Monday, July 22, 2024

Napoleon - David Chandler


David Chandler is one of the most celebrated English speaking expert on Napoleon Bonaparte's life. His most critically acclaimed work on the subject is The campaigns of Napoleon, which contains a lot of military related details. Even though I'm not a fan of that side of the story, the life of Napoleon is an extremely interesting topic, as the Corsican was not only a military genius but also had a profound impact on European and world history, society, politics, law and culture. For two decades, between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, he was the dominant figure of European history, a bit like Caius Julius Cesar almost 2 millenniums earlier.
Unlike the aforementioned work by Chandler, this is a concise, informed and modern biography of the great French general and emperor, from his humble origins in Corsica to his exile to the island of Saint Helena. The book goes over his studies at the officer academy in Paris, all his campaigns, his private life and his achievements as a military and political outstanding figure. It ends with an interesting overview on Napoleon's art of war.
A good read for those who wanna know more about this important phase in European history but don't feel like reading a long and detailed work on the subject.

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