The Waterloo Campaign: June 1815
Author: Albert A. Nofi
Pages: 333
Illustrations: 50 black and white including contemporary photos of battlefield
Maps: 16
Sidebars: 41
Footnotes: None
Appendices: 2 - an order of battle and a guide for further reading
Bibliography: None outside of reading guide noting about thirty titles in narrative form.
Index: 149 listings in 5 pages
Publisher: Combined Books
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Cloth (hardbound)
ISBN: 0-938289-29-2
Price: $24.95
Summary: This is a straight-forward, general yet detailed approach to Napoleon's final military campaign, reminiscent in style to articles in Strategy and Tactics magazine, where Dr. Nofi began assembling his credentials as a military historian.

In the preface on The Great Campaigns Series, of which this volume is a part, the publisher states that his purpose is to "bridge the gap" between the "highly " and the primarily "entertaining" forms of military history. Thus, this is a solid book for interested beginners to the Napoleonic Era. Its strength is the 41 informative sidebars, which provide biographies, statistics, anecdotes and other tidbits on relevant aspects of Napoleonic Warfare.

Included are sections covering Murat's 1815 Campaign, Artillery Doctrine and statistics, small arms, campaign casualties, Waterloo trivia, Napoleon's Correspondence, and a fascinating section on Napoleonic campaigning entitled "Tricks of the Trade."

Dr. Nofi's account of the campaign itself provides a satisfactory narrative of events. Advanced students of the period may be disappointed by the author's decision to eschew footnotes and academic-style referencing, and some may wish to quarrel with his various interpretations of controversial events (e.g., his contention that Cambronne and his Old Guard surrendered to Hanoverian militia on page 255). However, for the general audience, this volume serves as a useful ground-work to build upon.

More Napoleonic Library Book Reviews:

The Waterloo Campaign: June 1815
Waterloo New Perspectives: The Great Battle Reappraised
Colonel John R. Elting comments on some recent books
Napoleon at Dresden: The Battles of August 1813
The Used Book Lover's Guide to the South Atlantic States
How to Study and Read Military History