THE DEFENCE OF PIEDMONT, 1742-1748: A PRELUDE TO THE STUDY
OF NAPOLEON. By Spenser Wilkinson. (Clarendon Press. 21s.)—Professor Spenser Wilkinson has for a generation done much to promote the study of military history and of army organization in England, though lie has published relatively little. The appearance of his scholarly monograph on episode of the War of the Austrian Succession is therefore very welcome. The author's object is to show that the problems which confronted Napoleon on his invasion of Italy in 1798 had been faced and studied by Preach generals half a century earlier, and that Napoleon owed much to his reading of the campaigns of Maillebois and Belle-Isle and of the plans drawn up by their expert adviser, llourcet, for the forcing of the Alpine frontier between Dauphine and Piedmont. Professor Wilkinson's expositiim noth of the diplomacy and of the manoeuvres is masterly 1.1(1 throws much new light on a campaign to which English storians have paid little attention. The French commanders In 1742-48 failed to defeat Charles Emmanuel partly because
Y were slow, but mainly because they were hampered by intractable Spanish allies and a foolish Government. Napoleon succeeded because .he had a free hand, because he moved like ,
Pitning, and also 'because he could profit by his -predecessOis', eXPerienee. The book equipped with number of really
. •
lent maps and should be read by every- serious student of NaPoleon's campaigns.
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