Britain Against Napoleon

Oct 30, 2024 7:29 PM

Author:Roger Knight

From Roger Knight, established by the multi-award winning The Pursuit of Victory as 'an authority ... none of his rivals can match' (N.A.M. Rodger), Britain Against Napoleon is the first book to explain how the British state successfully organised itself to overcome Napoleon - and how very close it came to defeat

For more than twenty years after 1793, the French army was supreme in continental Europe. How was it that despite multiple changes of government and the assassination of a Prime Minister, Britain survived and eventually won a generation-long war against a regime which at its peak in 1807 commanded many times the resources and manpower?

This book looks beyond the familiar exploits (and bravery) of the army and navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It shows the degree to which, because of the magnitude and intensity of hostilities, the capacities of the whole British population were involved: industrialists, farmers, shipbuilders, gunsmiths and gunpowder manufacturers. The intelligence war was also central; but no participants were more important, Knight argues, than the bankers and international traders of the City of London, without whom the armies of Britain's allies could not have taken the field.

ROGER KNIGHT was Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum until 2000, and now teaches at the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich. In 2005 he published, with Allen Lane/Penguin, The Pursuit of Victory: the life and achievement of Horatio Nelson, which won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military History, the Mountbatten Award and the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research. The present book is a culmination of his life-long interest in the workings of the late eighteenth-century British state.

'Superb' - Spectator

Reviews

A wonderfully disorienting read ... for [Knight] the real heroes of the struggle against Napoleon are not Wellington or Nelson or Collingwood or Cochrane but the clerks and administrators and 'silent men of business' who put Britain's armies in the field and kept her ships at sea and her allies in funds and ultimately won the war ... there is scarcely a wasted sentence here, not a duff page, not a chapter ... that does not bring you very close to the realities of a total war

—— David Crane , Spectator

One of the great writers of the last century whose work conjured up a world of earthly warmth and beauty

—— Independent

Out of a winter in Southern Spain, Mr Lee has spun a magnificent book, outstanding even in a field where the competition is oppressively brilliant'

—— New Statesman

This wonderfully written book invites reflection on how a failure of political imagination so often makes war in distant places seem inevitable

—— T. H. Breen , The Times Literary Supplement

Bunker’s tightly argued and deeply researched book shows how a broader perspective can shed new light on even the most familiar events

—— Foreign Affairs

An insightful and aptly acerbic account of the lead-up to the unnecessary loss of America … The book is especially good on the commercial imperatives that draw both sides to desperation: on the private greed and the arbitrary interferences that persuaded reasonable men to risk their lives

—— Geoffrey Robertson, QC

A nuanced global analysis of Britain’s failure to hold onto its American colonies… Riveting… With a sharp eye for economic realities, Bunker persuasively demonstrates why the American Revolution had to happen

—— Publishers Weekly

A scholarly yet page-turning, superbly written history.

—— Kirkus

Bunker’s narrative is human and even-handed; and from the Boston harbourside to the salons of London, a complex and epic tale is told with colour and enthusiasm. It should even go down well in Boston

—— Sinclair McKay, 4 stars , Sunday Telegraph

Bunker relates the complex story of the Boston Tea Party with zest and almost intimidating thoroughness

—— David Goodall , Tablet

This is a compelling read that explains British decision-making with skill and insight. Highly recommended

—— Andrew Lambert , BBC History Magazine

Shows how a lethal blend of politics and personalities led to the American Revolution

—— Choice Magazine

Bunker has done a wonderful job describing the tragedy of errors that led to a bitter and costly war

—— Good Book Guide

A distinguished and refreshing contribution to the secondary literature on the American Revolution

—— Andrew J O’Shaughnessy , Literary Review

[It is] brilliantly written and meticulously researched.

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

A vigorous book, full of energy as well as insight

—— Jeremy Black

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