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"Combining military and cultural history this book offers a new perspective on the British soldier in the Peninsular War. For all the histories of the Peninsular War and its continuing romantic appeal in the British imagination, little attention has beenpaid to how young British officers and enlisted men wrote about and experienced the places and peoples of Spain and Portugal during the war against Napoleon. This book examines those travels and cross-cultural encounters between 1808 and 1814, revealing Spain and Portugal as seen through the eyes of British redcoats. It is the story of how British soldiers interacted with the local environment and culture, of their attitudes and behaviour towards the inhabitants, and of how they wrote about all this to their readers, both during and after the war, in letters and memoirs"--
List of contents
Introduction 1. To the Peninsula 2. First Contact: Lisbon 3. Landscape and Climate 4. Billets and Hospitality 5. Searching for Civilization 6. The Religious World 7. 'Dark-Eyed Beauties' Conclusion: Crossing to Civilization
Report
"Between 1808 and 1814 many British soldiers found a substitute for the traditional 'grand tour' in the 'tour de force' represented by the Peninsular War. In this book, meanwhile, we have a 'tour de force' of another kind: as comprehensive as it is elegant, it should catapult its author to the very forefront of the historiography." - Professor Charles J. Esdaile, University of Liverpool, UK
