British Liberators in the Age of Napoleon: Volunteering under the Spanish Flag in the Peninsular War

Description

This book unveils the role of a hitherto unrecognized group of men who, long before the International Brigades made its name in the Spanish Civil War, also found reasons to fight under the Spanish flag. Their enemy was not fascism, but what could be at times an equally overbearing ideology: Napoleon's imperialism. Although small in number, British volunteers played a surprisingly influential role in the conduct of war operations, in politics, gender and social equality, in cultural life both in Britain and Spain and even in relation to emancipation movements in Latin America. Some became prisoners of war while a few served with guerrilla forces. Many of the works published about the Peninsular War in the last two decades have adopted an Anglocentric narrative, writing the Spanish forces out of victories, or have tended to present the war, not as much won by the allies, but lost by the French. This book takes a radically different approach by drawing on previously untapped archival sources to argue that victory was the outcome of a truly transnational effort.

Graciela Iglesias Rogers is Tutor and Lecturer in Modern History at St. Peter's College, University of Oxford, UK. She is also a former Reuters fellow with a long career in journalism.

British Liberators demonstrates a thorough understanding of the complexities of society, culture, and politics in Spain at the time, something that is not always appreciated in the English-language work on the subject . . . The academic credentials of the book are impeccable, and it is a model for future studies of conflict . . . [Its] painstaking level of research underpins cogent, thought-provoking and well written analysis. -- Kevin Linch, University of Leeds, UK * The BARS Review, no. 44 * Rogers' work represents a valuable and fascinating contribution to the historiography of the Peninsular War. -- Leighton S. James, Swansea University, UK * European History Quarterly, Vol. 45 No. 1 * By shedding new light on a neglected aspect of the war makes Rogers' work important reading for those interested in the Napoleonic era. -- A. A. Nofi * NYMAS Review * An interesting addition to the historiography [of the subject]. -- Charles Esdaile, University of Liverpool, UK * Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies * [This book] is excellent. It is full of strengths, original, clearly written, innovative, insightful. It overturns misconceptions about the British presence in the conflict, and opens up substantial new avenues for research. -- Matthew Brown, University of Bristol, UK