J. Christopher Herold (1919–1964)

Best history book I've read for some years. Broad lines of Boney's blaze are of course familiar, but seldom so well told. Great range and compression of info, including hilarious character sketches of Europe's decadent royals, survey of the main political philosophies of the time ( brilliantly funny summary of Malthus and his 14 children!) and his impact on far-flung continents that he never went near. While nailing Nappy as an unprincipled opportunist, he also shows his energy and, not least, his prose style as elements in his success. But his eventual downfall was equally inevitable. Still remains amazing that anyone would come to his call after losing three armies.… (mais)

Overall a good read. The author, though, uses terms like "royalist right & Jacobean left" as throwaway lines & the people who lived in those days would not have understood what "right or left" meant as used by the author. The book is centered on Napoleon & his world & the dramatic changes he created & carried the French Revolution to its logical conclusion. The world that Europe knew before 1789 was no more which the Congress of Vienna failed to undo for Napoleon's shadow hovered over Europe long after his death, even more so he gutted France leaving it a mere resemblance of itself. His legacy as ruler exposed the ineptitude of Austria, incompetence of the Russian Romanovs, the seething bitterness of Prussia, & the dearth of leadership in Britain until Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. Napoleon's legacy which the rulers tried hard to ignore or undo continued its ripple effects until the eve of the First World War.… (mais)