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Combining military and cultural history, the book explores British soldiers' travels and cross-cultural encounters in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1814. It is the story of how soldiers interacted with the local environment and culture, of their attitudes and behaviour towards the inhabitants, and how they wrote about all this 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
About the author
Gavin Daly is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
Summary
Combining military and cultural history, the book explores British soldiers' travels and cross-cultural encounters in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1814. It is the story of how soldiers interacted with the local environment and culture, of their attitudes and behaviour towards the inhabitants, and how they wrote about all this in letters and memoirs.
Additional text
"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
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
