The Battle: A New History of Waterloo : At Waterloo, some 70,000
men under Napoleon and an equal number under Wellington faced
one another in a titanic and bloody struggle. In the end, as
John Keegan notes, contemporaries felt that Napoleon's defeat
had "reversed the tide of European history." Even 190 years
later, the name Waterloo resounds. Italian historian Alessandro
Barbero's majestic new account stands apart from previous
British and French histories by giving voice to all the
nationalities that took part. Invoking the memories of British,
French, and Prussian soldiers, Barbero meticulously re-creates
the conflict as it unfolded, from General Reille's early
afternoon assault on the chateau of Hougoumont, to the desperate
last charge of Napoleon's Imperial Guard as evening settled in.
From privates to generals, Barbero recounts individual miracles
and tragedies, moments of courage and foolhardiness, skillfully
blending them into the larger narrative of the battle's
extraordinary ebb and flow. One is left