Jean-René Aymes: L’Espagne contre Napoléon. La guerre d’Independence Espagnole (1808-1814) (Spain against Napoleon. The Spanish war of Independance)

This book analyses the multiple reactions of the Spanish people under the Napoleonic occupation and the fighting that followed. Slightly rebellious, it challenges some received ideas such the heroic unanimity of the Spanish, and seeks the reasons for the failure of Napoleon in Spain: appearing to be on the French side, ignorance of the Iberian reality, cynicism, cruelty; and on the Spanish side a resurgence in obscurantism. The author focuses on the popular aspects of the struggle. The War of Independence is presented as a place of occasional meeting of the armed peasant (guerrilla), the militant poet (Quintana), the attentive artist (Goya), the clergyman leading a crusade against the godless French.

Paris: Editions of the Fondation Napoléon – Nouveau Monde Editions, 2003, Series Études, 250 pages. Language: French. To order visit the website of Nouveau Monde Éditions.