A Great & Glorious Victory – New Perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar

This month's book is the collection of essays presented at the international conference held in October 2005 in Portsmouth (UK) on the bicentenary anniversary of the battle Trafalgar. It offers some of the most up-to-date scholarship of the naval battle and includes articles by Admiral Rémy Monach (Grand Prix, Fondation Napoléon 2005), Michael Broers (Grand Prix, Fondation Napoléon 2006), Agustin Guimera and the Fondation's historian and chargé des relations internationales, Peter Hicks.
 
Also included in the collection is the report drawn up by the naval-wargaming group known as the 'Inshore Squadron' which plots the precise progression of the battle, including details of the various ship-on-ship actions. Using a computer program and cross-referencing the various log books that still remain, they were able to produce a timeline of the battle that is the most accurate yet available. A DVD which accompanies this report is also available from the publishers.
 
We took the opportunity to ask Richard Harding, the editor of the collection, four questions regarding the new publication.
 
1) First of all, why was this collection of essays published?
  
The bicentenary of Trafalgar produced an unusually rich output of research. Naval battles of the nineteenth century do not normally generate that kind of interest, but on this occasion scholars of many nations and with many different special research interests contributed to enriching our understanding of the battle. Equally important, this output reflects what the battle means people today. This collection of essays was a snapshot of the work as the year drew to a close and is representative both of the work done on the battle itself and on the impact of the battle in Britain and France at the time and later.
 
2) And what does this collection of essays represent?
 
As noted above, these essays represent the variety of scholarship that was brought to bear on the subject as a result of the centenary. It was not just a naval commemoration, nor purely British, but stimulated thinking about the critical events of 1805 much more widely.
 
Click here for the rest of the interview.