Customer Reviews

Waterloo: A Near Run Thing (Great Battles)

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That this book has been in print for over 30 years will give you some idea as to how powerful it is.

Up until Howarth published this book, most accounts of the battle had been from a technically military viewpoint - that is who was doing what to whom with what and where. Detail for this kind of book was drawn from various diaries, accounts, and research conducted by Siborne some 20 years after the battle itself. However these books never dwelt on the experience of battle from a personal standpoint, they tended to be emotionally remote.

Howarth really tipped the formula on its head by putting a framework of the battle and filling it out with the personal accounts.

To do this he has divided his sections simply to follow the course of the day. There is an introduction which describes the men from whom he is drawing material and a sketch of events leading up to Waterloo itself, then it is followed by six sections - Dawn, Morning, Noon, afternoon, evening, and night.

He selected a broad range of men to follow including British Ensign William Leeke, a naive young officer and newly joined, sergeants William Wheeler and William Lawrence, Pierre Robineaux, a French Captain, and Captain Mercer an artillery officer. Howarth can take us around the battlefield as fighting shifts and rages to show us what each man experienced, the fear, pain, hunger, thirst, and other hardships.

Given that Waterloo was one single day in history it might seem a little much that so much has been written about it. Yet it was the bloodiest engagement that had been witnessed by anyone to date - thousands of men and horses dying in a single afternoon of violent battle. It was also pivotal for it was not only the last battle for Napoleon, but the first time that Wellington had actually come up against Napoleon. Two masters of warfare finally matched in combat.

Grand themes are all very well, but we don't want to forget the small stories which tell us of the personal experience of those that were there. If you like this book you should also try John Kincaids, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (one of Howarth's sources as well) - and Harry Smith's Autobiography - both of which have been reprinted and are on sale at Amazon.

I wish that I had taken the time to read Mr. Howarth's work prior to visiting Belgium. He continues with his effective style of "humanizing" the tragedy of war, and approaches the topic from multiple angles. The events of a battle - particularly from the point of view of strategy - can be difficult to put into words. Mr. Howarth does a remarkable job of placing the reader in the fray and of making the course of the battle understandable. Though I consider 1066 his finest work, this is a wonderful second.

A detailed, compassionate and very moving account of the battle of Waterloo in 1815. David Howarth based this book on a kaleidoscope of 18 eye-witness accounts which explains its freshness. Who could not be moved by the fate of the newlyweds, Sir William & Lady de Lancey? Or angered by the Prince of Orange for his arrogance and stupidity? And how is it possible not to be fascinated by Lord Uxbridge's gruesome operation to ampute his leg?

It is a book as relevant today as it ever was for the question David Howarth posed in his introduction "what makes a man, who joins an army and puts on a more or less exotic kind of dress, behave on the word of command entirely unlike himself, but like a ferocious animal?"

This is a brilliant book. David Howarth captured the great story of what it was really like at one of the most important events of history. He is unbiased and fair. His characters draw and compel you through the story. It is a book that I could not put down. I highly recommend it to everyone.

"Waterloo: A Near Run Thing" by David Howarth.

Phoenix Paperback, London, Orion Books Ltd, 1968 and paperback in 2003.

In a large chain bookstore, I noticed this paperback in the "History" section near the World War II offerings; the book made me recall my European History professor who stated that most of us would remember Waterloo as the "Big Battle", in France, early 19th Century, which ended the comeback of Emperor Napoleon. Of course, using the common mistake as a lead-in, the professor said that the Battle of Waterloo was in Belgium, not France, and then wandered off on how Belgium had suffered through so many big battles, including the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. So, from a sense of duty, despite the original 1968 copyright date, I purchased this book and I was not disappointed. Exceptional writing.

David Howarth, (1912-1991), was an excellent writer of History. In "Waterloo", Howarth has drawn upon sources (almost two centuries' old), and fashioned the comments of the ordinary British soldiers and officers into a fresh and life-like accounting of the day, 18 June 1815.

It was as if you were standing alongside the soldier in the British square awaiting the charge of the French cavalry. The author has made the events of that June 1815 sparkling new on the paperback pages. In my humble opinion, you should be aware that the author favors the British point of view. Of course, the title, "A Near Run Thing" is a British idiom, indicating that point of view. The author raises the question of Napoleon's supposed illness on that fateful day; what was wrong with him? However, I am still looking for a book which gives better or full credit to the Prussian Field Marshall Bloucher (I still do not know how to get the Amazon word processor to put in umlauts), and his Prussian soldiers in their black uniforms with white facings. In any event, Waterloo WAS a great victory for the allies, ending the ambitions of Napoleon, and freeing Europe from the dominance of France. The Duke of Wellington played a key role in the triumph, but if the Prussians had not arrived when they had....

Don't let the copyright date of almost 40 years ago throw you off; this book is worth the purchase price.

While browsing the shelves I came across Howarth's book on Waterloo. Two hours later I felt that I had been an eye witness to history.

Of all the books I have read on Waterloo, Howarth's writing style and description come closest to the actual battle. His use of soldier's diaries in the telling brings home the actual chaos of that day, along with the twisting turns of fortune culminating in the charge of the Old Guard. This is one for the shelves!

I have read several accounts of the battle over the years, and have visited the battlefield itself. All have impressed me with a feeling of awe at the bravery of the combatants and a prickly feeling that if Napolean had been in better health, then things would have gone differently. This book brings a firsthand realism to the description of the battle, errors in judgement described shew that even Marshals, Princes and Emperors are all too fallible, but overall there is the impression of the inexorable military might of France grinding away with reckless bravery at a thinly and bravely held Allied line. Luck, bad luck and the Fog of War and choice of position all played a part. Many brave, and perhaps less than brave, men died and their suffering is clearly described in this book, but overall my impression remains that it was too close for comfort.

Books about great battles typically describe events from a helicopter perspective, with little interest for how it was in reality for the soldiers on the ground. This book takes the opposite approach : taking the actual experience of a small number of real soldiers, mostly on Wellington's side, and weaving these together into a coherent story, Howarth has written a much more vivid picture of this very special battle.

The battle lends itself to this sort of approach : it was fought on a compact battlefield, less than 5 square miles, between up to 150,000 soldiers for 9 hours and it was so bloody that it took one hundred years, until the hundred miles long front in France in World War I, for as many man to fall in a single day. Also, the battle was truly a near run thing, and, if Napoleon had had a better day, things could have turned out very different. Howarth is particularly good at describing almost graphically how the fate of the battle hung in a balance, swinging between sides during the day on several occasions.

I have visited the Waterloo battlefield a number of times and read several books about it. None describes the battle as well how it must have been for the soldiers, including the deafening noise - it was claimed the cannon noise was heard as far away as Kent in England - , the smells, the damp cold, the pain - one French soldier, having just had his leg amputated, brandishes it in the air shouting "vive l'Empereur". Yet, there is a clear thread in the individual experiences which adds up to a good description of the battle. Granted, the battle is seen mostly through British soldiers' eyes, it is not clear how the crucial attack by the Garde Imperiale suddenly falters and the Prussians' assault in Placenoit is referred to as by "a few Prussians", this is still the best book I have read about this battle.

And it is short (a key criterion for a good book)

This book recreates the Battle of Waterloo by using first hand accounts from the men that actualy fought there. The result is a powerful book with much atmosphere and feel that it is almost like being there on the battlefield. Howarth mixes the strategy of the battle with the more personal recollections to a superb blend. This is an excellent book and a good alternative to the usual pure strategic and tactical view taken of the battle by many historians/authors. There is also excellent illustrations throughout. ( This review refers to a 1968 hardcover edition)

Quite possibly the best intimate account of this baatle fought nearly 200 years ago. Howarth takes you there in his writing based on recorded fact and eye witness accounts, A battle that on all accounts should have been won by Napoleon.