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Lead book review

How we beat Napoleon

Two new books show that, from Wellington to dockyard workers, everyone was engaged in the long war effort

2 November 2013

9:00 AM

2 November 2013

9:00 AM

Britain Against Napoleon: The Organisation of Victory, 1793-1815 Roger Knight

Allen Lane, pp.677, £30

Wellington: The Path to Victory, 1769-1814 Rory Muir

Yale, pp.672, £30

It feels the height of ingratitude to blame Jane Austen for anything, but it probably is her fault that most people seem to think that the only impact that the Napoleonic War had on British life was to bring Mr Wickham and the militia into the lives of the Bennet girls.

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Britain Against Napoleon:  The Organisation of Victory,  1793-1815 is available from the Spectator Bookshop, £23.95, Tel: 08430 600033.

Wellington: The Path to Victory, 1769-1814 is available from the Spectator Bookshop, £23.95, Tel: 08430 600033.

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