I went to the library a few days ago and picked up Tom Pocock's The Terror Before Trafalgar | Nelson, Napoleon, and the Secret War. As a layman, and having previously read David Bell's The First Total War | Napoleon's Europe and the Path to Total War, Pocock's book has been a real eye-opener. He delves into the all-important politics, of the nitty-gritty that drove the conflict from both sides. Covering the period from 1801 to 1805, and describing the political events that led up to Trafalgar, it was a lot like following the politics of our own era.

It was ironic that the temporary "peace" led to un-employment in the English shipyards, leading English shipwrights to go to France to build ships for Napoleon!

One thing caught my attention early on; it was the several conflicts that later turned out to have been fought unnecessarily, and all due to the lack of rapid communication, such as we take for granted today. Like may laymen, I was aware of the famous delay between the peace agreement for the War of 1812 being reached in London, and the news reaching America after the battle of New Orleans had been fought, but had never before been made aware of this as anything but an isolated incident.

Likewise the Louisiana Purchase, which we Americans learn of as an isolated incident, "The French sold us the Louisiana Purchase." Learning that this was a necessary sacrifice of New France by Napoleon, and all because events did not turn out as he had planned, gave an interesting thought: What would America be like today, if Napoleon had not had to sell New France? I suspect there would be a possibility we'd all be writing in Francais right now!

Except maybe for the residents of New Spain, to the West of the Louisiana territory; they would obviously be speaking Spanish!

The detail of who, what, when, why, how reads like good journalism to my mind. Having so much of the events, both English and French so well fleshed out and detailed, puts a much closer perspective on those times, which were so influential in producing the present times.

I've read a few posts here mentioning Pocock's various work, and also Elizabeth Sparrow , who is amongst the many he credits with helping in producing this work "(Author of the ground-breaking Secret Service: British Agents in France, 1792 to 1815)".

Regards, John