First published 2014
Andrew Roberts examines Napoleon Bonaparte's transformation from an impoverished young officer into Europe's most powerful emperor. Drawing from thirty-three thousand personal letters and newly discovered documents, Roberts explores how the French Revolution shaped Napoleon's early ambitions and military thinking. The biography follows his meteoric rise to general at twenty-four, his complex relationship with Josephine, and his ability to convince revolutionary France to accept imperial rule just eleven years after executing their king. Roberts visited fifty-three of Napoleon's sixty battlefields and traveled to archives across multiple countries, including St. Helena where Napoleon spent his final days. The work covers his military genius that earned him the title "God of War," his political reforms that reshaped France, and his campaigns that redrew Europe's map. Roberts analyzes both Napoleon's greatest triumphs and his ultimate downfall, from the destruction of the Grande Armée in the Russian steppes to his defeat at Waterloo.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, military-history, 19th-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: military-genius, rise-and-fall
Setting: Europe, France, Russia, Waterloo, St. Helena
Period: 19th Century
976 pages · Paperback · Viking Pr