Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815 (Allen Lane History S.)

by Charles Esdaile (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $24.41

  No other soldier has provoked as much argument as Napoleon Bonaparte. Was Napoleon a monster, driven on by an endless, ruinous quest for military glory - or was he a social and political visionary brought down by the petty, reactionary kings and emperors, clinging to their privileges? Napoleon's Wars is a book which has no doubt about Napoleon's insatiable greed for military glory, but it is interested in far more than that. Charles Esdaile is profoundly interested in a pan-European context: what was it that made the countries of Europe fight each other, for so long and with such devastating results. The battles themselves he sees as almost side-effects; the consequence of rulers being willing to take the immense risks of fighting or supporting Napoleon - risks which resulted in the extinction of entire countries. This is history on the grandest and most ambitious scale: a superb reassessment of a tumultuous era.

• New

  Paperback
  2008

  $17.14

  No other soldier has provoked as much anger or as much fervour as Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he a monster, driven on by an endless, ruinous quest for military adventure - or was he a social and political visionary, brought down by petty reactionaries clinging to their privileges? Charles Esdaile's major new work reframes our understanding of Napoleon. Napoleon's Wars looks beyond the insatiable greed for glory to create a new, genuinely international context for Napoleon's career. The battles themselves Esdaile sees as almost side-effects, the consequences of rulers being willing to take the immense risks of fighting or supporting Napoleon - risks that could result in the extinction of entire countries and regimes.