- Hardcover: 144 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st Edition edition (7 Feb 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007190751
- ISBN-13: 978-0007190751
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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- #54 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Roberts, Andrew
Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History)
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Review
Praise for Salisbury: Victorian Titan (Winner of the 1999 Wolfson Prize for History): 'Although constructed on a massive scale, Roberts's book is so beautifully written that one would not wish it a page shorter. It is unlikely ever to be superseded.' Vernon Bogdanor, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Salisbury deserves, and has found, a fine biographer, who has left no stone unturned in his researches, has written cogently and well about his subject, and provided not just a history of Lord Salisbury, but one of the best histories yet of Victorian Britain and her place in the world.' Simon Heffer, Daily Mail Praise for Napoleon & Wellington: 'It is one of Andrew Roberts's merits that, as well as being intelligent, hard-working and opinionated, he gets great fun out of his writing. His books are consequently not only genuinely important but also a pleasure to read.' Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph 'Well written and well organised, his study of the relationship between the emperor and the Duke of Wellington is as entertaining as it is instructive, and is original and judicious both as military and personal history.' Christopher Hibbert, The Sunday Times
Sunday Telegraph
'a concise, pacy and well-argued account that puts many of its predecessors...it represents a masterly synthesis of the latest scholarship"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compact but excellent account of Waterloo.,
By
This review is from: Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History) (Hardcover)
"A slender volume" tends to be a derogatory way to refer to a book, but Andrew Roberts has proved that that need not be the case. Physically, his book is certainly small; if there is a smaller book among the many on the subject of Waterloo, I haven't encountered it. This is so well written, however, that the brevity of the book is no disadvantage. The events are recounted with admirable lucidity, but Roberts still finds space for numerous well-reasoned arguments. He does not set out with an axe to grind, as does Peter Hofschroer (with a degree of justice) and as do numerous French authors, desperately trying to prove that the French actually won the battle. He is properly dismissive of the kind of francophone pseudo-historian who is still unable to accept, one hundred and ninety years after the event, that the French were defeated, or that they deserved to be, but his tone is admirably balanced overall (Hofschroer gets a respectful reference). Roberts never explicitly tries to compare Wellington's generalship with Napoleon's, but does draw attention to the flaws in Napoleon's command on the day: late start, unsubtle tactics, assumption of British inferiority, failure to comprehend the significance of the fact that the Prussians were still very much in play, failure to shift his position, to see the battlefield from another vantage-point. There is an ingenious and actually quite plausible explanation of how the insanely conducted French cavalry charges began. I shan't spoil it here (you'll have to read the book). Admittedly, massed frontal charges were exactly how Napoleon conducted the whole battle, so he may well have ordered them, even if his defenders maintain that that is impossible. Roberts leaves space for some illuminating conclusions about the significance of the victory. Napoleon would almost certainly have been steamrollered by the Russians, even if he had won at Waterloo, but a war won by Russia would have led to a very different Europe in the nineteenth century. I don't think that you can have too many books about this fascinating and dreadful battle. Roberts himself pays tribute to Jac Weller, Ian Fletcher and Mark Adkin and is certainly not seeking to supersede their efforts. As far as modern-day analyses of the battle are concerned, however, you can't go wrong with Adkin's masterpiece and this gem from Andrew Roberts, with Hofschroer's works, perhaps, thrown in for a provocatively different perspective.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Compact but not Bijou,
By Jon Latimer (Wales) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History) (Hardcover)
As a regular battlefield tour guide at the site Andrew Roberts's knowledge of the ground is apparent in this elegant little book. He introduces some interesting aspects of modern analysis, such as climatologist Dennis Wheeler's model of the weather system that deluged the battlefield with `apocalyptic' rainfall: the French guns could not operate effectively until the ground had dried appreciably, causing a serious delay that helped the Prussian army under Marshal Gebhardt von Blücher to come to the Duke of Wellington's assistance. For this battle was not won by the British alone.
However, the book has curious features such as the comment that the Dutch-Belgian component of Wellington's army was not as 'politically, ideologically or racially motivated' as the British. Race is not a factor normally associated with the Napoleonic Wars, and although Mr Roberts pays tribute to them: 'Never should the non-British and non-Prussian contribution to the victory be underestimated ... '; yet despite two-thirds of Wellington's army being non-British, these troops make little impact on the narrative. Anglo-centrism has long been a problem with Waterloo studies, and this book breaks no ground in that direction. There are technical shortcomings as well, with unit names frequently garbled such as the '95th Rifle Brigade'. In fact the 95th Regiment of Foot (Riflemen) - or 95th Rifles as they were commonly known - ceased to be the 95th when they bacame The Rifle Brigade in 1816. Thus, despite a comment on the back by Paul Johnson that it 'should remain the authoritative account for many years', it falls a long way short of that. But it remains a good read, and should encourage further delving into this fascinating period.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A (very) short summary of Waterloo,
By
This review is from: Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History) (Paperback)
This is a very short book on Waterloo: it clocks in at less than 100 pages of text, with a bunch of pictures and appendices taking up the page count. Despite that, it's the perfect introduction to that battle: not the Peninsula war before it, not the Napoleonic wars generally, or anything else. What it aims to do, it does, and quite superbly.
The subtitle and thesis of the book is that of Napoleon's "last gamble". It appears that Waterloo was in some ways uncharacteristic for the Emporer, but its also clear that he brought these problems on himself with a series of risks which ultimately failed to pay off. Even with this, it is clear how much this was "a damned close run thing" and the tragedy of a battle won, from the Anglo-Allied perspective. Roberts runs through the battlefield itself, the weather, and the oncoming Prussians to set the scene and show the action beautifully. There are extracts from letters and statements by soldiers, as well as some discussion of various myths, rumours and theories surrounding Waterloo. I assume there are more complete studies of Waterloo out there, but this is an excellent addition to them.
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