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Napoleon's Cursed War:Spanish Popular Resistance in the Peninsular War, 1808–14
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A magisterial history of “Napoleon’s Vietnam”, by the highly acclaimed historian of Spain
In this definitive account of the Peninsular War (1808–14), Napoleon's six-year war against Spain, Ronald Fraser examines what led to the emperor’s devastating defeat against the popular opposition - the guerrillas - and their British and Portuguese allies. As well as relating the histories of the great political and military figures of the war, Fraser brings to life the anonymous masses - the artisans, peasants and women who fought, suffered and died - and restores their role in this barbaric war to its rightful place while overturning the view that this was a straightforward military campaign. This vivid, meticulously researched book offers a distinct and profound vision of "Napoleon's Vietnam" and shows the reality of the disasters of war: the suffering, discontents and social upheaval that accompanied the fighting.
With a new Introduction by Perry Anderson.
Reviews
Fraser has re-created a world, barely glimpsed by previous historians, of the Spanish popular resistance and suffering during the anti-Napoleonic war ... An excellent work.
A milestone in the historiography of the war.
Fraser has breathed life into a historic era... The real protagonist of his work is the people and their tragedy.
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A superb complement to Fraser’s classic Blood of Spain, of ‘history from below'.
, ABC -
Like Goya in The Disasters of War, Fraser has engraved in the written word the spirit and sacrifices of the popular anti-Napoleonic resistance, a precursor of the anti-fascist resistance of the [Spanish] Civil War.
, El Periodico de Catalunya -
A magisterial reconstruction of the Peninsular war of 1808-1814
, Guardian -
This scholarly work investigates those who waged Spain's popular struggle between 1808 and 1814, and why. It's history from the ground up: momentous events lived by those whose voice is rarely heard...Fraser builds a mosaic from "shard-like" fragments, a labour of detection that would have swamped anyone with a less sure grip on the sweep of Spanish history.
, Independent -
Superb … a fine history of the popular resistance Napoleon could not defeat.
, Counterfire