Wow, What a book! If you would choose one book to give you all the background information on this famous battle; This would be the one. Outstanding graphics, maps and photos! Well done!!!

This is an excellent book for who begins to study the battle of Waterloo. Complete, clear and very entertaining.
A very good purchase.

This is an excellent read, full with illustrations, photo's of the actual battlefield and information in general of napoleonic warfare.

This is one of the better books on waterloo. Good graphics and detailed maps. Fair and balanced view.

This is a great read - full of very interesting detail. If you aee interested in the Battle this is a great reference book to have.

I wish many other authors who understake the task of writing a "companion" book to a specific venture would first take a page from Mark Adkin. He has set about to compile a book FULL of information both relevant to the Battle of Waterloo itself as well as the necessary and informative background on several aspects related to the battle. He does this in a most readable format and writing style as well. I only wish I had purchased this book prior to reading Alessandro Barbero's The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. It would have really helped fill in the voids left by the lack of maps and information in that particular book.

Adkin breaks down the book and deals in detail with The Campaign, Orders of Battle, Command and Control, The Battlefield, The Infantry, The Calvary, The Artillery, Other Arms and Services (such as medical and engineering services), The Highlights and finally Myths and Controversies.

As each section is recorded, Adkin lays out the required information for a full grasp of the subject matter and how it relates to the strategy and tatics of the era as well as the specific battle itself. It is this "background" information that I personally found to be worth every penny of the price of the book. On many areas he delves into the debate of the times as to different views on several tatics (such as whether to slice or thrust with the sabres of the calvary). This is often complimented by actual first hand source material of the day.

The book shines in very unique way as well in that it contains many photographs of the actual physical battlefield onto which troop placement and movements have been superimpossed. This really allows the viewer as clear a picture of the battlefield area as one can possibly hope to get. Add in the many anecdotes for each section of the book and one cannot help but come away with a very clear picture of the battle and also the Napoleonic era itself.

If you are interested in this battle or of the Napoleonic Era itself, then I would say this a "must have" book for your personal library.

I wish many other authors who understake the task of writing a "companion" book to a specific venture would first take a page from Mark Adkin. He has set about to compile a book FULL of information both relevant to the Battle of Waterloo itself as well as the necessary and informative background on several aspects related to the battle. He does this in a most readable format and writing style as well. I only wish I had purchased this book prior to reading Alessandro Barbero's The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. It would have really helped fill in the voids left by the lack of maps and information in that particular book.

Adkin breaks down the book and deals in detail with The Campaign, Orders of Battle, Command and Control, The Battlefield, The Infantry, The Calvary, The Artillery, Other Arms and Services (such as medical and engineering services), The Highlights and finally Myths and Controversies.

As each section is recorded, Adkin lays out the required information for a full grasp of the subject matter and how it relates to the strategy and tatics of the era as well as the specific battle itself. It is this "background" information that I personally found to be worth every penny of the price of the book. On many areas he delves into the debate of the times as to different views on several tatics (such as whether to slice or thrust with the sabres of the calvary). This is often complimented by actual first hand source material of the day.

The book shines in very unique way as well in that it contains many photographs of the actual physical battlefield onto which troop placement and movements have been superimpossed. This really allows the viewer as clear a picture of the battlefield area as one can possibly hope to get. Add in the many anecdotes for each section of the book and one cannot help but come away with a very clear picture of the battle and also the Napoleonic era itself.

If you are interested in this battle or of the Napoleonic Era itself, then I would say this a "must have" book for your personal library.

"The Waterloo Companion" is rightly subtitled "the complete guide to history's most famous battle." Mark Atkin's superb collection of information is less a battlefield history than a sourcebook about the armies who fought at Waterloo, the battlefield itself, and the many backstories that provide depth and context to an understanding of Waterloo.

"The Waterloo Companion" is richly illustrated with maps, diagrams on the locations of units, charts of military formations, color plates of uniforms, timelines, and annotated photographs of the battlefield showing the locations of units. For readers who have previously had access only to narrative and black and white maps, this book will make clear how the terrain influenced events at Waterloo. Atkin's narrative is spare and to the point, and there is every indication that he has done his research on the battle. Atkin gives credit where rightly due to various units and in the process may clear up a few persistent misunderstandings. Visitors to the battlefield will find in this book explanations of the various monuments. Serious students of the battle may find especially interesting a chapter on the myths and controversies of the battle.

This book is highly recommended to serious students of the Battle of Waterloo as providing a major resource of information necessary for understanding the events of 18 June 1815.

As a Waterloo enthusiast, I was highly impressed with the outstanding quality of the 'Waterloo Companion'. I'm interested in uniform details, the campaign itself, units on the battlefield, tactics of the period, etc.. and this book has it all. I took the book to the battlefield and compared the landscape with the pictures in the book and the location of the different units, which made my understanding of the battle much better. Also, the accurate sequence of events and description and plans of fights around the farms is excellent. Highly recommended.

My interest in military history has primarily been reserved for The American Civil War. However, I always harbored an underlying interest in The Napoleonic wars (especially after seeing the movie "Waterloo" starring Rod Stieger when I was a youngster)...

So, a while back, I finally decided to delve further into this realm of military history. What better battle to kick off my new interest than the Battle of Waterloo. When I found this book on Amazon.com, it appeared as if I had found what I had been looking for in "The Waterloo Companion: The Complete Guide to History's Most Famous Battle"...

... and I had - and THEN some! There is a LOT of information between the covers of this book! But, the author does a good job at presenting it all in as organized a way as I could have hoped for. The book is divided into sections like "the battlefield", "the infantry", "the cavalry", "the artillery", etc... Even a section of myths surrounding the battle, and the dispelling of these myths.

This book is like a text/reference book. It's not the kind of book you will sit back and relax with! It is far too text-heavy for that. However, the text is broken up with many blurbs and vignettes, set off from the rest of the text in separate boxes. For these, I am grateful to the author! I have found myself going directly to THESE bits more than the main body text when I pick the book up.

The author also does a decent job with timelines via maps, etc. Also, diagrams on how squares were formed, how cavalry would attack squares, and the best way to fire artillery at an opponet of the Napoleonic era, etc., etc... help one to better understand key tactits of Napoleonic warfare like those that were employed at Waterloo.

Now, the reason why I gave this book 4 stars and not five (I'd have given it 4.5 if I could have) is striclty a personal one: I love seeing art inside of books. Particularly military books. There are so many great works of art done on the battles of Waterloo, Quatre Bras, etc... But, I was left high and dry upon opening the book. The cover image of the Currasiers assaulting the Highlander squares, by Felix Phillapateux, sucked me into the book in the first place. I thought there'd be more of these images within... paintings by Thomas Gibb and Lady Butler - even more contemporary artists like Keith Rocco (who has done some great peices on Waterloo), etc... would have rounded out this book for me and lead me to give it five solid stars. There are several color "plates" of soldiers in their uniforms included. But, not nearly enough to wet my pallett.

Over all, a great work! Any and every person with an interest in The Battle of Waterloo should have this in their bookcase!

My interest in military history has primarily been reserved for The American Civil War. However, I always harbored an underlying interest in The Napoleonic wars (especially after seeing the movie "Waterloo" starring Rod Stieger when I was a youngster)...

So, a while back, I finally decided to delve further into this realm of military history. What better battle to kick off my new interest than the Battle of Waterloo. When I found this book on Amazon.com, it appeared as if I had found what I had been looking for in "The Waterloo Companion: The Complete Guide to History's Most Famous Battle"...

... and I had - and THEN some! There is a LOT of information between the covers of this book! But, the author does a good job at presenting it all in as organized a way as I could have hoped for. The book is divided into sections like "the battlefield", "the infantry", "the cavalry", "the artillery", etc... Even a section of myths surrounding the battle, and the dispelling of these myths.

This book is like a text/reference book. It's not the kind of book you will sit back and relax with! It is far too text-heavy for that. However, the text is broken up with many blurbs and vignettes, set off from the rest of the text in separate boxes. For these, I am grateful to the author! I have found myself going directly to THESE bits more than the main body text when I pick the book up.

The author also does a decent job with timelines via maps, etc. Also, diagrams on how squares were formed, how cavalry would attack squares, and the best way to fire artillery at an opponet of the Napoleonic era, etc., etc... help one to better understand key tactits of Napoleonic warfare like those that were employed at Waterloo.

Now, the reason why I gave this book 4 stars and not five (I'd have given it 4.5 if I could have) is striclty a personal one: I love seeing art inside of books. Particularly military books. There are so many great works of art done on the battles of Waterloo, Quatre Bras, etc... But, I was left high and dry upon opening the book. The cover image of the Currasiers assaulting the Highlander squares, by Felix Phillapateux, sucked me into the book in the first place. I thought there'd be more of these images within... paintings by Thomas Gibb and Lady Butler - even more contemporary artists like Keith Rocco (who has done some great peices on Waterloo), etc... would have rounded out this book for me and lead me to give it five solid stars. There are several color "plates" of soldiers in their uniforms included. But, not nearly enough to wet my pallett.

Over all, a great work! Any and every person with an interest in The Battle of Waterloo should have this in their bookcase!

If you think you will be gtting a blow by blow description of the battle you will be disapointed. As the book itself states this is not a battle history, but a description of everything else . It includes OOB, uniforms descriptions of deployments pictures of the battle field as it is now , looks at many of the debates of the time eg curassier good or bad. If you wanted the background to the men, tactics and all the interesting little bits of info this is the book for you. Both a coffe table book (its biga and its got pictures and short features)., it is also a book for the serious enthusiast. Use the look inside feature here at Amazon to see the contents and index pages they should let you know if this is the book you want

I give this book 5 stars because of it's overall unique contribution to the battle as an "all in one" volume for those who do not own (or wish to own) any of the available books on the army's, the weapons, and soldiers, and also because it's treatment of the main phases of the battle in color coded maps is essentially unbeatable. It also contains the mother of all Orders of Battle for the Waterloo Campaign. That being said the narrative of the battle is NOT for the seriously interested as it only briefly covers the highpoints of the battle very near the end of the book, and much of that in anecdotal format. The problem with Adkin's Waterloo is it's inherent omissions give the false impression that the battle was not the "damned near-run affair" that it actually was. This is found in the author's faulty statement that the height of D'Erlon's assault was the closest Napoleon ever came to winning the battle. Yet the reader is dismayed to find that excepting a goodly amount of schematic detail on the assaults against La Haye Sainte, the whole remainder of the battle (hours worth) against Wellington's lines after Ney's cavaly charge all the way to the assault by the Old and Middle Guard is all but completely omitted. The Prussian contribution, though respected, is treated as a separate affair altogether. The reader also picks up a pro-anglo, pro-Cops-of-the-World slant in the narrative too probably in part because practically all of the author's sources came from previously published works in English, and most of his sources for the stories of the battle are from the English soldiers who fought in it. Some of the personal stories quoted sound rediculous, no doubt exaggerated over the years.

This is the kind of history book I like to buy. No expense has been spared on this effort to present and also portray the battle of Waterloo. I sat with this book in a store for a few minutes and after reviewing it I raced to the counter with it, eager to add it to my Napoleonic collection. Objective (yes, even though it's about Waterloo) in-depth, and 'illuminating'. For example, the author has taken the effort to address many of the controversies surrounding this battle, and dissects them from both sides, and he lets YOU reach your own conclusion. Is this man a historian or what? Simply incredible. It is a very large and thick volume filled with charts, orders of battle, color photographs of the battlefield from nearly every direction, (with superimposed troop locations) and biographies of everyone from Napoleon down to individual soldiers. It serves as both a guide to the battle and also a great reference, teaching many things about the Napoleonic period itself. I find myself reading parts of it all the time. You will not need to buy any other book about Waterloo once you have this one. This is a work that will last indefinitely on any Napoleonic buff's shelf.

This book is not just another book on the Waterloo campaign. As the author states this book is not meant as a blow by blow account of the action but rather a look at different aspects of the battle including: The campaign, Orders of Battle, Command & Control, the battlefield, the various arms of the armies, and of course the main highlights of the battle. The last section takes an impartial look at the predominate myths and controversies surrounding the battle of Waterloo and the author comes up with his own conclusions in regards to them.

The book is massive (432pages) and makes superb use of colourful maps and photographs of the battlefield which explain the battle situation at key times, the deployment and various formations of forces.

The book also provides additional curious information by the use of text boxes including some first account experiences of the battle.

All in all this is an absolutely superb book, well researched using various sources of information, beautifully presented and printed on high quality paper. I have found it hard to put down , as I keep poring over the maps and digesting all the wonderful information to found in this book. This is a must buy for anyone with an interest in the Waterloo campaign. Lets hope Mark Adkin will do the same with other Napoleonic battles.

A large pictorial book not suitable for reading but for skimming thru on the Waterloo facts. Quite well-presented, it has its fair share of editorial typos. I like the well-presented maps.

Napoleonic land warfare is not a particularly strong interest of mine except as it pertains to the evolution of tactics used half a century later during the American Civil War. However, once in a while something on the subject will catch my eye. And extraordinarily eye-catching is Mark Adkin's "The Waterloo Companion" - over 400 large-format pages on glossy paper, a volume crammed with highly informative text and informative illustrations. Too often, the illustrations in such over-sized volumes as this seem to exist for no other purpose than to fill up space and look pretty. But this is not the case in "The Waterloo Companion." There are dozens of exquisite small-scale topographical maps depicting various critical moments of the battle. Photographs either focus in upon key terrain features or, in the case of panoramic images, are overlaid with markings to show the position and movements of troops during the battle. The course and form of the famous struggle are made very clear through such devices. Rather than employing a standard narrative structure, Adkin uses a more nearly encyclopedic approach. There are biographical essays on numerous general officers on both sides (or all three sides, if the Prussians are counted separately). Terrain features are individually discussed. Tactical methods and weapons are analyzed in depth. Army organization is examined. The battles for such key locations as La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont are presented in great detail, with multiple maps and photographs showing each phase of fighting. Orders of battle are given in a readily comprehended fashion, and the history and experiences of the various major subordinate units in all three armies are described. Physically, this is an extremely handsome volume. In terms of information presented, it is a treasure trove. For a military history buff, this is a book to provide many hours of happy browsing.