Napoleon a concise biography

This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context.
Napoleon: a concise biography / David A. Bell.
This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context.

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Publisher Description

This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context.

David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility--for both good and ill--that Napoleon represented. By his late twenties, Napoleon was already one of the greatest generals in European history. At thirty, he had become absolute master of Europe's most powerful country. In his early forties, he ruled a European empire more powerful than any since Rome, fighting wars that changed the shape of the continent and brought death to millions. Then everything collapsed, leading him to spend his last years in miserable exile in the South Atlantic.

Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued, and his success in mobilizing human and material resources. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have f

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Review of Napoleon: A Concise Biography, by David Bell

Without trying to be humorous, is there a bigger figure in history than Napoleon? His impact on 19th century Europe (and the world) cannot be underestimated, accounting for the sheer volume of works published on his life since his death in 1821. There are so many lengthy tomes that exist that would intimidate anyone wanting to choose a book to start understanding this complex man. David Bell has perhaps solved this problem with his latest work, Napoleon: A Concise Biography.

In only 114 pages of narrative, Bell rapidly traces the life and impact of Napoleon. This is no easy task. Napoleon’s rich and fascinating story from his birth and early years on Corsica, initial military exploits, his rise to power via spectacular victories on the battlefield, impacts on government and society, to his eventual fall from power is an enormous amount to cover in such a short space. Bell’s overarching thesis is that the French Revolution and emerging style of “total” warfare allowed Napoleon to make his mark on the world.

Bell d

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Napoleon: A Concise Biography

September 2, 2023

The life of Napoleon Bonaparte, as David A. Bell notes in this book, is one of the best documented in history. The emperor managed his vast domain by pen, which required him to write tens of thousands of letters, orders, and dispatches over the course of its existence. While in exile he dictated his memoirs, which were supplemented by numerous personal accounts of the people who fought and worked alongside him. These have been supplemented over the years by the recollections of ordinary soldiers and civilians, who lived through an era so momentous that recording their experiences seemed worthwhile. All of this has served as fodder for a host of biographies over the years, many of which require multiple volumes to do justice to their subject’s life.

Given all this, it almost seems folly to summarize Bonaparte’s life with any utility in the span of barely a hundred pages. Yet this is exactly the feat that Bell has pulled off. Drawing upon both published sources and the enormous literature on the era, he has constructed a sprightly a