Napoleon by David G. Chandler

Napoleon Reviews

• 
  Sebastian Palmer

  Brief but surprisingly detailed and comprehensive history of Napoleon's military career.
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed Chandler's history of Napoleon's life and military achievements. A quick, straightforward read, the book is short - a heavily illustrated 200 pages - and divided into just 6 chapters
  
  These are:
  
  Preparation and Promise - Napoleon's Corsican roots, and the beginnings of his youthful rise to prominence in pre-revolutionary and then revolutionary France.
  
  Italy, Egypt & Brumaire - Napoleon 's meteoric rise continues, as he makes his mark in Italy before embarking on and then abandoning an Egyptian adventure, eventually returning to France and intriguing his way to ascendency.
  
  The Years of Achievement - Napoleon's 'glory days', the founding of the myth of invincibility, and the seemingly unstoppable ascent of his 'star'. This section covers his most successful campaigns - Marengo, Ulm/Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Friedland, etc. - in the period 1800-7.
  
  The path to failure - Napoleon opens the Spanish 'ulcer', and then disastrously overreaches himself, irrevocably leading to his own ultimate undoing, by opening up a second (and massive front), taking on the Russian 'Bear'. Whilst this period sees Boney sow the seeds of his own destruction, it also covers the successful 1809 campaign against Austria.
  
  Defeat and abdication - The campaigns of 1813-14, and, of course the '100 days'. Europe finally pools resources, defeating Boney at Leipzig, and hounding him back into France. By now his enemies have adopted the best of French military measures, and have strategies for getting around Napoleon's wiles.
  
  Returning from Elban exile he tries one last gamble, which very nearly succeeds (it'd only have given a brief respite though, as war-weary France, short of men, horses or any further appetite for war, couldn't indefinitely face off a united Europe), but of course doesn't. It all ends, militarily speaking, with Wellington and Blücher at Waterloo, which for many British readers will also be where their interest began. It certainly was for me, in the shape of an Airfix 'La Haye Sainte' toy soldier set!
  
  Nap & His Art of War - The final chapter looks at Napoleon's character, and briefly sketches out his tactics and the tools of his trade, i.e. la Grande Armée, it's formation, history & structure, etc.
  
  Given the small size of the book, everything is covered only very briefly, and yet a heck of lot is covered, and there's a lot of very interesting detail. Perhaps this is not so surprising an accomplishment as it might at first appear, given that Chandler's greatest and perhaps best known work is his three-volume Campaigns of Napoleon, which he'd completed before writing this shorter work for the general reader.
  
  Charles Esdaile's more recent work Napoleon's Wars is broader in scope (but also much longer), and focusses more on politics and diplomacy, whereas Chandler, whilst acknowledging political (and other) dimensions, concentrates firmly, and in typical old-school military buff fashion, on the more traditional aspects of Napoleon's military story. I had read elsewhere that Chandler didn't like Napoleon and made that clear in his writing. Well, albeit that this is my first encounter with Chandler so far, he seems at least as admiring as he is critical, although he undoubtedly is both. To my mind Chandler gives a pretty well balanced view, if also one that's starting to look ever-more old-fashioned.
  
  In the long run many, myself included, will probably want to find out more about Napoleon's achievements outside of his military career. We'll need to look elsewhere for that. But as a short, comprehensive and easy-to-read military history of Napoleon's career, this seems to me a good pretty good place to start.
• 
  Gonzalo

  I read this book for the second time after watching Ridley Scott's movie. I got a copy from the library before we went to the cinema, but I waited to read the book until after. I imagined the movie was not going to be 100% to my taste, and having fresh in my mind pedantic historical rigor, like, I do not know, the year 1813, would be like welcoming unnecessary pain. But I was to talk about Chandler's book, not Scott's movie...
  
  There might be better books out there now, but considering that is book a bit over 200 pages, with wide margins and pictures, in addition to battle maps, I think it remains a great introductory book. If not that, it is at the very least a good refresher. Which is what I was looking for, because I do not have the energy to reread "The campaigns of Napoleon"... yet. There are roughly 150 pages of chronological events divided into 5 chapters that deserved to be read in one sitting each, plus a final chapter discussing his military skills. Being this brief, the book does a phenomenal job of linking the strategic and the tactical: it does not take that many pages to go from the initial moves of the campaign until we are are in the middle of the decisive battle (e.g. 6 pages between the crossing of the Rhine, and Austerlitz, counting pictures and a diagram of the enveloping around Ulm. Arm-chair general will complain about the lack of detail, but for those unlikely to reenact Waterloo on a table, this is a much better read that a listicle of "1815 historical errors in Scott's Napoleon". Truth to be told, there were a handful of things in the movie I thought there were artistic licenses, and Chandler gently put me back it my place.
  
  For those more interested in Napoleon the man, as opposed to the soldier however, this book might be disappointing. Very little is said about bedroom and court affairs, despite Chandler acknowledgement of Bonaparte's enduring legacy on the French and European political and legal systems.
  
  Again, a great primer on the subject, and a book that deserves a place in my physical library.
• 
  Rick Patterson

  While this is a technically clear foray through the life of Napoleon, it all seems rather arid and detached--at least, until we get into the details of some particular battle or another, at which time the Sandhurst don comes out in Chandler and he waxes prolix about the strategic movements of this or that part of the Grand Armée. That's all well and good, I suppose, but what I really want to hear are the stories--you know, that important part of histories--what happened to this or that person at such and such a time. A representative example is Chandler's handling of Napoleon's return from Elba and the beginning of the so-called 100 Days. I know enough of the story to remember that Marshal Ney was sent to round up his ex-commander-in-chief but could not do the job. Napoleon faced the troops who had come to arrest him and called out, "Soldiers of France! Here is your Emperor!" and more or less dared anyone to shoot him, at which point Ney threw his sword down and knelt in the street. It is a moment that exemplifies Napoleon's charisma, his bravery, his understanding of managerial practice under pressure, and his sense of himself as a leader--all of it is there and, it seems to me, would be useful fare for Chandler to help us delve into and understand the enormous complexity of the man. But not a word is mentioned in this book.
  Even so, as said, it is a great reference book, particularly in terms of a topographic understanding of the battlefields, but if you're looking for a biography in the proper sense of the word, you'll have to search elsewhere.
• 
  Jonathan

  An interesting enough book about Napoleon. I picked this up in a second-hand bookshop as I have been meaning to find out a bit about the man for quite a while. The book barely scratches the surface and concentrates quite heavily on his military career. This shouldn't be surprising as this book is part of The Great Commanders series and David Chandler is a military historian. It contains plenty of maps, paintings and political cartoons to help the general reader get a feel for the period.
  
  
  
• 
  Deborah

  Easy, concise overview of who Napoleon was and why he was important.