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 enlarge | Author: Philip Dwyer
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $21.75
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Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 136941
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 672
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.9
ISBN: 0300137540
Dewey Decimal Number: 944.05092
EAN: 9780300137545
ASIN: 0300137540
Publication Date: March 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
Well Written Biography May 15, 2008
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a well written biographical account of Napoleon's rise to become absolute ruler of France, covering as much his psychological development as his political dealings and military victories.
 Detailed, Dense and Difficult May 12, 2008
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
Napoleon is somewhat new to me. Some how, I have managed not to read much about the man notwithstanding his immense historical importance. I thus looked forward to this work by Philip Dwyer.
Unfortunately, I made a mistake. To the neophyte, this is not an easy work. It is both dense and detailed. To the reader whose knowledge of Napoleon is broad, I have little doubt that this book is an enthralling read. For my part, I am embarrassed to say that I was easily lost. This is no work for the beginner and I believe this is good advice to those not steeped in European history of the 18th and 19th centuries.
 It helps that it's a fascinating time and person but an excellent biography April 24, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Phillip Dwyer's thesis is that Napoleon didn't just step into the French dictatorship by divine planning. There was a lot of propaganda, military tactics and shifting allegiances that went into his ceasing control of France. Even as he lost his naive perspective on politics and became a master player, he remained a Romantic in many ways, including the impetuous relationship with his wife who frequently cuckolded him. Dwyer's conclusion that his transition from lovesick romantic to man betrayed influenced him to become a much more powerful figure on the world stage freed from the need or desire to impress anyone may feel simplistic, but it also fits.
I find that the best chapters concern his youthful enthusiasm for Corsican politics and Corsican independence. His father's biography as a Corsican rebel and his own stories in which French soldiers are gruesomely executed by Corsican patriot contrast sharply with his own career as a French soldier. The increasing desperation he faces in Corsican politics which turns increasingly into a personality conflict serves as a learning experience - not only in tactical maneuvers but also as a warning as to what happens when you take an extreme position against potential allies.
The book lags a bit in the Austrian wars, but it gets better as Napoleon plays the French republic. Always an independent mind (he spent his early years in the army on semi-permanent leave), his career as a general shows him carving out his own fiefdoms.
One wishes that the author made more of the way his tactics in both battle and spin mirrored Julius Ceasar; or the influence of Machiavelli, but these are minor quibbles and besides the influence of both should be obvious to even the most casual student of history.
Of course, all is forgiven from the Austrian chapters when Napoleon invades Egypt and Dwyer describes how a combination of mismanagement and overarching ambition turned the region into a bloodbath. Napoleon could have won hearts and minds but his autocratic nature took hold and his inability to bend turned the whole campaign into a disaster. This not only has echoes in the present but also mirrors the later incursion into Russia which is a brilliant tactical campaign but ultimately a defeat.
This is a fine biography that should appeal to the current love of prequels and origin stories (much more than those wretched Star Wars films). Well worth the price.
detailed, informative, perhaps a bit dense for beginners April 23, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is an in-depth look at Napoleon's early years (so those looking for the more well-known and more glamorous Napoleon stories should look elsewhere or wait for his next volume--no Waterloo here). There is a lot to fascinate the lover of history, even and perhaps especially, those who think that know a lot about Napoleon. The military campaigns covered are Italy and Egypt, though they aren't really the focus of the book--this isn't simply military history. There is a lot obviously of what leads to those two campaigns, but also quite a bit on Napoleon's "spin" with regard to them. It's a dense book as one might expect for a look at only part of Napoleon's life and that part the least publicized. So it is not for anyone looking for a quick overview. And while the author at times gives a lot of context with regard to non-Napoleonic history, it's clear he's writing for an audience that comes with some general sense of time and place.
It's almost everything would want in a biography. It's clear, always easy to follow, detailed, balanced, full in its descriptions and explanations. If I have a complaint, it's that it doesn't really have that sweeping sense of narrative story I like in my history/biography. But that's more a personal preference than any true criticism. Those not looking for that will be more than satisfied. Recommended for anybody looking for an in-depth look.
Good but not light reading April 17, 2008
3 out of 14 found this review helpful
I'm not the hard core scholar but I enjoy reading about history. I have enjoyed reading some books on Napoleon's campaigns in the past and hoped that this book could provide some idea of how a middle class provincial kid could become the most powerful person in Europe. While it does that, it does so in more detail than I was able to absorb.
One thing I did appreciate was that Dwyer went to great lengths to separate the truth from commonly accepted legend and propaganda.
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