The Peninsular War: A Concise Military History

by Michael Glover

Book Overview

The Peninsular War is often eclipsed by the spectacular individual battles by sea and land of the Napoleonic Wars, but it was the decisive struggle in which the Emperor's troops faced defeat for the first time. Michael Glover seeks to give the basic skeleton of facts and to flesh it out with first-hand accounts of what it was like to march and fight, to eat and be wounded, to command and be commanded at the start of the 19th century. Stress is laid...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141390417
• ISBN13: 9780141390413
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Concise Military History...

Michael Glover's "The Peninsular War 1807-1814" was first published in 1974; this Penguin paperback edition is dated 2001. Experienced military historian Michael Glover promises, and delivers, a highly readable and concise military history. His narrative frequently but not exclusively follows Sir Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, and his Anglo-Portuguese Army, who were present at many of the key events of a long, multi-sided war involving France, Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain. The conflict in Spain was an offshoot of the French Emporeor Napoleon's efforts to dominate continental Europe. Glover begins his story with the march of Imperial French forces through Spain to Portugal and their subsequent seizure of both kingdoms. The British Government sent its small "disposable" force under Sir Arthur Wellesley to Portugal. Wellesley succeeded in defeating the local French Army before being displaced from command, and in fact would return to Portugal the following year to take up the task of driving out the French. He and his army would ultimately do so, with the more or less enthusiastic support of the Portuguese and Spanish. Glover's narrative is a nicely balanced mixture of the tactical and the operational levels of war, well-seeded with appropriate quotes from participants. He addresses the still relevant interplay of conventional, naval and guerilla forces in a difficult fighting environment, while stressing the importance of logistics and civil-military relations to the outcome. Glover provides explanations, where necessary, of events beyond the Iberian Peninsula. There is a nice selection of sketch maps and pictures included. The scholarship is perhaps dated but still perfectly adequate for the general reader and for the dedicated student of the conflict. "The Peninsular War" is therefore very highly recommended, even in used form.

Hurrah For Old Nosey!

This us a classic study of the Peninsular War of 1808-14. Readers will find it less overtly pro-British than Jac Weller's "Wellington in the Peninsular". There is an attempt here by the author to show more of the political and historical background which indicates the wider scope of the book over Weller's work. The French and Spanish side of the story is also elaborated on more which is refreshing for an English work. Glover spends less time providing minute detail on the battles, although he covers a wider array of events, i.e. not just the battles Wellington was involved in personally. The Spanish reader above was evidently upset about the British and Wellington claiming all the glory of removing the French from Spain. I am sure most Spanish are not aware of this rather sad period in their history when their country was too weak and inefficient to remove Napolean's brother from the crown. The Spanish army was quite simply one of the worst trained and officered in Europe! The Juanta that was established after Napolean removed the king was also divided and unstable. True the Spanish prople resisted the French in many ways, and the Peninsular War is often referred to as one of the first people's wars of the 19th century. But Spain never could have defeated Napolean without the British. It's just that simple. The people of Spain owe Wellington and Tommy Atkins a great debt for what they did. Sure Britain's motives were self-centered, Spain was a means by which they could confront Napolean with their limited land resources, and they took advantage of that fact. The poor showing of the Spanish army and leadership must be embarrassing to a spaniard in this period, but its better to learn from the past than try to deny it! This book gives credit to the Spanish soldiers who fought well when not compromised by their poor leaders. It also credits the Sapnish resistence with holding down many French battalions which might have overwhelmed Wellington if available. Wellington had some very unflattering things to say about the Spanish leadership, and this might be upsetting to some today, but the fact is the Britsih had to campaign on their own in Spain. The few times they tried to coordinate with Spanish forces directly almost never worked. Spanish generals like Cuesta, Blake and Ballastros were incompetent fools! These poorly lead Spanish armies did keep the French off balance and in their own sloppy way contributed as well to the final French defeat in Spain. The fact is without Wellington the Spanish never could have done it! This book does a fine job pointing out all these facts and is very even-handed. True there are not many works in English on the Spanish perspective, but I suspect if there were they might be of dubious quality at best! Even some French memoirs have to be handled with care, as the author points out sometimes. A classic work on a complicated subject. Good to see it back in print again for such a reasonable pri

RE:Previous review

I enjoyed this book and have always admired Wellington,but i'm not sure why people get upset when the British blow their own trumpet,after all did not Britain have more to do with the Emperors downfall than any other country?I found this work to be informative and accurate and above all a good read.