Napoleon's Cursed War: Spanish Popular Resistance in the Peninsular War, 1808-14

by Ronald Fraser

In this definitive account of the Peninsular War (1808–14), Napoleon’s six-year war against Spain, Ronald Fraser examines what led to the emperor’s devastating defeat against the popular opposition — the guerrillas — and their British and Portuguese allies. As well as relating the histories of the great political and military figures of the war, Fraser brings to life the nonymous masses — the artisans, peasants and women who fought, suffered and died — and restores their role in this barbaric war to its rightful place while overturning the view that this was a straightforward military campaign. This vivid, meticulously researched book offers a distinct and profound vision of "Napoleon’s Vietnam” and shows the reality of the disasters of war: the suffering, discontents and social upheaval that accompanied the fighting.

Genres: History, Spain, France, War, Nonfiction, European History, Military Fiction

672 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2006

About the author

Ronald Angus Fraser (9 December 1930 – 10 February 2012) was a British historian noted for his oral histories and in particular for Blood Of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War, his oral history of the Spanish Civil War.

Born in Hamburg to an upper-middle class British father and wealthy American mother, Fraser was educated at boarding school in England and the USA and undertook further studies in Switzerland and France. He chronicled his upbringing in his oral history In Search of a Past (1984), in which interviews with the servants at his family's Berkshire country house served as a counterpoint to his own memories. Fraser spent five years as a correspondent with Reuters in Brussels, The Hague and London before moving to Spain in 1957 to become a full-time writer.

Fraser was one of the pioneers of oral history in the 1960s and '70s, most notably with In Hiding: The Life of Manuel Cortes: The Life of Manuel Cortes (1972) and Blood Of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War (1979). His book Napoleon's Cursed War: Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War, 1808-1814 (2008) applied his experience of oral history to traditional archival sources.

Fraser's friendship with André Gorz led to his involvement with the New Left Review from the early 1960s. He was a lifelong socialist and at his death a senior member of the New Left Trust. He was a founder of New Left Books, the parent company of publisher Verso Books.

Reviews

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will say upfront that this is not a book to pick up and read cover to cover, and I didn't do that. I have not read every page, but I've read a great deal of it, and I'll be going back to it time and again.

I bought this for research purposes, knowing almost nothing about the Spanish side of the Peninsular wars and being about to write a heroine who was a partisan. This first of all gave me an excellent background into the state of Spain, politically, economically and socially, before Napoleon invade, which was valuable context not only for the effect of the wars on the country, but for understanding why, post-1814, Spain entered a long and drawn out and very complex period of social change and upheaval that really only ended with Franco's death in the 1970s.

It's really well-written and painstakingly researched. It is a scholarly tome, no getting away from that, but it is filled with fascinating little counterpoints to the narrative historical flow - excerpts from diaries, personal stories etc. I had no idea that guerrilla warfare originated in Spain at this time, and absolutely no idea that the Spanish guerrillas/partisans played such a vital role in 'winning' the war against Napoleon and ousting his army from their country. And here's the key point that Fraser makes over and over: the Spanish wanted the French occupation over, that's what they were fighting for and why thy saw it as a revolutionary war; while Wellington and the British army were interested in the 'big picture' - getting rid of Napoleon. Fraser argues, to a degree, that this difference in objectives meant that Wellington used and abused the Spanish armies in their various forms, and that the various governments in the Congress of Vienna afterwards sidelined Spain and its contribution. He is very critical of Wellington at various points, and I don't know enough to argue with him, though he argued very persuasively as far as I'm concerned.

This is a fascinating book. It's dense, it's long, and as I said, far from an easy read, but in terms of the subject matter, it's brilliant, and as far as I'm concerned, it's not only given me everything I needed for my own research, it's thrown open the door to a whole new arena of history that I'm definitely going to be pursuing.

[lukas · Rating 5 out of 5]

wau, proste wau! tuto knihu som si hlboko vychutnal, každé sústo bol dar, od triednej analýzy španielska, po nedodržiavanie sexuálnej abstinencie počas pôstu. neuveriteľné. odporúčam každému, jedna z najlepších kníh ktoré som kedy čítal! wau!

[Peter Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a narrative description of the course of the Peninsular War (Guerra de Independencia) from the Spanish perspective, and if you don't already have a fair idea of the outline course of the war from the Spanish (more than the British) point of view then you're likely to find this an unhelpful read. It is more like a collection of short investigations into a range of different aspects of the popular struggle against the French invasion and the Bonapartist regime. It does include the "little war" - the guerilla - but ranges much further than that into the detail of the popular reaction and resistance.

This makes for what could potentially feel like quite a disjointed read, but it is a mine of information for anyone researching this aspect of the war and its impact (both short and long term) on Spain. I've not come across anything else in English which covers the same ground (although there are a couple of Esdaile books that I've not read yet which may) which makes it invaluable as a collection of insightful research.

[Rob Markley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now this could have been brilliant... but it is not. It is clearly Fraser dumping some grad student research into a book without even attempting to edit into coherence. Somebody might be able to write a book with structure, theme, conclusion, evidence evaluated etc. from the material but Fraser certainly hasn't.

[MR GEOFFREY W FABRON · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth and extensive analysis of the guerrilla war in Spain. Contains a lot of information about Spanish society and the social-economic structure. Give a balanced and nuanced view of the upheaval that the Napoleonic invasion and imposition of Joseph Bonaparte as King.
Definitely recommended for anyone with an interest in this aspect of the Peninsular War.