Napoleon: A Political Life
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Book Overview
Winner of the J. Russell Major Prize, American Historical Association
Best Book on the First Empire by a Foreigner, Napoleon Foundation
"Englund has written a most distinguished book recounting Bonaparte's life with clarity and ease...This magnificent book tells us much that we did not know and gives us a great deal to think about."--Douglas Johnson, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Englund, in his lively biography...seeks less to rehabilitate Napoleon's reputation and legacy than to provide readers with a fuller view of the man and his actions."--Paula Friedman, New York Times
"Napoleon: A Political Life is a veritable tour de force the general reader will enjoy it immensely, and learn a great deal from it. But the book also has much to offer historians of modern France."--Sudhir Hazareesingh, Times Literary Supplement
"Englund's incisive forays into political theory don't diminish the force of his narrative, which impressively conveys the epochal changes confronting both France and Europe...A strikingly argued biography."--Matthew Price, Washington Post
This sophisticated and masterful biography brings new and remarkable analysis to the study of modern history's most famous general and statesman. As Englund charts Napoleon's dramatic rise and fall--from his Corsican boyhood, his French education, his astonishing military victories and no less astonishing acts of reform as First Consul (1799-1804) to his controversial record as Emperor and, finally, to his exile and death--he explores the unprecedented power Napoleon maintains over the popular imagination.
Customer Reviews
Rated 5 starsAn Exemplary Political Biography of an Exceptional Man
Steven Englund's Napoleon: A Political Life (available in paperback from Harvard) is a book that should satisfy both the interested lay reader and the professional historian. It will satisfy the lay person because it tells a fascinating story about one of history's most interesting and influential human beings, and it tells it exceptionally well. In the process, the reader will gain insights into how a topflight scholar...
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Rated 5 starsLess political than you might think
I came to this book thinking that it would focus entirely on the political dimension of Napoleon's life. This is not the case. Napoleon: A Political Life might exclude the word 'political' from its title and be just as fitting, for Englund spends a great deal of time on Napoleon's relations with Josephine, his brothers, the exiles, etc.. In fact, in the introduction (at the end of the book), Englund states that he almost...
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Rated 5 starsExcellent
Centuries after his death, Napoleon Bonaparte still stymies biographers. What to make of this amazingly dynamic figure who forever changed the world around him? Is the French Emperor the prototype for 20th century fascist dictatorship, with a strong centralized state dedicated to iron hand rule over a subject populace? Was Bonaparte nothing but a vicious and petty warlord, whose own lust for glory and battle guided the...
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Rated 5 starsA flawed, but human Emperor
Breaking from the common theme of Napoleonic biographies, Englund ditches miltary strategy, tactics and love affairs, preferring to focus on the political man behind the throne. For Englund, Napoleon is not the idealistic conqueror, but neither is he the tyrannical imperialist. He is, instead, a work in progress, influenced and shaped not only by philosophers like Rousseau and political figures like Paoli and Robespierre,...
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Rated 5 starsa interesting biography of Napoleon
According Englund, Napoleon is not the tryant depicted in Alan Schom's biography, rather his is a pragamatic ruler that allowed a certain amount of judicial independence in France. Englund writes that only a small number of French citizens were actually imprisoned during the Napoleonic era and that judicial institutions would sometiemes overturn the government's decisions. Englund believes that Napoleon had a postive role...
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