Christmas and New Year Selection 2010-2011: an introduction
The festive season is upon us once again, and as is our wont around this time, we have put together a list of the recent Napoleonic releases from the book and digital media world. Whether you use the advice in our Christmas and New Year Selection 2010-2011 for your own personal reading over the coming couple of months, or as the basis for your gift-giving, you are sure to find something here to keep you occupied. All works are in English unless otherwise indicated.
Memoirs, correspondence & primary sources
BONAPARTE, Napoleon; KERAUTRET, Michel & MADEC, Gabriel (eds.), Correspondance générale de Napoléon Bonaparte : Tome 7, 1807 – Tilsit, l'apogée de l'Empire (in French)
The beautifully orchestrated meeting between Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit proved to be the defining moment of 1807. This seventh volume of the General Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Fondation Napoléon's “epoch-making” project to publish a complete collection of Napoleon Bonaparte's correspondence, covers that entire year and includes 3,020 letters, fully annotated by specialists of the period.
BONAPARTE, Napoleon; LENTZ, Thierry (ed.), Mémoires de Napoléon: la Campagne d'Italie (in French)
During the last years of his life, Napoleon set to dictating his memoirs. These texts should not, however, be confused with the memoirs published by his companions in exile, the success of which has often seen the French emperor's own account of his life left in the dark. Conscious of the remarkable nature of his career, he was not about to let anyone but himself recount and interpret his story. And so for more than five years, on the tiny island of Saint Helena, he oversaw a veritable factory dedicated to the production of history.
GLOVER, Gareth (ed.), The Waterloo Archive Volume 2: German Sources
German troops formed the majority of Wellington's forces present at the Battle of Waterloo including those of Nassau, Brunswick, Hanover and the King's German Legion, and they have left a large number of first-hand accounts of their role in the battle. Until now, very little of these sources have been published in English, therefore it is not surprising that early British histories of the battle have largely sidelined the achievements of the German troops, which has been regurgitated by most that have followed.
Military history
BLACK, Jeremy, The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon
In The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon, Jeremy Black provides an account of the war framed within a wider political and economic context than most American historians have previously considered. In his examination of events both diplomatic and military, Black especially focuses on the actions of the British, for whom the conflict was, he argues, a mere distraction from the Napoleonic War in Europe.
BURNHAM, Robert & McGUIGAN, Ron, The British Army against Napoleon: Facts, Lists and Trivia 1805-1815
Where else will you find not just the pay of different ranked officers but the amount of income tax they paid, as well as all the other deductions and stoppages that reduced their actual receipts to a fraction of their nominal (and generally quite low) pay? Or pension charts for widows? The material in these tables has been collected from countless primary sources and official publications such as the Army List, London Gazette, Wellington's Dispatches, regimental histories, artillery manuals, and handbooks.
GILL, John H., 1809: Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon's defeat of the Habsburgs vol. III Wagram and Znaim
In this third book, John H. Gill brings to a close his study of the 1809 war between Napoleonic France and Habsburg Austria. This final volume begins with the principal armies of both antagonists recuperating on the Danube's banks. As they prepared for the next encounter, important actions were taking place in distant theatres of war: Eugene in Hungary, Prince Poniatowski's Poles outflanked the Austrians along the Vistula, and future marshal Marmont drove an Austrian force out of Dalmatia to join Napoleon at Vienna. These subsidiary campaigns all set the stage for the clash that would decide the war: the titanic Battle of Wagram.
LIEVEN, Dominic, Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814
This book tells the story of one of the most astonishing dramas in Europe's history. In the summer of 1812 after years of uneasy peace, Napoleon, the master of almost the whole continent, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Less than two years later the Russian army was itself marching into Paris and Napoleon's empire lay in ruins. (Short-listed for the Fondation Napoléon history prize.)
MIKABERIDZE, Alexander, The Battle of the Berezina: Napoleon's Great Escape
In the winter of 1812, Napoleon's army retreated from Moscow under appalling conditions, hunted by three separate Russian armies, its chances of survival apparently nil. By late November Napoleon had reached the banks of the River Berezina – the last natural obstacle between his army and the safety of the Polish frontier. But instead of finding the river frozen solid enough to march his men across, an unseasonable thaw had turned the Berezina into an icy torrent.
PRICE, John-Allen, The War that Changed the World
The Franco-Prussian War is often a forgotten war, its significance lost amidst larger conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. But, whilst it lasted less than a year, its aftermath would shape the course of history for decades to come. In this comprehensive account, John-Allen Price explores how this short but far-reaching war came to be, bringing the men who shaped history to life. (Short-listed for the Fondation Napoléon history prize.)
ROUSSELOT, Lucien, Napoleon's Army 1790-1815
Lucien Rousselot is one of the world's most important military artists, having played an integral role in establishing uniformology as a true science. He was born in France at a time when the 1871 military defeat by Prussia was still very present in the psyche of the French people. His talent was equalled only by his modesty and commitment to his work. This level of dedication ultimately resulted in the marvellous watercolours and exacting narrative presented in this publication.
Peninsular War
CRUMPLIN, Michael, Guthrie's War: a surgeon of the Peninsula and Waterloo
George James Guthrie is one of the unsung heroes of the Peninsular War and Waterloo, and of British military medicine. He was a guiding light in surgery. He was not only a soldier's surgeon and a hands-on doctor, but he also set a precedent by keeping records and statistics of cases. While the innovations in the medical services of the French Republic and Empire have been publicized, a military surgeon of the calibre of Guthrie has been largely ignored by students of the period – until now.
ÁNGEL MARTÍN MAS, Miguel, The Guerrilla 1808-1814: Napoleon's Spanish Nightmare
This book is a complete guide to the Spanish Guerrillas who fought against Napoleon's troops in the Peninsula, with detailed narratives on the different fighting tactics used in guerrilla warfare, biographies of the best known leaders, information on the key battles. It is illustrated with many photographs, location maps and colour illustrations.
ROBERSTON, Ian, Martin Brown, An Atlas of the Peninsular War
This is the first comprehensive modern atlas of the Peninsular War, the series of campaigns in Spain and Portugal between Napoleonic France and British forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington. Here Ian Robertson examines and explains the sequence of battles and the course of the war through expertly drawn cartography in colour.
Society & culture
BLANNING, Tim, The Romantic Revolution
Three great revolutions rocked the world around 1800. The first two – the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution – have inspired the greatest volume of literature. But the third – the romantic revolution – was perhaps the most fundamental and far-reaching. From it derive virtually all the cultural axioms of the modern world: the stress on genius, originality and individual expression; the dominance of music; the obsession with sexuality, dreams and the subconscious; the public as patron; the worship of art and artists.
FOX, Celina, The Arts of Industry in the Age of Enlightenment
This book is about the people who did the work. The arts of industry encompassed both liberal and mechanical realms – not simply the representation of work in the liberal or fine art of painting, but the mechanical arts or skills involved in the processes of industry itself. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Celina Fox argues that mechanics and artisans used four principal means to describe and rationalise their work: drawing, model-making, societies and publications.
HOOCK, Holger, Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War, and the Arts in the British World, 1750-1850
Between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, Britain evolved from a substantial international power yet relative artistic backwater into a global superpower and a leading cultural force in Europe. In this book, Hoock illuminates the manifold ways in which the culture of power and the power of culture were interwoven in this period of dramatic change.
LHEUREUX-PREVOT, Chantal, Les Paysans de Napoléon: aspects de la vie quotidienne et des mentalités (in French)
This book proposes to answer the question, “What was life like in the countryside under Napoleon?”. Using enlightening anecdotes and personal accounts, the joys, hardships, hopes and fears of our ancestors are laid out before us in detail. Daily habits, personalities and sentiments all emerge from the source material to give the reader a detailed understanding of both the geographical and the psychological environment in which the protagonists lived. (Short-listed for the Fondation Napoléon history prize.)
Napoleon’s "troublesome" brothers
HAEGELE, Vincent, Napoléon et Joseph Bonaparte, le pouvoir et l'ambition (in French)
Using personal archives and a rich reserve of correspondence, Vincent Haegele investigates the upbringing of Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as their development during the Revolution, the Neapolitan experiment, the Spanish failure, and the dark days of the French campaign. Analysing the ties that bound the pair, this work is a fascinating history of two brothers whose lives were intimately intertwined with France's fate at the turn of the 19th century. (Short-listed for the Fondation Napoléon history prize.)
JOURDAN, Annie (ed.), Louis Bonaparte, Roi de Hollande (in French)
Louis Napoleon was, for the greater part of his youth, an obedient brother in awe of his more famous sibling. His unhappy relationship with the brilliant but superficial Hortense de Beauharnais simply reinforced Louis' rather uninspiring image given to him by posterity's extremely harsh critique of the Bonaparte family. Opposite the great Napoleon in all his genius and glory Louis the Melancholic certainly cuts a decidedly sad figure. The most passionate period of his life – his appointment to the Dutch throne by an emperor desperate to impose his system on Europe and defeat the British might – has almost been forgotten.
For the coffee table
CHANTERANNE, David & PAPOT, Emmanuelle, Napoleon: His Life, His Battles, His Empire
Napoleon: His Life, His Battles, His Empire includes twenty items of painstakingly researched facsimile memorabilia which give an insight into the mind of this extraordinary man who, from modest beginnings on the small island of Corsica, became Emperor of France and its vast empire. It examines the battles which made him a legend – Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram – and looks at his social and political reforms which revolutionized the western world.
BADEA-PÄUN, Gabriel, Le style Second Empire
This highly original book throws open to its readers the doors of the palace salons and private townhouses – including the Palais des Tuileries, the châteaux at Compiègne, Saint-Cloud and Pierrefonds, the Rothschild family's château at Ferrière, and Waddesdon Manor – which contributed to the splendour of the Second Empire and its international reputation. The work explores the birth and development of a new “art de vivre” which provided the spiritual basis for modern-day residences. (Short-listed for the Fondation Napoléon history prize.)
FREGER, Charles, Empire
The French photographer Charles Fréger has spent the last ten years photographing various groups of young people in uniform and in costume (such as musicians, workmen, athletes and majorettes). His “Empire” series concentrates on some of the most prestigious military regiments in Europe. This book forms a sort of encyclopaedia of military uniforms, all of them taken from battles of the Napoleonic period. The unity in the poses, framing, light and colours and the similarities in age and uniform between the models photographed allow Charles Fréger to emphasise the singularity, the individuality and the poetry of these young subjects in the album.
HARRAN, Nathalie, La Femme du Directoire au Ier Empire (in French)
With the French Revolution coming to an end, a breath of fresh air blew through French society, liberating it and its traditions. Fashion once again reflected the social evolution taking place, which included the status of women, hygiene, beauty, luxury, the creative arts, trade and politics – several themes that this study of the female fashion investigates. Richly illustrated with images of models in period-authentic costume, documents and period accessories, this book traces the fashions of the bourgeoisie, the artist, the prostitute, the Merveilleuse and the empress.
Digital media
CREATIVE ASSEMBLY & SEGA, Napoleon: Total War
Napoleon: Total War is the latest incarnation of the well-known “Total War” strategy series. This time around, players can play through three new episodic campaigns, taking command of armies on land and sea over the Italy, Egypt and “Mastery of Europe” campaigns. The game features fully integrated multiplayer modes and a complete set of online functionalities, as well as “Steam” achievements, gameplay bonuses, uniform editor and voice communications. Advanced weaponry enables new tactical options and even more exciting real-time battles on an epic scale, while the highly detailed environments and improved battlefield buildings guarantee a realistic recreation of famous historical battles.