Very Good Condition, but NO DJ. First Edition, First Printing. Green boards, gilt spine titles. Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches, Weight: 3 pounds. 8vo, xiv prelims, 548pp text, Chronology, Biography. Illustrated (20pp)with more than 100 maps, drawings and diagrams and 50 illustrations. This text provides a history of the savage war which Napoleon considered insignificant, yet which ended in defeat for the French. By July 1807 Napoleon dominated most of Europe, the only gap in his continental system was the Iberian Peninsula. In 1808, on the Iberian peninsula, Napoleon began a six-year war of attrition against Spain and its British and Portuguese allies. Expecting a quick victory, the French emperor instead found himself facing a strong foe (led by Britain's Duke of Wellington), including popular opposition in the form of guerrilla bands, and constant supply and communications problems. In this thorough military history, Gates, a university lecturer in Scotland, offers a battle-by-battle account of the war in its various theaters, with maps and other illustrations. His descriptions of the brutal fighting on barren terrain are clear and balanced, making this a valuable modern view of the conflict. he Peninsular War of 1807-14, now aptly known as Napoleon's Vietnam, has long been the subject of serious military study. This new book by a dependable historian updates the extensive literature on the subject and condenses it into a useful and readable volume. There is little in the way of interpretation beyond the traditional anti-Napoleonic bias of British writers, but Gates presents a solid nuts-and-bolts overview of a complex and particularly nasty war. He is deft at reducing the mass of names, battles, and dates into an enticing narrative, and numerous maps make it easy to follow each siege and skirmish. The Spanish War of Independence (called Peninsular War in English speaking world) pitted Spain, Great Britain, and Portugal against Napoleonic France. The war began when French troops occupied Portugal in 1807 and Spain in 1808. It was the first large-scale guerilla war, from which the English language borrowed the word. It was a war of contrasts; a war fought in the icy passes of the high Pyrenees and on the burning wastes of the Sierra Morena. It was a war of infinite cruelty. According to David Gates, books which cover the Peninsular War have been disappointing. Many are accompanied by an irritangly jingoistic - or blatantly unimpartial - style, a common failing is to concentrate almost exclusively on the campaigns of Wellington and his immediate opponents. "...and war to the knife was declared upon the French.” "Some of the Spanish chiefs wore French uniforms stripped from corpses and even decorated their horses' manes with the Legion of Honor." "It was neither armies nor fortresses that were to be conquered in Spain, but that one, yet multiplied sentiment which filled the whole people. It was the inmost soul of each and every one that resisted the blow - which neither ball nor bayonet could reach."
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