Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars

by Albert Marrin

Follows Napoleon Bonaparte from his origins as a lowly soldier to his rise to military power and his conquest of Europe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, European History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Albert Marrin is a historian and the author of more than twenty nonfiction books for young people. He has won various awards for his writing, including the 2005 James Madison Book Award and the 2008 National Endowment for Humanities Medal. In 2011, his book Flesh and Blood So Cheap was a National Book Award Finalist. Marrin is the Chairman of the History Department at New York's Yeshiva University.

Reviews

[MatthewS F1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Napoleon, Soldier, Statesman, Emperor. He built an Empire, one of the greatest Europe had yet seen. His achievements are enough to fill an entire set of encyclopedias. All of Europe has once trembled before him. An entire 20 years of history have been named after him. He is the man that built modern Europe. Nowadays, it is hard to go anywhere in Europe without finding out about his great legacy: from military organization, to measurement systems, to tax collection, Napoleon is the one of many that built those sturdy foundations of Europe, and we should always remember him to be one of the great builders of civilization. That is the life of Napoleon: Soldier, Statesman, Emperor, one of many that built the foundations of modern civilization.

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read or skimmed a number of books on Napoleon, mostly YA books, and this one stood out as the best. I hadn't read anything by Albert Marrin, but I am impressed. He has written a number of books on authoritarian/dictator types, including Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and if those books are anything like this one, I will definitely be taking a look.

I appreciated Marrin's portrayal of the historical context, technology, and military methods, which helped make sense of Napoleon's rise and fall. What I appreciated most of all, though, were Marrin's clear eyed portrayal of Napoleon, including his deep flaws. He tells it all, including Napoleon at his most vicious, brutal, calloused, narcissistic depths. I walked away from this thinking of Napoleon as a brilliant, powerful, and shockingly evil man.

I've assigned this to my 12yo, as I want her to start grappling with authoritarian figures, and I want her to see the dark side of history's "great men."

Highly recommend.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Napoleon is the most inspiring person I have. To his quotes, to his actions, all of these are still an inspiration to me. Napoleon was a kid who wasn't always the smartest but was an admirable person, his father was a Corsican patriot fighting for their independence from France. He started his teenage years in France, he grew up underneath military influence. Joining the french military or the Armed Forces of France. He soon was promoted as Major Napoleon Bonaparte, then during the French Revolution during 1791, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, controlling most of Paris's Artillery and Troops. To figure out the rest, Id recommend for you to read this extravagant book. I hope you will like it, I recommend this for history fans or historians in training.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don't know the first thing about Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars (like me), this is an excellent book to go to. Author Marrin starts his story before Napoleon had even become a soldier, helping to set the political, economic, and cultural stage of France, of which it is so important to understand in order to grasp how and why Napoleon came to power as he did. I feel like the author also did a good job of straddling the line between detail and decency: I became acquainted with the horrors of war just enough to be genuinely grieved without the violent details being reveled in to the point of subverting the storytelling or forcing me to quit reading. This is a point in history that I am grateful to understand better.

The author doesn't try to hide his emotions or opinions about Napoleon and certain moments in his history, but I actually liked that. He still shared both sides (including why much of France still reveres him as a hero), but the honesty of his perspective helped me feel like a real person was sharing history with me, instead of feeling like I was just reading a politically-correct dump of facts. Let's be honest; even the 'fact dump' sorts of books are written by humans and therefore bound to be biased. When an author is honest about his feelings, I actually feel that I can trust him -more- than an author who feigns impartiality (especially when it comes to history!).

One might argue that this book is written for a school-aged audience, since it doesn't have the dense, complicated feel I usually encounter in adult history books. In my opinion, this is written both for the schoolchild -and- the average adult, especially if you (like me) are not well read in history. In fact, because the horrors of war are not hidden from this account, I would recommend a parent use discernment about whether their child is mature enough to envision these details.

At any rate, I loved this book and plan on sharing it with my son one day as a part of his education. Thank you, Mr. Marrin!

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Napoleon was a very powerful and influential man that took over as emperor of France after the revolution, he later goes on a campaign to take over the world. The author Albert Marrin perfectly covers his story by covering his early life following up to the take over and his militaristic campaign to take over the world. The book is set in post revolutionary France and the many places that were conquered in Napoleon's quest for the world. This book was very enjoyable to me however it was hard to get into at first as the book starts off slow with a party and back story. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading about history or military as this book covers both of these.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a preteen and again as a teen, and found it engrossing at the time. I've not read it in a long, long time, so I have no idea how it'd stand up as an intro to Napoleon nowadays.

[Mel Ro · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️. Easy to read and relatively entertaining, but too truncated. Some areas have so little detail that they’re very confusing. Overall, a good review of the highlights of the Napoleonic Wars.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about Napoleon Bonaparte. This shows his whole life starting from when he was born to his death. He was born on August 15, 1769. He was born in Corsica. That is an island south of Italy, His mother is Letizia and his father is Carlos. He was crowned December 2, 1804. He died May 5 1821, autopsy concluded that he died of stomach cancer. He said on his deathbed, "What a story my life would've been."

I cannot make a connection with the book.

I gave the book 4 stars because I thought it was interesting book. I really liked because it showed interesting parts like his coronation and his loss at Waterloo. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Biographies, or anyone who wants to earn French history.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found "Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars" to be a very informative read and feel I learned a lot about this famous (or infamous, as the case may be) emperor. This book contains plenty of first hand accounts, facts and dates all woven into a stirring historic account of the first modern dictator and delivered in a straightforward manner with an unbiased approach from the author.

"For whatever Napoleon did, his two main concerns were never far from his thoughts: power and war. In the end, they destroyed him." -Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -Lord John Acton, 1887

I recommend it to anyone who wants to get a good overview of the emperor Napoleon.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, interesting and informative.

[Caton Woll · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book Napoleon is quoted as saying "people are tools meant to be used and when unusable, thrown away." Seems like Napoleon wasn't a good person.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative. I learned quite a lot about Napoleon and his deeds/misdeeds that I didn't know.

[Anna7645 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great information, but for some reason I became a bit bored during the last 50 or so pages.

[Vincenzo Rascionato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise yet thorough biography.

[Cameron Butler]

Napoleon is an amazing character, becoming a general at a very young age. This book is based around the legendary Napoleon Bonaparte and his experience going up through the ranks. Throughout the book there are many descriptions of France and what the way of life was at that time. Thing like famine and currency as well as a corrupt government. This book is nothing like I've ever read. I tend to read fantasy or science fiction but Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars is a very large eye opener for different aspects of life throughout the world.