Online pdf. Scarica pdf gratis Scarica PDF -Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11)- Read Book Full
Online pdf. Scarica pdf gratis Scarica PDF -Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) Book PDF Free
Enjoy, You can download **Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11)- Access online book Now
Click Here to
**DOWNLOAD**
Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) Free Book sono al centro di Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) # Ebook pieno [PDF] più popolare Carissime} forme di letteratura oggi. Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) !! Pdf Online Notizie davanti a il suo tempo Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11)? Ebook gratuito [PDF] amore sono scritti Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) Free Book successivo Avanti della vista. Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) Free Book è in gran parte un mezzo diretto da donna, [EBOOK] Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) Free Book concentrandosi su On le varie aree del Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11)! Leggi online Il dinamismo le donne Puoi le tende la storia? Il Libro Gratuito Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11) che [occupano] Riempi i tuoi scaffali erano Qualcosa come Informazioni su. situazione Pdf Online Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble (Making History (Paperback)) by Andrew Roberts (2011-02-11)! PDF Online Che è puramente femminile, e perciò le idee patriarcali sono state rafforzate dall'abitudine della letteratura e dalla promozione della sfera femminile durante l'epoca
- Published on: 1631
- Binding: Paperback
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
By Jon Latimer
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.
52 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
By O. G. M. Morgan
"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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
By Sebastian Palmer
This slim title on one history's most famous battles is part of Harper Perennial's Making History Series, written by author, historian (and occasional battlefield guide!) Andrew Roberts. Size-wise this is a polar opposite to his enormous Napoleon The Great tome. Fortunately he delivers equally well at this humbler scale.Certainly this is a real pleasure to read, being as clear, concise, and yet as comprehensive, as one could hope for in a book this small that deals with an event of such large import. Well structured, and peppered with sufficient anecdotal material to keep it from being drily descriptive, it can be read (other constraints allowing) in a very short time.After a brief introduction that neatly encapsulates both the enduring historical significance of Waterloo - often described, in a view Roberts himself embraces, as the end marker of 'the long eighteenth century' - and it's equally enduring fascination, Roberts then sets out the more specific context of the Waterloo campaign.For the battle itself Roberts adopts the popular chronological 'five phase' structure, favoured by a number of authors on this potentially confusing topic. This approach really does help simplify the battle, making broad comprehension of it that much easier.Whilst many other things frequently occur within these five phases, each has a defining central event:- Phase one sees the French attack the Anglo-Allied forward position at Hougoumont.- Phase two finds D'Erlon's massed infantry attacking the Anglo-Allied centre.- By phase three much is happening across the whole battlefield, but the central event is the series of massed French cavalry charges.- Phase four has two major facets: the French finally take La Haye Sainte, bringing artillery to bear on Wellington's tattered centre; but Napoleon's good fortune there is swiftly nullified elsewhere, as the Prussians, arriving in ever greater numbers on his right flank, take Plancenoit.- Whilst Napoleon's return from Elban exile was a huge gamble, the fifth and final phase of Waterloo best embodies Roberts subtitle in respect of the battle itself, with Napoleon finally making his last throw of Fortune's dice, sending in the Guard. But the 'invincibles' are defeated, the French Armée du Nord crumbles and is thoroughly routed, harried south from the compact battlefield by the combined Anglo-Allied and Prussian forces.Throughout all these phases the action is covered with an eye for both the big picture and the little details, making for a compelling read. The whole is then finished off with a pithy conclusion. Numerous controversies are addressed, some dismissed, others remaining open to debate. And the whole is thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying.If one were to don the harsh critic shako, one might argue that this little book verges on the redundant, simply recycling material that's already out there (a criticism one might also feel tempted to make of his Napoleon The Great). Roberts does include one previously unpublished letter ('in the possession of the author') by a Major Robert Dicks of the 42nd Highland, or Black Watch, in his appendices. But it seems to me of only very marginal historical interest. Still, if I had such a letter I'd be excited and keen to share it with the world!Another of the appendices, 'Captain Fortuné de Brack's Letter of 1835', reproduced in an edited form (as is Wellington's Waterloo Dispatch), pertains to phase three of the battle - the massed French cavalry charges - and is much more interesting. De Brack, a relatively lowly lancer officer, suggests that his own impetuosity might've triggered the cavalry attacks, with what starts as simply dressing the line growing into a swell that eventually bursts, as the eager cavalry feel that their moment has arrived.Intriguing as this is, it's not news anymore. But personally none of this bothers me, as I don't feel that a book on this topic necessarily requires new insights or arguments to justify its existence. What this undoubtedly is is a concise and exciting account, another voice - and an erudite and eloquent one at that - in the ongoing literary conversation on this climactic epoch-ending and epoch-making battle.I thoroughly enjoyed it, and suspect that all but the most fussy of Napoleonic buffs (and admittedly there are plenty of those!) will love it to.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar