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Could you give any references to books that you would recommend to learn about the Napoleonic period? Military, economic and geopolitic books welcome.

As a side note, any good books on the French Revolution? I have Georges Lefebvre's history (at least the first volume) which is good and recommended.

...Just so we can build a cool library of titles. Books in any language are good, so don't limit yourselves to English.

Hi!
On the "Welcome" thread on this forum we talked a little about this.
I will do a ctrl+c ctrl+v of waht i posted there


The most obvious recommendation is David Chandler's "The Campaigns of Napoleon".
http://www.amazon.com/Campaigns-Napo.../dp/0025236601

Big and wonderful book with nice maps.
It was my first “serious” book on that topic and it make me a fan of it
I also like a lot John R. Elting "Swords around a throne"

http://www.amazon.com/Swords-Around-...2781641&sr=8-1

Is very readable and entertaining, but much more specialized. It only talks about organization and daily life on Napoleon's Grande Armee.

About Peninsular war i would recommend David Gates "The Spanish Ulcer"
http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Ulcer-...2781815&sr=8-1

So-so maps but great read.

And... about 1812 on Russia i have read an liked a lot Adam Zamoyski "Moscow 1812. Napoleon fatal March"
http://www.amazon.com/Moscow-1812-Napoleons-Fatal-March/dp/006108686X

And... i will add another one i foget the other day
Alessandro Barbiero's "The battle. A new history of Waterloo"
A great book as and introducction to the napoleonic battle. And an unbiased one for a change!!

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-New-History-Waterloo/dp/0802714536

Cheers!!

you can also try "The peninsular war a new history" by Charles Esdaile a complete militar and politic history or Salamanca 1812 about one important battle in Peninsular war.

I bought Chandler's "Campaigns of Napoleon" on Arsan's recommendation and so far it's a good read (started with the 1804 chapter rather then the start).

I'd also recommend Esposito and Elting's "Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars", obviously great maps and good explanatory text.

"The End of the Old Order", Frederick Kagan. It covers the military and political events from 1801-1805 very extensively. Not a quick or light read but very interesting. It is the first book of an upcoming series. The next being the 1807 Campaign and surrounding events.

If you are interested in what happened during a Napoleonic battle, "1805, Austerlitz" by Robert Goetz, "The Battle" by Alessandro Barbero, and "Napoleon's Finest, Davout and his 3rd Corps, Combat Journal of Operations 1805-1807" by Scott Bowden are a great place to start. The First two are easily obtained through amazon.com, while the last one can only be obtained through Military History Press and is pricey.

Le Tondu wrote:If you are interested in what happened during a Napoleonic battle, "1805, Austerlitz" by Robert Goetz,

Last i checked that book was avaible for 1$ at Abebooks.com and is a fine book.
Nafzigers 1812 and 3 1813 campaign books are excellent to learn what happen inside the battle too. As overall studies in descriping what happpens operationally in the campaigns, they arent as good bordering bad.
I'd suggest Petre instead.
Btw yes Petre's campaign books are old, being written in early 1900s but overall they are excellent in term of giving an picture in what happened at operational level in the campaigns. He has books on all the campaigns from '05 and on, less '15 IIRC. They're cheap 2nd hand too.

There is a completely new book on Borodino out too. Supposedly for the first time with russian archives researched OOBs. Postman hasnt delivered it yet, so I have no comments further than that.
The Battle of Borodino - Alexander Mikaberidze


Kind regards,

Rasmus

As already mentioned, Chandler's is a must read for any serious Napoleonic era student.

I also second the recommendation on Petre. I read his acounts of the campaigns in 1807-8 and found it to be a great resource (I did a battle analysis of the Freidland campaign).

Also recommend Jac Weller's books, particularly Wellington in the Peninsula.

Snipped from else where. Some ebooks if u can stand reading on the net.


Hi Here is a great series for the early wars.
William

The History of the Campaigns in the Years 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, in Germany, Italy, Switzerland .... 4 vols. 1812:

Vol 1:
http://books.google.com/books?id=kxw2AAAAMAAJ

Vol 2:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Sh02AAAAMAAJ

Vol 3:
http://books.google.com/books?id=tR02AAAAMAAJ

Vol 4:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DR42AAAAMAAJ

Kind regards,

Rasmus

Napoleon's Marshals, edited by Chandler. Each chapter written by a different author, It also covers the battle that won each marshal his baton.

The Age of Napoleon by J. Christopher Herold

Napoleon: The Last Campaigns 1813-15 by James T Lawford

1812: Napoleon's Russian Campaign by Rochard K Riehn

Napoleon's Russian Campaign by Count Philippe-Paul de Segue

En français,il y a ce titre (mais il faut aimer les gros livres).

Dictionnaire de la Grande Armée de Alain Pigeard
chez Tallandier.

Il se compose de deux parties.
a) le dictionnaire proprement dit avec une mutlitude d'articles portant sur tous les aspects possibles et imaginables de l'organisation militaire (on trouve par exemple l'article chamade ).
b) "les tableaux synoptiques des 100 batailles les plus importantes du Premier Empire". Comme le titre l'indique, il s'agit évidemment d'un résumé ce qui peut ne pas être satisfaisant notammant pour les grandes batailles

The Napoleonic Wars by Gunther Rothenberg!Starts from 1792 right the way through to 1815 covers warfare,supply,economics,politics,every battle every campaign covered.From italy to eygpt spain to russia,an awsome read with brilliant illustrations.

Somebody can be interested in this bargain http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0712667652/ref=sr_1_olp_23/202-3960398-2291845?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193595967&sr=1-23