Jeremy Black, "The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War" (Roman and Littlefield, 2022)
Listen on Apple Podcasts The wars between 1792 and 1815 saw the making of the modern world, with Britain and Russia the key powers to emerge triumphant from a long period of bitter conflict. In his innovative book, The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for a World War (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022), master historian, Jeremy Black focuses on the strategic contexts and strategies involved, explaining their significance both at the time and subsequently. Reinterpreting French Revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare, strategy, and their consequences, he argues that Napoleon’s failure owed much to his limitations as a strategist. Black uses this framework as a foundation to assess the nature of warfare, the character of strategy, and the eventual ascendance of Britain and Russia in this period. Rethinking the character of strategy, this is the first history to look holistically at the strategies of all the leading belligerents from a global perspective. It will be an essential read for military professionals, students, and history buffs alike.
Charles Coutinho Ph. D. of the Royal Historical Society, received his doctorate from New York University. His area of specialization is 19th and 20th-century European, American diplomatic and political history. He has written for Chatham House’s International Affairs, the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History and the University of Rouen's online periodical Cercles.
Very worthwhile to listen, nothing sensationally new - but Jeremy Black uses good arguments for his reasoning. For detail, here and there of course showing some lack of deeper knowledge, as for example his view on Valmy where I cannot share his argument that the Prussian Army was already riddled with disease nor being in an inferior tactical situation, it was in fact the French Army cut off from their line of retreat. The whole French success based on the fact, that Braunschweig did not want to battle and drew back after realizing that a mere demonstration wasn't enough to provoke a rout in the French Army. Anyway, despite some recent let's say difficult reading of Angophone books on similar topics, I am quite tempted to buy this one.