Waterloo: Wellington, Napoleon, and the Battle that Saved Europe

摘要

There is no shortage of materiel on the battle of Waterloo, one of the most extensively studied battles in history. With 2015 marking the battles bicentennial, the market is flooded with a collection of new works. In Waterloo: Wellington, Napoleon, and the Battle That Saved Europe, Gordon Corrigan makes his contribution to this collection. Regrettably, his book contributes nothing particularly new to understanding the battle. It is a general history, not a well-documented scholarly work useful for further research. Corrigan recognizes the challenge of producing another work on Waterloo. In his introduction, he answers the question of why another book on Waterloo by asserting that the participants "continue to fascinate" and, despite a multitude of research, the interpretations of the battle "vary widely" More importantly, he attempts to demonstrate Waterloo's importance in establishing Britain as a dominant world power.