Armies of the Napoleonic Wars: An Illustrated History (General Military)

This decently sized book of 425 pages, not including the index, is really a compendium of Osprey Publishing titles dealing with Soldiers' uniforms, equipment, organization, and some tactics from the Napoleonic Wars. While the "donor" books to this work probably average 35 pages like most titles in Osprey's Man-of-War series, the size of this one allowed the editor, Chris McNab, to really mine the best content out of numerous smaller books. This work not only provides the best macro overview of Napoleonic Soldiers I have ever read, but from an aesthetic standpoint continues Osprey's tradition of using detailed, cited research to produce truly beautiful color plates throughout this book. As each country's forces were analyzed, the authors included a great deal of information and color graphics of key material and not just Soldier's uniforms. To my great delight, this frequently ended up being descriptions and illustrations of a belligerent's Field Artillery pieces, accoutrements, and "systems" or doctrine in modern parlance. I highly recommend this book for any serious student of 19th Military History, students of military history in general, and especially for any Napoleonic War aficionados out there. This is truly a great read that is just packed with beautiful illustrations and great information.

This is an impressive looking book with good illustrations and reasonably detailed captions. However, the text feels like cut and paste from different sources (or books as it appears) with poor flow. Sentences are repetitive, and the ideas listed in seemingly random order, making the reading much less enjoyable than it could have been.I wanted to love the book and was expecting a great read based on the reviews but I am left disappointed. It is good to browse lightly but not a book to read in detail.

Excellent reference for the model builder.

Unrivalled compilation of napoleonic military history

This is a nice little book about the armies of the various armies at the time. There are other book on the subject that cover more and cost more. Yes there is a lot of different Ospreys series in it but I am glad I got it.

This is a must have for anyone interested in uniform colors and patterns. And enough historical background to satisfy both novice and advanced Napoleonic historians.

Very good information on all army's. Great illustrations of various units. Good summaries on various units and armies performances in campaigns and battles. Very enjoyable and useful as a napoleonic reference in the future. The book is everything it's advertised to be. Would like to see more unit by unit in depth campaign history in it, but it didn't claim to provide this.Thank you,Philosophisor1

This is one of the most affordable books and it is lavishly illustrated books about armies in the Napoleonic Wars. It covers all of the major armies and even a brief description of the minor ones.This one covers the basics of the armies of that period and all of them are well illustrated. In this type of book with this price is realy affordable because I can tell you that illustrated books of this period are usually priced beyound range of the collecter of books on Napoleonic armies or wars.It has all the basics and would go great with any library.

I am currently working on a collection of 28mm napoleonic wargames figures and this was an excellent addition to my library of books on the uniforms of the period. Lovely colour plates and interesting text. recommended for anybody interested in the period.

Fantastic. My son was really happy and so was I.

not as good as i was hoping for, better to buy the books as singles rather than this.

A really good read

absolutely nice book.