WATERLOO 1815

(written in French)
 
No subject is ever completely exhausted in History and Waterloo, perhaps less than others: how many single battles can claim to symbolize the fall of an empire?
In extracting this event from the mystique that has surrounded it for two hundred years this book by Thierry Lentz comes at precisely the right moment. On the verge of the bicentenary of the battle, “Waterloo 1815” is like a high-powered practical guide. With its factual and insightful information, its synthetic maps, evocative illustrations, some of which are published for the first time, and the concise analyses of its many inserts, this book carries the reader literally, not lyrically, to the heart of the issues of the battle. Nothing proves this better than the efficiency with which he treats the battle of June 18th: three acts and an epilogue, eighty-two pages no less, dedicated to the analysis of the context of this symbolic battle. (Marie de Bruchard).

First part – La guerre inévitable
1. Paris, 20 mars 1815
2. Nuages intérieurs
3. La quarantaine diplomatique
4. Mobilisations
5. Les faiblesses de l'encadrement
6. Défendre ou attaquer ?
 
Second Part – La campagne de Belgique
7. L'armée du Nord
8. L'armée anglo-néerlandaise de Wellington
9. L'armée de Blücher
10. Le plan de Napoléon
11. L'offensive
12. Ligny et les Quatre-Bras
 
Third part – Dimanche 18 juin 1815
13. Préparer la bataille
14. Face à face
15. La bataille, acte I : Napoléon à la manoeuvre
16. La bataille, acte II : Wellington plie sans rompre
17. La bataille, acte III : l'arrivée des Prussiens et le sauve-qui-peut
18. La bataille, épilogue
 
Epilogue: Waterloo ou la fin d'une ambition française