concentrates on visual cultures of commemoration, addressing British theatrical reenactments and museum collections, and British and Dutch paintings of the Battle of Waterloo. As such, the volume uncovers fascinating new visual material and throws fresh light on some of the more canonical visual representations of conflict during the first 'Total War'.

In August 1836, Alexander Pushkin wrote a poem now popularly known simply as "Monument." In the decades following his death in January 1837, the poem "Monument" was transformed into a statue in central Moscow: the Pushkin Monument. At its dedication in 1880, the interaction between the verbal text and the visual monument established a creative dynamic that subsequent generations of artists and thinkers amplified through the use of allusion, simultaneously inviting their readers and spectators into a shared cultural history and enriching the meaning of their original creations. The history of the Pushkin Monument reveals how allusive practice becomes more complex over time. As the population of literate Russians grew throughout the twentieth century, both writers and readers negotiated increasingly complex allusions not only to Pushkin's poem, but to its statuesque form in Moscow and the many performances that took place around it. Because of this, the story of Pushkin's Monument is also the story of cultural memory and the aesthetic problems that accompany a cultural history that grows ever longer as it moves into the future.

How did Britain manage the transportation of large numbers of troops to French controlled territory during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and successfully land them? Shortlisted for the Society for Nautical Research Anderson Medal 2016 Britain's naval victories in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars succeeded in protecting Britain from French invasion, but they could not of themselves defeat France. This required the support of allied armies and necessitated the shipping of large numbers of troops to, and successfully landing them on, French controlled territory - a major logistical operation. Wellington's expedition to Portugal and Spain led to Napoleon's defeat in the Peninsular War, but there were many other British expeditions before this which were not successful, in part because they were too logistically ambitious and/or they lacked allied support. This book examines the nature of combined operations and considers the planning and preparation of expeditions. It highlights the navy's important role in amphibious warfare and describes in detail the logistical operations which supported British expeditionary warfare in the period. It outlines the role of the Transport Board, explores how it periodically chartered a large proportion of the British merchant fleet and what theeffects of this were on merchant shipping. The book concludes that the Transport Board grew in competence; that the failure of expeditions was invariably due to circumstances well beyond its control; and that its pivotal role inthe preparation of all the major military expeditions in which hundreds of thousands of British troops served overseas was very significant and very effective. Robert K. Sutcliffe completed his doctorate at the University of Greenwich.

Waterloo is one of the most famous battles in history and it has given rise to a vast and varied literature. The strategy and tactics of the battle and the entire Waterloo campaign have been analysed at length. The commanders, manoeuvres and critical episodes, and the intense experiences of the men who took part, have all been recorded in minute detail. But the organization, structure and fighting strength of the armies that fought in the battle have received less attention, and this is the subject of Philip Haythornthwaite's detailed, authoritative and engaging study. Through a close description of the structure and personnel of each of the armies he builds up a fascinating picture of their makeup, their methods and their capabilities. The insight he offers into the contrasting styles and national characteristics of the forces that came together on the Waterloo battlefield gives a fresh perspective on the extraordinary clash of arms that ended the Napoleonic era.

For James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, leading the Light Brigade at Balaclava was but one incident in a life of sensation and notoriety. Donald Thomas's biography, originally published in 1977, and based on new material when originally published, shows this most controversial Victorian against a panorama of regimental intrigue and aristocratic luxury. Dismissed from the army for 'revolting' conduct, Cardigan bought the command of the 11th Hussars (the 'Cherry Bums') for GBP40,000 a few years later. Regimental rivalries led to the 'Black Bottle' scandal of 1840 and to a duel in which he shot a brother officer. Charged with attempted murder, Cardigan was the only Victorian peer to be tried by the House of Lords. Nonetheless, his seductions of other men's wives rivalled his regimental misdemeanours in press reports. He was jeered int he streets, hissed at the theatre and burnt in effigy. It took the glory and the folly of Balaclava to turn 'this plague-spot of the British army' into 'the most popular soldier in England'. Greeted everywhere by cheering crowds, their new hero fought duels and libel actions against those who denied his bravery before the Russian guns. For all his misbehaviour, Cardigan remains warm-blooded, generous, impulsive and courageous, as well as obstinate, proud and sometimes ridiculous. Hated by numerous men, and adored by many women, his elopement with the beautiful Adeline Horsey de Horsey was a triumph of his old age.

The Peninsular war was not only one of the great periods in British military history, it was also a war in which guerillas exerted a major influence, and as such, has continued relevance today. Salamanca established Wellington as one of the great military commanders of any age and it is one of the battles which produced significant results. As well as the battle the campaign contains two of the most memorable sieges ever under-taken by British arms, those of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. This book, originally published in 1972, uses eye-witness accounts with the result that the reader can hear the principal characters explain their actions and see the battlefield through the eyes of the men who were there.