The Longest Afternoon - The 400 Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo

'A superb little book that is micro-history at its best' Washington Post 'The brevity of this remarkable book belies the amount of work that went into it. One can only marvel at how well Professor Simms has gone through the original sources - the surviving journals, reminiscences and letters of the individual combatants - to produce a coherent and gripping narrative' Nick Lezard, Guardian The true story, told minute by minute, of the soldiers who defeated Napoleon - from Brendan Simms, acclaimed author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy Europe had been at war for over twenty years. After a short respite in exile, Napoleon had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent. At the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe. Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports. Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history.

Product details

• Authors: Brendan Simms, Simms Brendan
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 07.05.2015
• EAN: 9780141979267
• ISBN: 978-0-14-197926-7
• No. of pages: 160
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 9 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book; Waterloo (Schlacht), Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Europe, Belgium, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, c 1500 onwards to present day, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Battles & campaigns, Specific wars and campaigns, Early 19th century c 1800 to c 1850, Early modern warfare (including gunpowder warfare), War and defence operations, Napoleonic Wars, Battles and campaigns