What do you think?
Rate this book
Napoleon: on War
This is the book on war that Napoleon never had the time or the will to complete.
In exile on the island of Saint-Helena, the deposed Emperor of the French mused about a great treatise on the art of war, but in the end changed his mind and ordered the destruction of the materials he had collected for the volume. Thus was lost what would have been one of the most interesting and important books on the art of war ever written, by one of the most famous and successful military leaders of all time.
In the two centuries since, several attempts have been made to gather together some of Napoleon's 'military maxims', with varying degrees of success. But not until now has there been a systematic attempt to put Napoleon's thinking on war and strategy into a single authoritative volume, reflecting both the full spectrum of his thinking on these matters as well as the almost unparalleled range of his military experience, from heavy cavalry charges in the plains of Russia or Saxony to counter-insurgency operations in Egypt or Spain.
To gather the material for this book, military historian Bruno Colson spent years researching Napoleon's correspondence and other writings, including a painstaking examination of perhaps the single most interesting source for his thinking about war: the copy-book of General Bertrand, the Emperor's most trusted companion on Saint-Helena, in which he unearthed a Napoleonic definition of strategy which is published here for the first time.
The huge amount of material brought together for this ground-breaking volume has been carefully organized to follow the framework of Carl von Clausewitz's classic On War, allowing a fascinating comparison between Napoleon's ideas and those of his great Prussian interpreter and adversary, and highlighting the intriguing similarities between these two founders of modern strategic thinking.
In exile on the island of Saint-Helena, the deposed Emperor of the French mused about a great treatise on the art of war, but in the end changed his mind and ordered the destruction of the materials he had collected for the volume. Thus was lost what would have been one of the most interesting and important books on the art of war ever written, by one of the most famous and successful military leaders of all time.
In the two centuries since, several attempts have been made to gather together some of Napoleon's 'military maxims', with varying degrees of success. But not until now has there been a systematic attempt to put Napoleon's thinking on war and strategy into a single authoritative volume, reflecting both the full spectrum of his thinking on these matters as well as the almost unparalleled range of his military experience, from heavy cavalry charges in the plains of Russia or Saxony to counter-insurgency operations in Egypt or Spain.
To gather the material for this book, military historian Bruno Colson spent years researching Napoleon's correspondence and other writings, including a painstaking examination of perhaps the single most interesting source for his thinking about war: the copy-book of General Bertrand, the Emperor's most trusted companion on Saint-Helena, in which he unearthed a Napoleonic definition of strategy which is published here for the first time.
The huge amount of material brought together for this ground-breaking volume has been carefully organized to follow the framework of Carl von Clausewitz's classic On War, allowing a fascinating comparison between Napoleon's ideas and those of his great Prussian interpreter and adversary, and highlighting the intriguing similarities between these two founders of modern strategic thinking.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
17 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 18, 2022
A glimpse into the mind of a master strategist, Napoleon: on War utilizes writings and correspondence from the emperor himself to piece together his lofty views on the nature and—in Napoleon’s opinion—necessity of conflict.
September 13, 2024
Read This way back when and it’s alright. Interesting to hear Napoleon’s war strategies straight from the horses mouth.
3/5
3/5
September 2, 2018
Very good book. Excellent use of On War as a medium for Napoleon's own words. Very interesting to see the arrogance, the intelligence, the education, the brutality, and the humanity of this man. Valuable words for any student of war. Some of his words still ring out as true, which is fascinating in and of itself. Worth a read for any military scholar.
April 15, 2022
Not an awful book but one that dooms itself from its premise. Colson has pieced together a book on Napoleon's strategies and philosophy from hundreds of works most importantly Clausewitz "On War" it by no means is a bad book and from taking notes from Napoleon's memoirs actually gives us a lot of insight into the Emperor's thought processes and his more ruthless aspects. The problem is that it can only draw upon so much because Napoleon himself never got around to writing a book on war or even had the interest in doing so particularly after his second exile.
A good book for understanding how the armies of France were so effective and Napoleon's own teachings on warfare but because of the subject it somewhat fails to live up to its premise.
A good book for understanding how the armies of France were so effective and Napoleon's own teachings on warfare but because of the subject it somewhat fails to live up to its premise.
Want to read
March 16, 2023118
January 17, 2017
Interesting book. Talks about Napoleon's views on warfare, hince the title. However it quickly transits into a comparison between Napoleon's view on warfare with that of Carl von Clausewitz in his classic "On War"; to the extent that the chapter titles and subjects in this book appear to be taken directly from Clausewitz.
Most of the information from Napoleon comes from his writings while imprisoned on Saint Helena and from notes taken by his staff during that time period. The remaining thoughts on war are excerpts from personal correspondence with his generals and his brothers.
Overall I give the writer an " A " for effort in combining all the information into one volume. Unless you are really into the tactical, operational, and strategic concepts of war this is not the book for you. Also, I would recommend that you have a working knowledge of Clausewitz before cracking this book open.
Most of the information from Napoleon comes from his writings while imprisoned on Saint Helena and from notes taken by his staff during that time period. The remaining thoughts on war are excerpts from personal correspondence with his generals and his brothers.
Overall I give the writer an " A " for effort in combining all the information into one volume. Unless you are really into the tactical, operational, and strategic concepts of war this is not the book for you. Also, I would recommend that you have a working knowledge of Clausewitz before cracking this book open.
July 27, 2015
What an ambitious project! This tome is not the kind of thing any writer puts together for money. It’s a labor of painstaking love and pride. Years were spent assembling Napoleon’s military ideas. Thank you once and thank you twice, to Oxford University Press and Net Galley for allowing me to preview the DRC. And of course, thank you to Mr. Colson for his effort.
The difficulty in publishing Napoleon’s ideas
more: http://seattlebookmamablog.org/2015/0...
The difficulty in publishing Napoleon’s ideas
more: http://seattlebookmamablog.org/2015/0...
November 13, 2015
Reading napoleon's writing (translated) in the framework of Clausewitz's work provides a fresh perspective on Napoleon's mindset. Not a book for reading about campaigns or histories, but rather the philosophy on the strategic and operational mindset. The amount of research behind this is self-evident even before you get to the pages of citations.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews