Good Napoleonic and ACW books.

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Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 5:29:06 PM

sapper_astro

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I am looking for some good, fairly thorough, well written general histories on these two conflicts, the personalities, and the major parts of the conflicts. Can anyone suggest any good books or series of books about these conflicts? I am looking for General histories at this moment, not specific campaigns.

Thank you.

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RE: Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 5:47:32 PM

sullafelix

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Best inclusive Nappy book is Chandler's "The Campaigns of Napoleon". It is a tome though going 1000+ pages and it has a hefty price tag also. Once your done reading it though you will have been bathed in almost all aspects of the Napoleonic land campaigns.

If you are just looking for an overview of the Napoleonic wars there are way to many of them to mention. None of them I read stick in my mind because they didn't go deep enough for me.

< Message edited by sulla05 -- 6/15/2009 5:48:18 PM >

(in reply to sapper_astro)

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RE: Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 5:54:00 PM

sapper_astro

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Joined: 7/5/2005
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quote:

ORIGINAL: sulla05

Best inclusive Nappy book is Chandler's "The Campaigns of Napoleon". It is a tome though going 1000+ pages and it has a hefty price tag also. Once your done reading it though you will have been bathed in almost all aspects of the Napoleonic land campaigns.

If you are just looking for an overview of the Napoleonic wars there are way to many of them to mention. None of them I read stick in my mind because they didn't go deep enough for me.

This sounds quite good. I will see what prices are wanted for it. This should be fun...

No probs with the number of pages, as long as it is well written.

(in reply to sullafelix)

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RE: Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 6:59:20 PM

Terminus

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Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative is superlative. Only about 3,000 pages...

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RE: Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 7:09:20 PM

sol_invictus

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Yep, Foote's Magnum Opus is indeed a tome.

A more reasonably sized read for the ACW is McPhearson's "Battle Cry of Freedom". It is an excellent book. I agree, Chandler is about the best source for a sweeping overview of the Napoleonic Wars. Esdailes "Napoleon's Wars" is also good.

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RE: Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 7:16:42 PM

Hertston

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You can't go wrong with Chandler and McPherson. I must admit I haven't read Foote, though.

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RE: Good Napoleonic and ACW books. - 6/15/2009 9:07:18 PM

Arsan

Posts: 409
Joined: 7/1/2005
From: Madrid, Spain
Status: offline

Hi!

Nothing too original to recommend

Chandler's Napoleon Campaigns is the one to get for Napoleonics. Don't think twice. It's awesome

With it you will have everything of military importance of the era except the Peninsular war (as the book covers campaigns where Napoleon was in person, and he only stayed in Spain for some months). For the Peninsular war i recommend David Gates "The Spanish Ulcer". But Chandler first!

Regarding ACW, i second McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom as a great and deep general history of the war: prewar situation, politics, economics, and of course military campaigns... it has it all.
I'm currently finishing Foote Trilogy (only two chapters to go after more than a year of intermittent reading

) and its absolutely great and very well written.
But as an European without not much previous knowledge of the ACW i'm glad to had read McPherson's book first as it give a more in depth (even if much less detailed) vision of the conflict. Not only what happened, but why and how.
Now, Foote offers a much more detailed account of military campaigns and a much more vivid personalities. And its a better read
Both are great.

Cheers!

(in reply to Hertston)

Post #: 7