Napoleon

This book is for the most part a collection of unsubstantiated opinions by an author who does not cite so much as one source to back up his claims. No reference list to be found. I highly recommend anyone interested in learning about Napoleon to look elsewhere. There are plenty of more objective books out there. Thoroughly disappointed in this very one-sided book.

My reasons for choosing this book: my world history background is weak, I wanted to fill in a crucial gap; I did not want to spend several months on a steamer trunk of a biography; I am a fan of the Penguin Lives series; I have read Paul Johnson before and know him to be a fine stylist in content areas that many writers lay waste with stultifying prose. I was not disappointed for the most part. Understandably, it is impossible to catch every fact, every nuance of Napoleon Bonaparte's life and ongoing contribution to history in just under 200 pages (one Victorian era writer dedicated 10 volumes to the man). Johnson limns the environment of the Enlightenment and revolution that was sweeping the western world and connects the life in terms of its how, why and consequences. He strikes a remarkable balance between the birds-eye view of Bonaparte sweeping through Europe and close-up personal sketches, the former conveying the formidably shrewd man of action, the latter revealing an often comic figure. It is to Johnson's credit that he reconciles the two in one body. Johnson is in no way forgiving of Bonaparte but he does invite wonder at how he rose up out of inauspicious beginnings, could seize a continent, only to make such glaring errors in strategy at Waterloo and ultimately die in exile on a distant island. The autopsy report is a final ironic twist. Johnson is not without his biases, but I got very good information from him via bright, fluent prose.

Written by the prolific British historian Paul Johnson, this small volume on Napoleon Bonaparte is part of the excellent new series of "Penguin Lives" which is a series of concise biographies of major historical figures written by distinguished writers. "Napoleon" is not a hagiographical account of the famous French general's life. Johnson is a historian who isn't afraid to make judgments and this account is one, which holds Bonaparte up to moral scrutiny and finds him responsible for the long series of wars that bear his name. The hardships that the continent of Europe had to endure and the loss of millions of lives are laid at the doorstep of "Le Emperor's" tremendous ego. Johnson clearly sees him as an opportunist who took advantage of the power vacuum left after the bloodletting of the French Revolution. Napoleon, like many 20th century dictators recognized that revolutions provided an opportunity for those who were ruthless enough to seize power. Johnson's Napoleon is a charismatic man but one who doesn't truly care for the men who won him glory and bore the brunt of his insatiable lust for power. The author succeeds well at describing the battles and campaigns that made up Napoleon's life and as usual, he is particularly adept at sketching the character of Napoleon's generals and ministers. The constant death and mayhem are enlivened by humorous anecdotes about Napoleon's love life, which was the subject of much ribaldry in the British Army, when they intercepted one of his love letters. Johnson does give credit to a man who, after all, rose from nothing to attain great power. As the Emperor of France, he did institute much needed reforms, some of which are still in place in the France of today, but more than anything, Paul Johnson sees Napoleon as a man who came out of the chaos of revolution to dominate an epoch and become a precussor to the bloody tyrants of the 20th Century - Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Hussien - who each built their cult of personality on the Napoleonic model. Jeffrey Morseburg

I enjoyed this fast moving and provocative book, which many who are familiar with Bonaparte evidently find controversial. Here is Johnson's summation: "The great evils of Bonapartism-the deification of force and war, the all-powerful centralized state, the use of cultural propaganda to apotheosize the autocrat, the marshaling of entire peoples in the pursuit of personal and ideological power-came to hateful maturity only in the twentieth century, which will go down in history as the Age of Infamy. It is well to remember the truth about the man whose example gave rise to it all." An excellent little book.

As Johnson himself observes, "Bonaparte has had more books written about him than any other individual, with the sole exception of Jesus Christ."So why another one?I think this book is unlikely to be read by hardcore Bonaparte students; it is short, with only a thin bibliographical essay and no footnotes. It never quotes from original sources.Instead, this is an introduction to Napoleon for the general reader. It's brisk, well-written and easy to read. It draws a very human picture of a flawed man of tremendous consequence, and lays out what some of those consequences have been: the reshaping of European geography, the Code Napoleon and the rise of the totalitarian state.

Paul Johnson has written a readable and interesting biography of Napoleon. It is obvious from the first page, that Johnson holds the French emperor in contempt. But, what is fascinating is that the writer does such a great job of establishing the case against Bonaparte. Any of the "great"(and short-lived) achievements of Napoleon pale in comparison to the destruction he brought to Europe. Indeed, during his pathetic exile, Europe returned to the political systems of the past. Johnson's book will encourage readers to further explore Bonaparte's life. Indeed, I am currently reading Will and Ariel Durant's The Age of Napoleon and beginning to agree with the shrewd insights contained in Johnson's book.