Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803-1815

From the publishers
No other soldier has provoked as much argument as Napoleon Bonaparte. Was Napoleon a monster, driven on by an endless, ruinous quest for military glory – or was he a social and political visionary brought down by the petty, reactionary kings and emperors, clinging to their privileges? “Napoleon's Wars” is a book which has no doubt about Napoleon's insatiable greed for military glory, but it is interested in far more than that. Charles Esdaile is profoundly interested in a pan-European context: what was it that made the countries of Europe fight each other, for so long and with such devastating results. The battles themselves he sees as almost side-effects; the consequence of rulers being willing to take the immense risks of fighting or supporting Napoleon – risks which resulted in the extinction of entire countries. This is history on the grandest and most ambitious scale: a superb reassessment of a tumultuous era.
 
About the Author
Charles Esdaile is the author of The Peninsular War: A New History. He is Professor of History at the University of Liverpool.