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The Iron Duke (1769-1852), Napoleon's greatest antagonist, finally ended his global ambitions at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. British historian Christopher Hibbert cogently chronicles Wellington's achievements as a military strategist and Tory prime minister, but his probing biography is even more notable for its shrewd and subtle assessment of the duke's layered personality. Famous for his sardonic wit and towering temper, an indifferent husband and severe father, forbiddingly aloof yet capable of enormous charm, Wellington the private man is as fascinating as the public one in this smoothly written, solidly researched account.
Book Description
The colorful life story of one of the greatest military and political geniuses of all time, told in Christopher Hibbert's inimitable, highly readable style
A brilliant general, remembered most for his defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Wellington was also a politician of commanding presence. Elected Prime Minister in 1827, he was an influential adviser to kings and queens, and became deeply involved in all the major scandals of the time, delighting in mixing himself up in other people's affairs. Celebrated for his sardonic humor and savage rages which alternated with irresistible charm, he concealed a deep humanity behind a veneer of aloofness that gained him the sobriquet "the Iron Duke." Filled with fresh insights on aspects of Wellington's life and character, Christopher Hibbert has shown once again why he is one of our finest popular historians.
Customer Reviews:
A Personal History Only..........2007-08-24
Christopher Hibbert's biography of the first Duke of Wellington is, as advertised, a personal history. His focus is on the man and much less on his long career in the British Army and British political life. His finding, that Wellington was a complex man with a many-sided personality, is not a new discovery. Hibbert's contribution to a crowded field of biographies is to delve into that personality with both enthusiasm and some intellectual discipline in order to put a human face on a distant historical figure.
The first half of the book covers Arthur Wellesley's unpromising youth as the seemingly less talented middle child of an Anglo-Irish nobleman and his familar military career to the Battle of Waterloo. Hibbert skims the military narrative and his analysis is sometimes uneven. For example, he makes rather overmuch of a small skirmish before the assault on Seringapatam in India as a defining experience; but slights later achievements such as Wellington's disciplined and successful defense of Portugal in 1810-1811. He does provide a close examination of Wellington's unfortunate marriage with Kitty Pakenham and his relationships with other women, without necessarily exceeding the spotty factual basis for those relationships.
Hibbert is to be commended for devoting the second half of the book to Wellington's long and often neglected career as politician and public servant. Here, Wellington's well-developed military talents and Tory instincts were often less useful in the indifferent chaos of politics. His relationships, alleged or otherwise, with various women, play a prominent part in Hibbert's treatment.
Ultimately, this book is less satisfying as an examination of Wellington than, for example, Elizabeth Longford's longer but more balanced teatment. Hibbert's account perhaps a little too often reads like the gossip column of the Sunday newspaper.
This book is recommended to those looking for a popular biography of the Duke of Wellington, one suited to contemporary interest in the personal side of public figures.
Wonderful biography.......2005-07-05
I read Dr Hibbert's biography of Horatio Lord Nelson and was so impressed by it that I ordered two more of his books. I've just finished reading this one, and I must say that, although I'd never really liked Wellington's often-characterised stiff-upper-lip persona, I found Hibbert's depiction very appealing. It reveals that, even though the marshal created a mask of aloofness and control, behind it he was charming and engaging. Wellington may not have possessed Nelson's instinctive, natural flair but he was solid, reliable, courageous, determined and a good learner. He comes a close second to Nelson as our greatest military hero.
A History Of A Hero.......2003-01-07
I have always thought of the Duke of Wellington as the Hero of Waterloo, but little else. In "Wellington, A Personal History" I learned that he was much more.
This book is, as the title indicates, a personal history of the man, rather than a history of his times. The reader learns little of the details of Waterloo, nor does he learn much about the impact of his career on the wider world.
Wellington's story is an interesting one. Born the younger son of lower nobility, his dukedom was earned, rather than inherited. His career was diverse. He fought for the Crown in India before his first encounter with Napoleon's armies in Portugal and Spain during the Peninsular War. The possibility of service in America during the American Revolution was mentioned, but did not occur. The glory which he won at Waterloo was merely a stepping stone to higher service.
After the banishment of Napoleon, Wellington entered the diplomatic service in France. This, coupled with his membership in the House of Lords, led to service as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, among many other appointments. In office, Wellington was, generally, a supporter of privilege and order. Despite his dominant conservatism, Wellington was flexible enough to adjust to prevailing necessities. Although initially opposed to Catholic Emancipation, he supported Emancipation after concluding that the defeat of Emancipation would have led to more social unrest than the issue was worth. He then not only had to persuade opinion among the Lords and Commons, but also had to overcome the strong opposition of the King in order to get Emancipation passed. This is of particular interest to me, as family legend has it that we are descendants of Daniel O'Connell, whose election to the House of Commons forced the issue. Jews, whose potential for disorder was presumably less than that of Irish Catholics, did not enjoy his support when Emancipation for them was suggested.
During his political career, Wellington endured wide swings in popularity. At times he faced the threats of the mob as a result of his policies. He was forced to turn his home into a fortress and to carry pistols while traveling about London. Even when his popularity was at its nadir, his prestige and personal presence were sufficient to insure his safety.
Wellington's relations with his monarchs make interesting reading. Although he held George IV and William IV in low esteem, his relationship with Victoria was warm and close. He became an intimate and trusted advisor on whom Victoria and other politicians relied as an intermediatory.
Wellington's marriage was unhappy and distant and he became a widower at a fairly young age. These facts caused him to seek and enjoy the companionship of many women through his lifetime. These relationships and their effects on Wellington account for a large portion of this book.
As is common among heroes, Wellington's popularity grew as his vigor and involvement in public affairs diminished. Living to an advanced age, Wellington was revered as Britain's greatest hero.
I often gauge a book by how it makes me think beyond the covers. I compared him to American political generals. His political career was more impressive than Grant's, and of longer duration than Eisenhower's. The closest comparison may be with Washington, both as his country's greatest hero and the man to whom his country repeatedly turned in crises.
My only disappointment in this book, as minor as it is, is that it is so personal that one gets a sense of his times only indirectly. Overall it is a good study of this major historical figure.
What a snooze-inducer!.......2002-09-24
Having just finished McCullough's John Adams, I picked this up, hoping for another wonderfully vivid portrait of a great historical figure. Instead I find a book so crammed with useless details, so choked with irrelevant facts about irrelevant characters in Wellington's life, as to be virtually unreadable. I have no objection to a high level of detail, when properly employed in the advancement of a good narrative. But I can't explain the purpose of the useless details in this book, unless to parade before us the author's exhaustive knowledge.
I fall asleep each night after reading one and a half pages. If you're an insomniac with no real interest in Wellington, this book is for you. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
Interesting personal biography of the Duke.......2001-05-02
Author Christopher Hibbert concentrates on the personal aspects of Wellington's career, such as his relationships with family and close friends, and skirts over any lengthy analyses of the Duke's many campaigns. The Battle of Waterloo, for instance, is covered in only a few pages and the entire Peninsula War is given short shrift. Wellington's later years as a Tory politician, however, and his subsequent fall from grace with the populace is presented in detail and makes for quite an interesting read. Portraits of Wellington's brothers and other associates are also abundant in this volume and I was surprised as to how many I've never seen before. Hibbert himself is not totally enamored with his subject and portrays him as a very reticent and reserved aristocrat with little tolerance for fools and even less sympathy for the common folk. In this regard, I don't believe Hibbert has been able to lift the mask of command off Wellington and given us the definite look into his character. Wellington was certainly a man of many contradictions and Hibbert merely presents one side of him---the cold and aloof one. Still it's a worthy book with some scattered information not found in other sources. For the best read on this man, it's probably better for one to start with Elizabeth Longford's "Wellington: Years of the Sword". Hibbert's biography would certainly be a most interesting companion piece alongside it.
Book Description
In a series of battles in Spain and Portugal the Duke of Wellington defeated many of Napoleon's best generals and learned the lessons that led to ultimate victory at Waterloo. This book offers a wealth of detail, but also serves as a colorful introduction to the Napoleonic era.
Customer Reviews:
Good book on the Pennisular War.......2007-04-30
This is a good book on the Pennisular War by noted wargaming author Donald Featherstone. Has all the order of battles and descriptions of the battles.Also has a set of rules you can use to play with. He's a bit pro-british, but then again me being a Bonaparist also have my bias. excellent book though you must get this one
Some of the best OOB for the peninsular war.......2000-09-16
While the book does contain spelling errors and in general suffers from poor editing, the orders of battle are very precise, and a must for wargamers. The maps and battle descriptions are also excellent. I'd recommend this book to any wargamer or history buff interested in the peninsular war.
Amin
Sloppy fact-checking & proofreading. What's true?What isn't?.......1998-01-01
While the book's premise is excellent and the use of eye-witness accounts laudable, the numerous typos, inconsistencies and errors make one feel unable to trust the information presented. (On page 9, we "learn" that the battle of Vitoria occurred in 1815!) The typos are truly jolting: "filed" for field; "Moor" for Moore; "form" for from, "Sit" for Sir. And that's just in the first three pages. The author states that this is book doesn't claim to be an "academic or definitive work," but it's unusual for a work on this subject (and at this price! - $35 at the bookstore) to be so poorly presented. There's good stuff in it, but who knows what's accurate and what isn't? A real disappointment.
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The National Army Museum Book of Wellington's Armies: Britain's Campaigns in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, 1808-15
Andrew Uffindell
Manufacturer: Pan Macmillan
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0283073489
Release Date: 2004-08-26 |
Book Description
Wellington landed in the Iberian Peninsula in the summer of 1808. Over the next six years his forces defeated the French occupation forces in a succession of brilliant campaigns as he defended Portugal, liberated Spain and invaded France. His operations helped topple Napoleon in 1814. When Napoleon escaped from Elba and regained power in March 1815, Wellington, without the strength of his Peninsula army, combined an inferior collection of contingents into an effective fighting force. His victory at Waterloo is the British Army's most famous battle. In The National Army Museum's Book of Wellington's Armies, Uffindell skillfully weaves together unpublished acounts from the museum's archive to give a comprehensive picture of this campaign. Drawing on dispatches and letters from military commanders, officers and ordinary soldiers, the book mixes riveting descriptions of battle with stories of endurance and bravery. Uffindell's work brings to life the forgotten voices of Wellington's army.
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- Adventures in Portugal and Spain
- Baron Munchausen & the Iron Duke
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On The Road With Wellington-Hardbound (Napoleonic Library)
A Schaumann
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1853673536 |
Book Description
This remarkable memoir captures the life and adventures of a junior officer as he endures the drama and agonies of the fierce struggle in Spain, Portugal, and southern France between 1808 and 1814. As a commissary, he was entrusted with gathering supplies and was caught up in a host of brawls and skirmishes. He laments the lot of commissaries exposing themselves to the enemy on their foraging raids, risking assassination by enraged natives, and being treated shabbily by the generals. This edition is introduced by Bernard Cornwell, author of the Sharpe series of novels.
Customer Reviews:
Adventures in Portugal and Spain .......2005-11-28
A.L.F. Schaumann's "On the Road with Wellington" is a delightful memoir of his service as a deputy assistant commissary officer during the Peninsular War. Schaumann's duties as a civilian supply officer for various units took him everywhere the Anglo-Portuguese Army went on campaign during the period 1808-1812. As a non-combatant, Schaumann's story focuses on the mundane tasks required to keep an army quartered and fed, but his eye for detail captures vignettes of the soldiers and civilians with whom he dealt. His gift for narrative provides the reader with a strong of sense of what it was like to be on campaign in that era. His account of the retreat of the British Army under Sir John Moore to Corunna under horrendous conditions in the winter of 1808-1809 is particularly vivid (and heartbreaking).
This is not a battlefield account, although Schaumann was close enough to the fighting to pass on some accounts of battles. Nor is this in any sense a history of the Peninsular War. Strategy and politics are played out well above Schaumann's head, and even Wellington is glimpsed only in passing. The average reader will sometimes be dependent on the footnotes to understand what is happening in the larger war. What Schaumann does provide is the human level detail that makes such a distant conflict real for the modern reader. It is no wonder that writers such as Bernard Cornwell of the Sharps series happily mined Schaumann's memoir for material. Cornwell provides an introduction to complement the translater's preface and the author's own introduction, all well worth reading for the context of Schaumann's story.
This book is highly recommended to students of the Peninsular War. It may also be of interest to the casual reader with some background in the Napoleonic Wars.
Baron Munchausen & the Iron Duke.......2000-10-11
Greenhill Books has done students of the Peninsular War a great favor with this addition to their Napoleonic Library. August Schaumann, a 30-year old Hanoverian served as a commissary for the King's German Legion, paints an incredible picture of Britain's war in Iberia while maintaining a running travelog with wry humor and succint observations. Whether describing the horrendous retreat to Corunna, his cook (the Witch of Endor), the small kissable feet of a young lady, or the peculiarities of the English, French, Spainish and Portugese his insightful pen entertains and educates without stopping. His small book will make you roar with laughter and sigh sadly at man's inhumanity to man.
Product Description
12 Cassettes - 90 minutes each -
Customer Reviews:
A truly outstanding volume!.......2004-01-17
This is one of the very best such collections of letters I have ever encountered, and the author's own illustrations are a
priceless addition. An excellent work and a bargain at the price.
For those who want more, Charles W. Reed also illustrated "Hardtack & Coffee," by John Billings, another Union army veteran, about the life of the average soldier in the Northern army. Another sure-fire winner.
A "Letters" Book Plus A Lot More.......2001-04-25
The author did a lot of research on the references in Charles Reed's letters. And instead of putting the notes at the end of the book where few read them, the notes are in the margins. It really added to the understanding of what Reed was writing home about. The author also incorporates the drawings from Reed which further adds to the book. Also incorporated are Reed's diary entries. The overall package made this an outstanding and enjoyable read. This book should be the model for all future books of this type.
An outstanding, invaluable, core title addition.......2001-01-17
"A Grand Terrible Dramma": From Gettysburg To Petersburg, The Civil War Letters Of Charles Wellington Reed consists of more than 180 letters and hundreds of drawings covering Charles Reed's period of military service as a member of the Massachusetts volunteers in the American Civil War from 1862 to 1865. This fascinating compendium, ably edited by Eric Campbell, presents the contemporary student of the Civil War with a wealth of information on the role of the Union army in the eastern theater, the events in the life of a typical Civil War soldier, as well as the progress and of the war itself. Reed's letters chronicle the common and the extraordinary with a simple, thoughtful elegance. His drawings capture a wide variety of events to which he was a participant. "A Grand Terrible Dramma" is an outstanding, invaluable, core title addition to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Civil War studies collection.
Book Description
When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves suffering under Jim Crow laws found his offer of a steady job and worldly experience irresistible. They quickly signed up to serve as maid, waiter, concierge, nanny, and occasionally doctor and undertaker to cars full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African American men in the country by the 1920s. In the world of the Pullman sleeping car, where whites and blacks lived in close proximity, porters developed a unique culture marked by idiosyncratic language, railroad lore, and shared experience. They called difficult passengers 'Mister Charlie'; exchanged stories about Daddy Jim, the legendary first Pullman porter; and learned to distinguish generous tippers such as Humphrey Bogart from skinflints like Babe Ruth. At the same time, they played important social, political, and economic roles, carrying jazz and blues to outlying areas, forming America's first black trade union, and acting as forerunners of the modern black middle class by virtue of their social position and income. Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of porters and their descendants, Larry Tye reconstructs the complicated world of the Pullman porter, and provides a lively and enlightening look at this important social phenomenon.
Customer Reviews:
george pullman and his porters.......2006-02-10
The pullman porters are gone but their legacy remains. This elegant telling of their story is part of the history of race relations in America. You need to check it out.
Achievement Lost.......2004-11-06
Larry Tye tells the fascinating story of African Americans, emancipated after the Civil War, starting a steady climb to civil rights and the middle class by exploiting job opportunity that ironcially was supposed to exploit them.
A must read for railroad passenger enthusiasts and civil rights advocates unaware of the noble struggles waged peacefully before the violence encouraged by television.
Their testimony helped me understand life more........2004-11-03
Central to this excellent analytical history are the porters themselves. This book is not a biography of A. Philip Randolph or George Pullman. Rather, the vigor of this narrative arises from the men who were sleeping car porters, and most of their testimony comes with their real names and families. The porters worked hard at their extraordinary jobs, and they left a strong legacy in their descendents. I am a railfan, and I learned a lot of detailed history from this book. However, I also received a sense of the accomplishments of these men of the past 140 years. Author Larry Tye, it seems to me, has done an excellent job of transmitting an understanding of the porters' trials, hopes, and victories. I am most grateful to these American workers, and I am most grateful to the author for his clear presentation.
fascinating historical connections..........2004-11-03
...and stories. that's why i recommend this book, altho my interest flagged toward the end. then i heard mr. tye talk at my public library, and the book took on a new perspective. he was so warm toward invited guests and welcoming to others who introduced themselves as pullman porter relatives. it was genuinely thrilling! Plus, an added bonus: pullman sleeping car and dining car scenes from old movies like hitchcock's "north by northwest" and 1949's "all the king's men" now take on extra meaning and importance. thanx, mr. tye.
A merger of nostalgia and American history.......2004-10-07
Larry Tye did an exemplary job of research and interviewing long before he attempted to tell the story of the Pullman porter's place in history, unionization and civil rights. Such detail would be expected of working journalists...unfortunately it is a rarity. Pullman porters were a group of gentlemen one step removed from slavery when Pullman capitalized on their subservient skills...which they performed to perfection. Only those of us in our senior years can remember when porters greeted you and made you comfortable in peacetime and wartime. Larry has superbly described the porter's talents, dreams, successes and failures. Their struggle set an example for and yielded a notable group of future black leaders. That contribution should never be forgotten.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Black Issues Book Review, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 487 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class.(Book Review)
Author: Shatema Threadcraft
Publication:
Black Issues Book Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 7
Issue: 2
Page: 56(1)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Birds of the Strait of Gibraltar
Clive Finlayson
Manufacturer: T. & A. D. Poyser Ltd
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0856610666 |
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The Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar
Leonard Howard Lloyd Irby
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1402165285
Release Date: 2001-09-07 |
Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1875 edition by R. H. Porter, London.
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