[.ca] 1813: Leipzig: Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations (ISBN 1853674354)

More bad history by a Brit:
This is one of the worst Napoleonic books I have ever read, chock full of meandering eye-witness accounts strung together with poor phrasing and writing. But what is the worst part of this book, and what is inexcusable, are the numerous mistakes of fact...so many of them that it is not worth the while of recounting all of them here. Simply put, if you want bad history, buy this book. If you want a decent treatment of the Battle of Nations, look elsewhere.

Leipzig Made Simple!:
I have been struggling to find a manageable book about the Leipzig campaign for some time. It's a big battle and hard to find a good balance between extremely detailed (long-winded?) accounts, or accounts which are simply too basic and superficial. After all, it is THE battle of Napoleonic wars in terms of size and duration! I found this Digby Smith book very accessible. He writes well, and the book is beter laid out than, say, the Bowden triology, which to my mind dont engage the reader as well, and focus unduly on the French perspective of the campaign - at the expense of the rest. Importantly for me, (and where he scores over the excellent Osprey title on Leipzig) he has a good set of orders of battle in the appendix. Digby Smith is always hot on providing lots of data in his books, and this book is no exception. Its not the extreme detail of a Nafziger orbat, but it tells you all you need to know. An excellent overall text, and, for me, just the right balance between content and detail - and in just one volume!

Grievous errors abound amidst many eye-witness accounts:
Digby Smith, a.k.a. Otto von Pivka, makes a mess out of this effort to tackle the massive four-day struggle between the Emperor Napoleon I and his enemies. And after reading one certain "Five-Star" review in this column, this reviewer is left with the impression that such a high rating must be due to the fact that the "Five-Star" reviewer MUST be somehow in debt to Mr. Smith. Factual errors---grievous ones at that---plague the book from the start. In fact, Chapter One is so riddled with mistakes, that one HAS to question the editorial capabilities of the publisher's staff. Only a few of these mistakes will be pointed out here. The author maintains on page 11 that by April, 1813, "Britain was pouring money and equipment into the coffers and depots of Napoleon's enemies via the Baltic." Such was not the case. The Allied powers were hard pressed to fund and supply their own efforts prior to the subsidy treaties between Britain/Prussia/Russia were concluded and signed in the middle of June (treaty with Prussia on 14 June; treaty with Russia on 15 June). Similar trouble crops up with Mr. Smith's handling of the Austrians, when he states on page 12 that "Austria joined the Allies...on 27 June 1813." The 27 June agreement DID NOT have the Austrians join the alliance, but rather authorized ultimatums to be delivered to Napoleon as the Allied price of peace. Austria later officially declared war on France in August. Once the campaign begins, Smith's work seems to get worse. Smith claims on page 17 that Napoleon gave Marshal Ney command of the Army of the Bober on 15 August "with the aim of thrusting towards Berlin. This was, instead, Marshal Oudinot's Army of Berlin...Napoleon did not form the Army of the Bober until more than a week later, and it was under Marshal Macdonald. Smith then continues on a disastrous serious of mistaken identities. On August 22, Smith states that Oudinot, now as commander of the Army of the Bober, faced the Allies in Silesia. Then Smith claims on page 19 that on the following day, Oudinot, clashed with the Allied Army of the North "only 17 kilometers south of Berlin." The mistakes go on and on and on and on. Example: In Chapter Two,on page 35, Mr. Smith claims that "under the terms of the Treaty of Tilst of 8 September 1808, Prussia's army had been limited to 42,000." It was the Treaty of Paris of 8 Septmber 1808 that limited the size of the Prussian army. Factual mistakes also show up often under the narrative of the Battle of Leipzig, such as Mr. Smith's claims on page 208 that Bulow's 3rd Prussian Corps was part of Blucher's Army of Silesia; rather, Bulow was with the Army of the North. Sources are scant and without ANY French archival sources (these are easily accessed at the Chateau de Vincennes) and anaylsis is lacking in any detail or depth. In the end, this is a treatment which seems to be aimed at an audience that enjoys lengthy eywitness accounts...and this is where the book's value may be found.

Decent Account of the "Battle of the Nations":
I had great expectations when I started reading this book. As soon as I saw the cover I knew that I had to read it, since there have been so few decent accounts of this pivotal battle. At long last a new book on the 1813 battle of Leipzig, the 'Battle of Nations'. Alas it was not as good as I hoped. Although I found the research excellent and the first hand accounts very interesting the book was missing something. What it lacked, for me anyhow, was a story. The narrative was dry with lots of detail but it didn't seem to flow, to get you involved, as a good story should. I know the author is not writing a novel but a book that is just full of facts and details will lose its audience if its too dry to keep the reader awake. I found the maps to be OK but I still found times when the author mentioned a place and I failed to locate it. This book will be of great benefit to the war-gamers and hardcore Napoleonic War readers. However for a person who is looking for a free flowing account that just pulls you into the story and at the same time gives you the facts required to understand what happened and why this book may be a hard slog.

Bitter anonymous critics:
Two bitingly sour reviews of my book have been posted by `A Reader`, wishing to remain anonymous. From the similarity of style I would assume that both stem from the same pen. Obviously, I have got severely up someone`s nose; can it be because of my coolness towards Napoleon? Perhaps `A Reader` would have the courage to add his name to his work, as authors do.