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Reviews
| Napoleon's Cursed War: Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War, by Ronald Fraser. London: Verso, 2008. 480 pages. $54.95, cloth.
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| Ronald Fraser has written about popular movements in Spain in the past, including In Hiding: The Life of Manuel Cortes and Blood of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War. Both works dealt with the Spanish Civil War, looking at the popular movements and human side of conflict. In his current book, Napoleon's Cursed War: Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War, Fraser transports us a century before the Spanish Civil War, to study the Spanish uprising against the French in 1808. This situation is referred to as the "Spanish Ulcer" by the French, but as Fraser points out, contemporary historians call it "Napoleon's Vietnam." |
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He seeks to make this the definitive work on the Peninsular War, but in doing so he also attempts to bring "to life the anonymous masses—the artisans and peasants who fought, suffered and died." Fraser convincingly argues that these people, the Spanish citizenry, are the ones who defeated Napoleon in a long and grueling guerilla conflict at a time when the French armies dominated Europe. Fraser, however, rightfully places the British and Portuguese in the important role as Spanish allies and supporters. |
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Fraser recounts the steps towards war, describing the "Spanish Old Regime's rulers" moving "reluctantly" as both sides understood that "Spain would inevitably go down to defeat" (p. xi). Yet it was Spanish patriotism at home and foreign support that sparked the popular resistance and allowed it to continue until 1814. |
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His efforts to locate sources and documents from the peasants and lower order that made up the movement are often frustrated by the fact that few of these records exist; diaries and memoirs were not common items due to the lack of literacy among the resistance fighters. He admits this weakness and overcame it by intertwining historical record and other documents into the narrative. |
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The efforts of the Spanish Patriot Army in the field are notable for their vigor in resisting the French, but also for their general lack of success. The Battle of Medillin, for instance, which took place on March 28, 1809, began as a set-piece battle between two standing military forces. The French delivered what was to that time "Spain's historically worst military defeat so far on its own territory." The inability of the Spanish military to defeat the French, not to mention the high level of desertion and lack of verve of the officers and support of the line for their superiors, eventually gave way to the growing guerrilla movement (p. 255). Significant to this was that the Spanish officials called on their citizens to support the resistance and roused anti-French sentiments. |
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A notable section of the book includes several appendixes. These contain many important and interesting details, including information on literacy rates among various age groups of volunteers and statistics on regional principal operational bases for the guerillas during 1810–1812. The notes and index are well-organized and hefty, but perhaps the list of source material, especially secondary sources, should have been expanded. |
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Napoleon's Cursed War: Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War provides a detailed account of the Peninsular War. Fraser is successful in bringing the plight and resistance of Spanish to the forefront and placing this as a people's movement. It is certainly a welcome contribution to not only Napoleonic and Spanish history, but should be read by anyone interested in guerrilla operations, insurgency/counter-insurgency, or nationalist movements. This is not a book that would be appropriate to be used in an undergraduate course due to the narrowly defined content. It would be a good addition, however, to a graduate class on the Napoleonic Wars or Spanish history and it would fit nicely into any course that discusses popular resistance, guerilla warfare, or insurgencies. |
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| Austin Peay State University |
Antonio S. Thompson |
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