The Fatal Knot is the only book that I could find that focused on the "guerillas" in the first guerilla war. This is particularly strange considering the importance of "guerilla" wars in South America and Africa, not to mention Vietnam. There were of course wars that contained non-regular soldiers, such as the wars against the Indians in North America, but this was the first war (or "little war," "guer-illa") that pitted regular, conscripted soldiers against irregular combatants. According to Carl Schmitt, it was one of the first cracks in the established rules of international law. The author does a good job of bringing out the most important points, and demonstrating the social basis of the support for the guerillas. He also shows why the virulence of guerilla wars is a function of the force of the regular army and not just of the "banditry" of the irregular combatants. (Interestingly, even during this war there were POWs). In many ways, this war was the first modern war, and it deserves more study than it has attracted so far. The author makes a good first step.

Disregarding the historiographic tradition associated with the guerillas of Navarre, John Lawrence Tone provides a much-needed social and economic analysis of the Spanish province in The Fatal Knot: The Guerilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain. Tone's sophisticated approach and copious evidence give a clear picture of the motivations and influences of the Navarrese guerillas and the failures of the French from 1808-1813.

The first two chapters, what tone calls his "portrait of Navarre", provide the background necessary to understand the vigilance and success of the guerilla movement and its leaders. Contrasting the upper and lower regions of Navarre, Montana and Ribera, Tone is able to evaluate and pinpoint sources of rebel instigation. More explanatory passages are sprinkled throughout the narrative portion of the book, so the separation of social and narrative history is neither harsh to the reader nor boring. The final chapter, clearly defined as "Why Navarre Fought" sums up Tone's arguments for the success of the movement in Montana. The prevalence of private land ownership, a large percentage of nobility, and clerical poverty all contributed to the movement's social and economic background but the political autonomy the region enjoyed under the Spanish Monarchy was possibly the most important factor in instigating the guerilla wars.

Tone's arguments would have benefited from a comparison of the situation in Spain with that in the Kingdom of Naples. General Reynier, for example, was successful in defeating guerrillas in the similarly harsh territory of Calabria, yet he was unable to resist them in Navarre, further evidence of the importance of political sovereignty in Navarre. For now the Calabrian guerillas remain subject to the stereotypes once associated with the Navarese. (see Milton Finley, "The Most Monstrous of Wars")