Napoleon's Other War: Bandits, Rebels and Their Pursuers UPDATED with review

[traveller]

Anyone read this book?

[Aaron]

No, but sounds interesting. Who is the author?

[Schogun]

Napoleon's Other War: Bandits, Rebels and Their Pursuers in the Age of Revolutions
by Michael Broers

From Amazon:

The wars of Napoleon are among the best-known and most exciting episodes in world history. Less known is the uproar the armies stirred up in their path, and even more, the chaos they left in their wake. The 'knock-on effect' of Napoleon's sweep across Europe went further than is often remembered: his invasion of Spain triggered the collapse of the Spanish Empire in Latin America, and his meddling in the Balkans destabilized the Ottomans. Many places had been riven with banditry and popular tumult from time immemorial, characteristics which worsened in the havoc wrought by the wars. Other areas had known relative calm before the arrival of the French in 1792, but even the most pacific societies were disrupted by these conflagrations. Behind the battle fronts raged other conflicts, 'little wars' - the guerrilla (the term was born in these years) - and bigger ones, where whole provinces rose up in arms. Bandits often stood at the center of these 'dirty wars' of ambushes, night raids, living hard in tough terrain, of plunder, rapine and early, violent death, which spread across the whole western world from Constantinople to Chile. Everywhere, they threw up unlikely characters - ordinary men who emerged as leaders, bandits who became presidents, priests who became warriors, lawyers who became murdering criminals. In studying these varying fortunes, Michael Broers provides an insight into a lost world of peasant life, a world Napoleon did so much to sweep away.

Reviews:

"A brilliantly written and highly original contribution to a neglected but crucial aspect of Napoleonic Europe." -- Professor T.C.W. Blanning, University of Cambridge.

"In this book Michael Broers addresses the dirty little wars engendered by conquest, revolutionary reform and military policy in the Napoleonic era. His grasp of the sources is solid; his writing is passionate. His book deserves to become a classic." -- Professor Clive Emsley, Open University

[traveller]

Could not resist! Book ordered!

[Schogun]

Let us know when you're finished reading it. Amazon had no reader reviews.

Thanks.

Chuck

[traveller]

Let us know when you're finished reading it. Amazon had no reader reviews.

Thanks.

Chuck

Will do!

[traveller]

Just read the book:

It is a 200 page hardbound book. I bought it at bookdepository.co.uk for £17 post free (worldwide). An excerpt can be found in Google Books: http://books.google.se/books?id=Ft14uelwkVcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=napoleons+other+war&hl=sv&ei=N6zYTZDICMaa-gbE5KCfDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=napoleons%20other%20war&f=false

The style of the writer is a bit academic but he does a good job of explaining the underlying causes of the uprisings and banditry that developed and flourished in the wake of the French Revolution:

1.   The way things were: Bandits before the French Revolution
2.   The Cradle of disorder: France from Revolution to Civil War
3.   The War between the lines: Taming Napoleonic Europe
4.   The Bandit-Chasers of Napoleonic Europe
5.   Spain: The birth of the guerilla
6.   Spanish America: A hemisphere of Brigandage
7.   The Balkans: The Bandits paradise
8.   The People´s heroes: the legacy of the Bandits

It is a nice brew of flying columns of regular troops together with 6-man patrols of Gendarmerie, mobile guillotines, uprisings and banditry in France, Spain, Italy, Austria , Balkans and Latin America. A small war of ambushes and skirmishes where you need little imagination to find loads of potential scenarios. The author provide a solid introduction to a world of guerilla warfare set in the early 19th century. My only critisism would be that it is a bit shallow. I would like to have read a thousand pages of this. It is a virtual catalogue of characters and episodes that gives appetite for further study. Based on this I will buy a number of additional books to get more in depth info on especially Italy, Balkans and Latin America. From a wargames perspective you realize that you desperately need at least a number of 6-men brigades of French Gendarmes, mounted and dismounted. I sincerely hope someone will produce a quality set of these in the near future.

[Poiter50]

Sounds good, almost as if LOTHS or LOTOW could be used for this. Hmm, I have a Foundry guillotine among my Froggie stuff as well as some Foundry Revolutionary figures. Just need some Froggie Cavalry as well.

[Captain Blood]

7.   The Balkans: The Bandits paradise

Nothing much has changed then... 

Sounds like a fascinating book... I might well pick it up...

[white knight]

This reminds me of a Belgian comic series I used to read when I was young, about such a band of outlaws who were opposing the French over here, robin hood style. Though his many adventures sometimes took him abroad, where he ended up fighting other oppressors.

It was called "de bende van Bakelandt" (Bakelandt's gang).

[Remington]

Nothing much has changed then... 

Ahem!


Thank you for the review! Has to go on my way too long to-buy list.

[Aaron]

Many thanks. It is going on my list also. I've long dreamed about Neapolitan troops hunting down pre-mafia banditti in sunny Italy!

[Belgian]

This reminds me of a Belgian comic series I used to read when I was young, about such a band of outlaws who were opposing the French over here, robin hood style. Though his many adventures sometimes took him abroad, where he ended up fighting other oppressors.

It was called "de bende van Bakelandt" (Bakelandt's gang).

Great serie with excellent drawings one of my favorites together with Alex!

[YPU]

Great serie with excellent drawings one of my favorites together with Alex!

That does look good, perhaps something good has come from our southern neighbours.  I'll see if the local comic store has anything from that series.