{"product_id":"9780141979267-the-longest-afternoon","title":"The Longest Afternoon","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe 400 Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo\u003cbr\u003eAt the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe. This book tells their story and recaptures the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and uses various eye-witness reports.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A superb little book that is micro-history at its best' \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The brevity of this remarkable book belies the amount of work that went into it. One can only marvel at how well Professor Simms has gone through the original sources - the surviving journals, reminiscences and letters of the individual combatants - to produce a coherent and gripping narrative' Nick Lezard, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe true story, told minute by minute, of the soldiers who defeated Napoleon - from Brendan Simms, acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eEurope: The Struggle for Supremacy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEurope had been at war for over twenty years.  After a short respite in exile, Napoleon had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent.  At the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnknown either to Napoleon or Wellington the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte.  This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports.  Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40942983708769,"sku":"9780141979267","price":10.77,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_34356386_74d92265-415e-4eb9-bdab-7ebd952b6f1a.jpg?v=1747286942","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780141979267-the-longest-afternoon","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}