Best Books on Napoleonic Wars?

by Ok-Administration890

Hey, I’m somebody with a BA in European history, applying to MA programs in the UK focusing on the history of war. For this, and also just my own entertainment, what are the best books on the Napoleonic wars, preferably from the British angle, for a graduate level reader quite familiar with British history?

kieslowskifan

For a British perspective, pretty much anything written by Rory Muir such as Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, his two-volume Wellington biography, Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune, or Salamanca 1812. The relevant sections of N. A. M. Rodger's The Command of the Ocean are a stimulating argument about Britain's naval war. Luke Reynold's Who Owned Waterloo? covers the postwar meaning of the capstone battle for Britain. Alexander Mikaberidze's The Napoleonic Wars is a global history of the wars.

waldo672

In addition to u/kieslowskifan's recommendations (which I totally agree with, especially Mikaberidze), I'd add the following, depending on where your interest lies:

  • Britain Against Napoleon: The Organisation of Victory, 1793–1815 - Roger Knight

  • Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the Wars with France, 1793–1815 - J.M. Sherwig(older, but still worthwhile)

  • Britain and Wellington’s Army: Recruitment, Society and Tradition, 1807–15 - Kevin Linch

  • All for the King's Shilling: The British Soldier under Wellington, 1808–14 - Edward Coss

  • The British Soldier in the Peninsular War: Encounters with Spain and Portugal, 1808-1814 - Gavin Daly

  • War, Public Opinion and Policy in Britain, France and the Netherlands, 1785-1815 - Graeme Callister (the author recently talked about the book on an episode of the Napoleonicist podcast, which is well worth a listen)

  • No Want of Courage: The British Army in Flanders, 1793-1795 - Robin Thomas (anything from Helion Publishing's "From Reason to Revolution" series is really good)

  • The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War - David Gates

  • The Peninsular War: A New History - Charles Esdaile

The last two are the recommended histories of the Peninsular as they acknowledge the role that the Spanish played in the war, compared to the usual Anglo-centric accounts.