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Bryant’s third book of the Napoleonic era starts with Wellington in the Peninsula in front of Badajoz, while Napoleon faces the Sixth Coalition in Germany. This is very much English-centric history, so the focus is entirely on the Spanish front.

The first four chapters give a good account of Wellington’s advance over the Pyrenees, and the campaign in the south of France. This, along with what happened in Germany and the road to Paris in 1813-14, does not get enough attention, and so makes interesting reading right there.

Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t stop there, but talks about the peace process after Napoleon’s abdication, and the Hundred Days, concluding with the Battle of Waterloo.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t stop there either. The second half of the book is a social history of England over the next several years, as British and world economy struggle with the transition to peace. Wartime expenditures come to a sudden halt, causing dislocation in industry. But free access to European markets is restored, which helps, but the world economy stutters trying to absorb the scale of production now flooding out of the British Isles. Bryant mostly looks at the lower-level impacts of this in protests and economic hardship, and outright rebellion.

This has been another good transition from print to electronic format by Endeavour Press. The focus, as ever, is very English-centric, but it is well-written, and very enjoyable. Don’t let this be your primary source of knowledge on the era, but it does talk of things that you won’t encounter a lot of other overviews too.