This a a difficult book to review, because it is so very complete and thorough, and the author's style is very engaging and entertaining. The problem is that there is SO much information, the reader can't help to get bogged down on boring sections, and at times, choke on Elting's purple prose.

I highly recommend this for those who already have firm background on the period, particularly the battles and campaigns. If you are keenly interested in what the grand armee ate for breakfast the morning of Austerlitz, you won't be disappointed. It is also an excellent topical reference.

The downturn for me was about page 300. Elting only occassionally translates French phrases (very disconcerting for a Germanophile) and it was hard for me to get excited about the uniform piping of every single transportation, supply, service, and administrative battalion. But read on! It does get better.

If you want to know about Napoleonic warfare in general, I would steer you to Rothenberg and Chandler. If you want to eat, sleep, march, breathe, and fight with one of the greatest armies in western history, it is worth the time.

This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who has any interest in the Napoleonic period. Simply put, it is a massive organizational study of Napoleon's armed forces, from an infantryman deep in Russia to the military police on the streets of Paris. The amount of detail contained within this volume staggers the mind, and yet Elting is such an effective writer that the book is never slow. In fact, the author's witty and sometimes sarcastic writing style makes it a delightful read.

Elting assumes the reader has some general knowledge of the Napoleonic period, so if you're not well-versed in the history of that time you will encounter names of people and battles that are unfamiliar to you.

Elting is also clearly fond of Napoleon as a soldier and a man, so all you Napoleon-haters out there would be well advised to avoid this book (you might learn things which challenge your viewpoint).

All in all, I thought this book was a wonderful work of history and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

It has to be one of the most readable and yet comprehensive books on Napoleons' brilliant instrument of war his La Grande Armee. Colonel Elting breaks down the entire army into its component units such as Artillery,Line Infantry, Dragoons,Curassiers etc, and intricitly describes their formations,recruiting and life styles of the common soldiers in both peace times and in battle. the book follows the Army from its early triumphs to the final defeat at Waterloo and includes a sad final postscript of its demise. A excellent book that is a must to any Napoleonic collection

IN my opinion, this book is no where near the great piece of scholarship as claimed by some on this site (why does this high school teacher named Kiley write two reviews? What is it with him and his hero worship of Elting?). It has some merits, but the scholarship is very slanted (typical Elting)and the biased conclusions by Elting rob the reader of the overall impact of what was going on (another Elting trait), especially along the Canadian border and Sir Isaac Brock's influence there.

The book, overall, is a good description of the tactics, battles and problems encountered and sometimes overcome in this wasteful and pointless war. John Elting weaves present day overview well with comtemporary accounts. The book does have an American bias, however. Canadians supporting the USA are given better press than Americans supporting Britain and Canadian/British Irregulars (particularly the Indian) are depicted as little better than rapists and murderers (American Irregulars are, of course upstanding heroes). I certainly found enough in the book to make it worth reading but would make sure a new reader had other sources to compare with. Some sweeping generalisations and two-dimensional characterisation spoil what would otherwise be a very good book.

John Elting was reknowned for his up-front, no-nonsense style of military history writing. In this book, which presents a military perpective of the war of 1812, Mr. Elting shots from the hip in describing how silly America's preperations for the war were. Elting writes with a disdain for the meddling politician in the affairs of the military. Cherished American presidential ideals like Jefferson and Madison come across as ameteurs and niave in this book. For sure America did not plan adequately for this war, and we payed a heavy price for it. There are lessons to be learned here for today. Also, Mr. Elting's views on the Indians
in the conflict do not come across as flattering either. Its time perhaps that we take a less picturesque view towards the Indians and see them in a more accurate light as Elting presents for us. One of the many lessons the US needed to learn was that militia could not win the conflcit. This assumption was a notion held over from the Revolution, which should have long dispelled that idea. In essense the country had to learn the lesson again that only a professional standing army could win battles. As a former US army colonel Elting certainly disdains how our foundinmg fathers treated the army. In his descriptions of the war itself, Elting is decidely pro-American in his outlook. This is not surprising from a former soldier of the US army. His main complaint is that poor leadership and bad politics robbed the American soldier of victory in the war. While there may be truth in this idea, he tends to dismiss what the British and Canadians accomplished in the war. Eltings glosses over the brilliance of Maj. Gen Issac Brock who saved Britsh Canada from being overrun in the first year of the conflict. In several actions he seems to inflate British losses while deflating American ones. While we can't blame Elting for this, the reader might do well to balance this book with other works on the subject. Read this book for its amusing narrative style and in memory for the passing of Mr. Elting who was a noted military historian on the Napoleanic period.

Disappointing. I thought a writer of Elting's stature (Napoleon's Marshals, etc.) would have more of substance to say. Instead he gives what amounts to a general overview with a lot of name dropping. I did find his take on Basel Liddell-Hart to be refreshing though (he's a pretentious phony). His last chapter on the cold war and the Soviet Union is, of course, totally off base. All in all, don't bother unless you've read everything else in the field.

How many of us have actually read about such military leaders as Marshal Berthier, Turenne, The Chevalier de Folard, and Fox Connor? Undoubtedly not too many of us. John Elting has done all of us a great favor with this little gem of a book that gives us the experts in warfare since the ancient Greeks, and why they were great. Jomini and Clausewitz are compared and contrasted; Napoleon is presented as a soldier and not a legend; Sun Tzu is given his due in the great scope and sweep of history; Winfield Scott shines as a soldier and a man, as does George Patton; Eisenhower and Bradley come off second best in comparison to their subordinate, Patton; lastly, the Cold War is shown for the desperate struggle it really was, against a ruthless and merciless enemy, and how close the Russians came to success. The Superstrategists chronicles the experts, the great, and not so great of warfare over the past 2,500 years. This is not a 'how they did it' book, but the story of what makes a good general and why good generals sometimes fail. Almost all of the big names, and many of the small ones are told about in this book. Robert the Bruce, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Grant, Lee, MacArthur, and a seemingly endless list of grizzled warriors, kings, and princes get their 'fifteen minutes of fame' in a book that is useful in a myriad of ways. Written in a wry, sometimes humorous, and always with piercing wit, the story goes through the ages and the changing methods of warfare telling of the only constant in man's continuing quest to kill each other-man. Character, or lack of it, is stunningly told in this book which concnetrates on the cerebral side of warfare. The true gem of the entire volume is the outline and explanation of the Principles of War in the appendices. Additionally, Col Elting also instructs as he tells his tale 'of much fyte.' He whets the appetite for further research, and the annotated bibliography is excellent for feeding the hunger for more knowledge. This book is a must for both the historian and the military professional. It is one of the most entertaining and useful books I have ever read, and I did that in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.