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Title: Best overall view
Review: Esdaile's book is simply the best overall description of thePeninsular War. He realizes that war and battles do not exist in a vacuum from politics as well as the reverse, that war involves fighting. He thus spends much time on the intricacies of Cadiz government to show the limitations of the Spanish forces. His theses on the regular army and the guerillas are expanded from his early works as is the realtion of Wellington to the Spaniards. The Duke is not mythologised, but he is shown to be the outstanding personality of the war. Although his descriptions of battles are limited in scope and scale (see D. Gates "The Spanish Ulcer" for a better strictly military history), Esdaile places the war within the structure of the other conflicts at the time. This book is the definitive description of the entire war.
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