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Napoleon's Military Maxims
Slightly off-mint
- GenresHistory
257 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2015
About the author
David G. Chandler
63 books73 followersDavid G. Chandler was a British historian whose study focused on the Napoleonic era. As a young man he served briefly in the army, reaching the rank of captain, and in later life he taught at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. According to his obituary in the The Daily Telegraph, his "comprehensive account of Napoleon's battles" (his classic "The Campaigns of Napoleon") is "unlikely to be improved upon, despite a legion of rivals". He was also the author of a military biography of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and of "The Art of War in the Age of Marlborough".
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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