Customer Reviews

The Terror Before Trafalgar: Nelson, Napoleon, and the Secret War

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We have been blessed by great books lately. This book is an important contribution to knowledge and a pleasure to read. It stands alongside Joel Hayward's "FOR GOD AND GLORY" book on Admrial Nelson as the best work on Napoloeonic-era naval studies to be published in some time.

We have come to expect excellence from Tom Pocock, one of the great naval history writers and this book is true to form.

I respectfully suggest that the previous reviewer may be a little hard on Tom Pocock, who is anything but a "lazy" scholar. He is prolific, industrious and original.
Not all books have to be totally original in every paragraph of every page. A book that contains SOME new interpretations, insights and information is still a great accomplishment. Pocock's book falls into this category. It does contain a lot of material already in the "public domain" (a strange phrase for knowledge, anyway), but it also contains some gently presented but nonetheless invaluable insights and information. I learned much from this book, and I'm a scholar!
The book is meticulously researched, carefully arranged, sensibly and persuasively argued and Pocock-ishly written (in other words, elegantly). It is broad in its sweep of topics, but not in the least disjointed. All topics relate and flow together to form a colourful and richly helpful portrayal of a perilous period. I congratulate Mr Pocock, who has inspired me during my own academic journey. With this book he continues to do so.

This is not as good as Mr Pocock's excellent biography of Lord Nelson, which may well be among the top two or three ever written. But it is still illuminating and interesting. I can't see how other rewiewers found it muddled, but they are naturally welcome to their view. I found this easy to follow and quite clear throughout.

Trafalgar was a brutal conflict that changed the course of the wars on the continent. With the destruction of the French and Spanish fleet the British had control over the seas. This book talks about the prolonged conflict and the mission that Napoleon hoped to send his fleet on in order to deceive the British. Only Nelson's luck allowed the plot to unravel and the British to defeat the French. This is a good book once you have started to read about Trafalgar but I would not recommend starting with it. This book leaves out some events that occurred in the background but sheds new light on other aspects of the conflict. Overall it is well worth a read.

The Battle of Trafalgar has long been regarded as a definitive battle in the history of the Napoleonic wars. This book concentrates on a little known time during those wars when there was peace between England and France. The peace, if it could be called that, between 1801 when it became clear that Napoleon was at least thinking of invading England until 1805 when, with the Battle of Trafalgar the threat ended.

Tom Pocock has combined his usual exhaustive research with his customary skill in writing. He presents a story of a time not unlike the Phony War of 1940 when two countries were nominally at peace but when undercurrents of war including the actions of secret agents were rampant. All was not quite peaceful during this time, Nelson conducted what today would be called raids against France and there were other activities.

This is a most interesting book of a time that was prologue to the last of the great sailing ship battles.