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Swords Around A Throne
Napoleon's Grande Armée
Description
This authoritative, comprehensive, and enthralling book describes and analyzes Napoleon's most powerful weapon — the Grande Armee which at its peak numbered over a million soldiers.
Elting examines every facet of this incredibly complex human machine: its organization, command system, logistics, weapons, tactics, discipline, recreation, mobile hospitals, camp followers, and more. From the army's formation out of the turmoil of Revolutionary France through its swift conquests of vast territories across Europe to its legendary death at Waterloo, this book uses excerpts from soldiers' letters, eyewitness accounts, and numerous firsthand details to place the reader in the boots of Napoleon's conscripts and generals. In Elting's masterful hands the experience is truly unforgettable.
Elting examines every facet of this incredibly complex human machine: its organization, command system, logistics, weapons, tactics, discipline, recreation, mobile hospitals, camp followers, and more. From the army's formation out of the turmoil of Revolutionary France through its swift conquests of vast territories across Europe to its legendary death at Waterloo, this book uses excerpts from soldiers' letters, eyewitness accounts, and numerous firsthand details to place the reader in the boots of Napoleon's conscripts and generals. In Elting's masterful hands the experience is truly unforgettable.
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Praise
"[Elting's] pages sparkle with shafts of humor as well as new insights and interpretations....A masterpiece; quite simply his fine book is the best I have ever read on this challenging subject."
—David G. Chandler, Parameters
"A marvellous book...Elting writes with light cavalry panache. More important, his scholarship is prodigious. This is not only the most comprehensive history of the Grand Armee ever to have appeared, it is also one of the best histories of any army ever to have been written....Above all, Elting writes human history. The Grand Armee was also a society of people and their voices carry through his text directly to the ear of the modern reader. The author's gift of catching and transmitting the echo of what they said is the highest of his many achievements."
—John Keegan
"Elting has produced a literary jewel....He has virtually surpassed or made obsolete every other work on the Grand Armee. Subjects very seldom covered before are presented with clarity and color....This magnificent chronicle leaves the reader amazed."
—Marine Corps Gazette