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Napoleon's Military Maxims
This classic work is a distillation of the knowledge, intuition and wisdom of one of history’s greatest military commanders.
Napoleon’s success was built upon practical experience combined with his own study of classical warfare and his natural grasp of the key principles of war. His thoughts and theories on the art of waging war are presented here in the form of accessible and readable maxims.
This edition also features additional contextual commentary by historians David Chandler and Beatrice Heuser, which allows modern readers to compare Napoleon’s principles with the experience of war today.
Napoleon’s success was built upon practical experience combined with his own study of classical warfare and his natural grasp of the key principles of war. His thoughts and theories on the art of waging war are presented here in the form of accessible and readable maxims.
This edition also features additional contextual commentary by historians David Chandler and Beatrice Heuser, which allows modern readers to compare Napoleon’s principles with the experience of war today.
- GenresHistory
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 30, 2023
About the author
Napoléon Bonaparte
1,672 books555 followersNapoleon I, originally Napoleon Bonaparte and known as "the Little Corporal," a brilliant strategist, overthrew the directory in 1799 and was proclaimed first consul and later Emperor of the French and king of Italy from 1804. His military and political might gripped Continental Europe, but after a disastrous campaign in Russia in winter 1812, he was forced to abdicate in 1814. Exiled to the island of Elba, he escaped and briefly regained power before ultimately being defeated at Waterloo in 1815. He was then exiled to Saint Helena, where he died of cancer in 1821.
Trained in mainland as an artillery officer, he rose to prominence as a general of the revolution and led several successes against the arrayed coalitions. In late 1799, Napoleon staged a coup d'état and installed for five years. In the decade of the 19th century, he turned the armies and dominated almost everyone through extensive alliance systems and a lengthy streak of major victories, epitomized through battles, such as Austerlitz and Friedland. He appointed close friends and several members of his family as monarchs and important government figures of dominated states.
Napoleon developed relatively few innovations, although virtually all large modern armies accept his doctrines that placed artillery into batteries and elevated the corps as the standard unit. From a variety of sources, he drew his best tactics, and he scored several major victories with a modernized army. Academies over the world study this widely regarded greatest commander of history. Aside from achievements, people also remember Napoleon for the establishment that laid the bureaucratic foundations for the modern state.
Trained in mainland as an artillery officer, he rose to prominence as a general of the revolution and led several successes against the arrayed coalitions. In late 1799, Napoleon staged a coup d'état and installed for five years. In the decade of the 19th century, he turned the armies and dominated almost everyone through extensive alliance systems and a lengthy streak of major victories, epitomized through battles, such as Austerlitz and Friedland. He appointed close friends and several members of his family as monarchs and important government figures of dominated states.
Napoleon developed relatively few innovations, although virtually all large modern armies accept his doctrines that placed artillery into batteries and elevated the corps as the standard unit. From a variety of sources, he drew his best tactics, and he scored several major victories with a modernized army. Academies over the world study this widely regarded greatest commander of history. Aside from achievements, people also remember Napoleon for the establishment that laid the bureaucratic foundations for the modern state.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 1, 2019
Great collection of Napoleon's military insights, which are also applicable to life! This edition has a helpful appendix at the end (most of the book actually) which gives examples of each maxim from the great military campaigns of history.
April 13, 2025
Any first-hand writing from Napoleon is simply fascinating.
August 7, 2022
This small hardback collects together 78 (I think?) maxims, of the man so often described, as indeed he is on the dust jacket blurb of this book, as 'history's greatest military commander'.
But, as noted by W. E. Cairnes in his introduction to the 1901 edition of this collection 'Napoleon ... frequently violated his own maxims, sometimes with success, sometimes with disastrous results.' Maxim XVI, for example, finds him pointing out that one shouldn't do what he did at Waterloo or Borodino: 'A field of battle ... which he [the enemy] has previously studied and reconnoitred, should be avoided', and 'never attack a position in front which you can gain by turning'.
But as Cairnes points out at another point in his intro, Napoleon's military genius was such he could as often achieve victory by burning the rule book as by following it. But it is perhaps sobering to note that where he went wrong he was usually contravening one or more of his own stated principles. Napoleon himself also once said, and his own martial career proved him right, that great military leaders usually have a limited shelf-life, in terms of unmitigated success.
The maxims themselves are pithy and intriguing, and nicely presented in the edition I have. Cairnes' turn of the century reflections - he looks at the then recent history of the Boer War through the lense of Boney's ideas - are also very intriguing. David Chandler's later intro is, one might say (a tad cynically, perhaps?), rather cursory, and possibly just an excuse to get his name on yet another interesting Napoleonic dust-jacket.
Although this is a lot less in-depth, nevertheless, I found it a lot easier to read and generally more satisfying than Jay Luvaas' ostensibly or potentially similar ‘Napoleon On The Art Of War’.
But, as noted by W. E. Cairnes in his introduction to the 1901 edition of this collection 'Napoleon ... frequently violated his own maxims, sometimes with success, sometimes with disastrous results.' Maxim XVI, for example, finds him pointing out that one shouldn't do what he did at Waterloo or Borodino: 'A field of battle ... which he [the enemy] has previously studied and reconnoitred, should be avoided', and 'never attack a position in front which you can gain by turning'.
But as Cairnes points out at another point in his intro, Napoleon's military genius was such he could as often achieve victory by burning the rule book as by following it. But it is perhaps sobering to note that where he went wrong he was usually contravening one or more of his own stated principles. Napoleon himself also once said, and his own martial career proved him right, that great military leaders usually have a limited shelf-life, in terms of unmitigated success.
The maxims themselves are pithy and intriguing, and nicely presented in the edition I have. Cairnes' turn of the century reflections - he looks at the then recent history of the Boer War through the lense of Boney's ideas - are also very intriguing. David Chandler's later intro is, one might say (a tad cynically, perhaps?), rather cursory, and possibly just an excuse to get his name on yet another interesting Napoleonic dust-jacket.
Although this is a lot less in-depth, nevertheless, I found it a lot easier to read and generally more satisfying than Jay Luvaas' ostensibly or potentially similar ‘Napoleon On The Art Of War’.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews