A Great & Glorious Victory: New Perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar, by Richard Harding, editor

Barnesley: Seaforth and Pen & Sword/Drexel Hill, Pa: Casemate, 2008. Pp. xi, 127. Illus, diagr, notes, biblio., index. $34.95 paper. ISBN:1848320086.

Though short, A Great & Glorious Victory is an important contribution to the study of the naval campaign of 1805 that culminated in Nelson's great victory at Trafalgar. 

The work opens with an essay examining a major computer reconstruction of the battle, which demonstrates that a feint executed during Nelson's approach to the Allied line, a move noted in several of the earliest accounts of the battle, somehow "dropped out" of the accepted narrative of the events.  Other essays discuss the impact of the battle on history, both real and mythic, the French and Spanish views (the latter with some interesting political implications), as well as British preparations to meet an invasion, the Grande Armee, and the commemoration of Trafalgar and Austerlitz . 

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