1813: Leipzig – The Battle of the Nations

This book by Digby Smith (a.k.a. Otto von Pivka) is a detailed study of this key battle – the first major treatment, the author contends, in one hundred years. Smith takes issue with Napoleon's own version (as written on St Helena) of a French victory and relates not only the real cost in lives for the 560,000 men (on both sides) who were on the battlefields over the three days but also the consequences for France of what Smith terms 'one of Napoleon's worst defeats'.