Napoleon

by Michael Broers

Overview

Like volume one of Michael Broers’s magnificent biography, The Spirit of the Age is based on the new version of Napoleon’s correspondence, made available by the Fondation Napoléon in Paris. It is the story of Napoleon’s conquest of Europe—and that of his magnificent Grande Armée—as they sweep through the length and breadth of Europe. This narrative opens with Napoleon’s as yet untested army making its way through the Bavarian Alps in the early winter of 1805 to fall upon the unsuspecting Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. This was only the beginning of a series of spectacular victories over the Prussians and Russians over the next two years. The chronicle then follows the army into Spain, in 1808, the most ill-considered step in Napoleon’s career as ruler, and then through the most daunting triumph of all, the final defeat of Austria at Wagram, in 1809, the bloodiest battle in European history up to that time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643132334
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	1,135,767
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Michael Broers is a professor of Western European history at Oxford University. He is the author of The Napoleonic Empire in Italy, winner of the Grand Prix Napoleon Prize, and Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny (Pegasus). He lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

List of Maps viii

List of Plates ix

Preface xi

1 The Conquest of Europe I: The Humbling of the Habsburgs 1

2 The Conquest of Europe II: The Death of an Idol 67

3 The Conquest of Europe III: To the Edge of the World 156

4 Tilsit, July 1807: The Great Crossroads 236

5 Hubris: From Tilsit to the Spanish Rising 255

6 Hard Truths: From the Dos Mayo to the Austrian War 278

7 The Return of the Austrian Challenge 307

8 Sunderings I: Discarding the Past 346

9 Sunderings II: Discarding the Present 384

10 The Last Dawn 437

Acknowledgements 462

Notes 465

Index 501

Editorial Reviews

This masterly second volume of Michael Broers’s biography illuminates the middle years of Napoleon’s career. [Broers] brings out unforgettable details. His accounts of Napoleonic battles are suffused with the characters and psychology of their chief protagonists.

The Daily Mail (UK)

The great strength of Broers’s book arises from its detail, empathy, and even-handedness. He presents his information clearly and sometimes even lyrically. This is a serious work, the product of reflection as well as research befitting a distinguished professor of Western European History at Oxford.

Michael Dirda

Breathtaking. The best—and certainly the most original—scholar writing in this field writing in English. Broers succeeds admirably.

The New York Review of Books [praise for Michael Broers's 'Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny']

Breathtaking. The best—and certainly the most original—
scholar writing in this field writing in English. Broers succeeds admirably.

New York Review of Books

"Strikingly original." --English Historical Review

"Clearly written and well researched." --CHOICE

From the Publisher

Stimulating and genuinely innovative.

Times Literary Supplement

Broers delivers a well-told story full of action and insight, with the added power of Napoleon’s own words.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

The great strength of Broers’s book arises from its detail, empathy and even-handedness. He draws extensively on the newly edited volumes of Napoleon’s ‘Correspondence Generale,’ as well as the thinking of numerous contemporary scholars, whom he generously acknowledges. He presents his information clearly and sometimes even lyrically, though his pages nonetheless demand close attention. This is a serious work, the product of reflection as well as research befitting a distinguished professor of Western European History at Oxford.

Michael Dirda - The Washington Post

A fresh and highly intelligent look at Napoleon.

The Buffalo News

Clearly written and well researched.

CHOICE

Strikingly original.

English Historical Review