The Bottom Line
Pros
- Fantastic artwork.
- Pictures supported by good written detail.
- Created by the experts.
Cons
- Shouldn't be first on your Waterloo reading list.
Description
- 190 pages, including 80 full colour plates, short introduction and bibliography.
- 164 types of uniform illustrated, more described.
- Published by Arms and Armour, ISBN: 1855327341
Guide Review - Uniforms of Waterloo by Haythornthwaite, Cassin-Scott and Chappell
There are so many books on Waterloo you could stack them from floor to ceiling of whichever room you're in; nevertheless, if you've anything greater than a passing interest in the battle you should consider this volume. Using 80 full colour plates, a few line drawings and over 80 pages of text the authors and illustrators do their best to describe and explain the dress, uniforms, weapons and appearance of Waterloo's combatants. I say 'best' because Haythornthwaite modestly claims that "to cover the subject completely in eighty plates is well-nigh an impossibility" (Uniforms, Haythornthwaite, p. 5); he's right, but Uniforms of Waterloo is a superb achievement, cramming in a formidable level of detail and art for the low price. Every army is covered - as are the major commanders - showing us what was actually worn, not what the regulations wanted.Uniforms of Waterloo is clearly essential to anyone who models, wargames or re-enacts the Napoleonic era, but historians may be sceptical: Haythornthwaite's introduction to Waterloo is necessarily brief and the notes are overwhelmingly about clothing, so why do they need it? Well, most history textbooks and monographs are plain to the eye - you're lucky to get a few black and white illustrations - and it can be difficult to visualise events. Books such as this, with their vivid and evocative pictures, allow an insight into the colours and forms. Clouds of powder-smoke may have obscured the battlefield of Waterloo, but soldiers wore uniforms of striking reds, deep blues and natural greens. Men who stood bravely in square or attacked in column also lived, traveled and died in these uniforms, garbed in gold braid, shoulder wings and more. In short, even if your interest in Waterloo is strictly textual, you'll return to this book for a reminder of what things looked like.
