Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire, volume I: Napoléon et la conquête de l’Europe (1804-1810) (in French)

 
This four-volume series retraces the history of the French Empire and effect that it had on Europe and a large part of the rest of the world during the period. The word “empire” covers a number of meanings: first of all its influences, in terms of ideas, culture and France's hegemonic ambitions. Secondly, empire brings with it its institutions: the French government, its structures, how they functioned and how they sought to conquer and organise the European continent and its populations. Integration, domination, sovereignty and annexation all played a part. The series looks beyond the emperor/consul figure and national viewpoints to describe and analyse just over ten years of European history. This first volume concerns the birth and evolution of the Empire, tracing the development of one of Napoleon's great projects: a hegemonic system to govern the continent.
 
The Nouvelle Histoire series
I Napoléon et la conquête de l'Europe (1804-1810)
II L'effondrement du système napoléonien (1810-1815)
III La France et l'Europe de Napoléon (1804-1814)
IV Les Cent-Jours (1815)
 
The Nouvelle Histoire series follows Le Grand Consulat, a study of the Consulate period, published by Fayard in 1999. Thierry Lentz was awarded the 1997 Fondation Napoléon history prize for a work on the First Empire.