I grew up in Catholic Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s a time of rapid change just before the advent of the Celtic tiger. Experiencing such a transformative moment in the history of that island I became fascinated by revolution. With my Italian roots, I was always outward-looking and interested in just how interconnected European history can be. My work started with a book on the downward spiral of Louis XVI’s court in 1789-1792, but recently I became interested in how Napoleon exported the culture of the French Revolution wherever he went. Now I am preparing a book on Catholicism and the politics of religion during the age of revolutions 1700-1903.
In July 1809 Napoleon had Pope Pius VII kidnapped. For almost five years this Pontiff would remain the prisoner of the French Emperor. Napoleon had tried to heal the wounds of the French Revolution’s persecution of the Church. All seemed to be going well and in 1804 Pius even travelled to Paris to crown Napoleon Emperor of the French in Notre Dame. Soon, the French Empire started treating the Papal States like a vassal. Pius rejected alliance treaties with France and refused to appoint bishops to those territories controlled by Napoleon.
Unable to persuade the Pope through diplomatic means the Empire invaded his domain and took him prisoner. For five years Pius VII was bullied and asked to accept unconditionally the will of Napoleon. This gentle but resolute Italian Pontiff remained steadfast in his refusal to do so, thus becoming the French Empire’s most formidable opponent.
Hailed by most reviewers as the definitive biography on Napoleon. It is written by the doyen of Napoleonic studies at Oxford. Based on the meticulous research and the recently completed new & expanded edition of Napoleon’s letters. Despite this, Broers wears his erudition lightly and has written a gripping and page-turning life story of the man who changed Europe beyond recognition.
It is by far the most European biography ever written on the French Emperor. We all await volume 3 with great anticipation!
Napoleon Bonaparte: a man of intense emotion, iron self-discipline, acute intelligence and immeasurable energy. Michael Broers brings this remarkable man to life, from his dangerous Corsican roots to the epic battles of Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland. Here is the incredible story of how one man's sheer determination, ruthlessness and careful calculation drove France to conquer Europe.
This is the first volume of a revelatory new biography of the great ruler told with energy, style and brand new research. Here is the first life in which Napoleon speaks in his own uncensored voice - but not always as he wanted the…
This is by far the best single-volume history on Napoleon.
Forrest is one of the foremost experts on the French Revolution and its military in the world. He has written a readable and unromanticised account of the French Emperor’s life.
Particularly strong on the background, ideology, and wider forces impelling that man forward. A thoroughly enjoyable and captivating read.
From Alan Forrest, a preeminent British scholar, comes an exceedingly readable account of the man and his legend
On a cold December day in 1840 Parisians turned out in force to watch as the body of Napoleon was solemnly carried on a riverboat from Courbevoie on its final journey to the Invalides. The return of their long-dead emperor's corpse from the island of St. Helena was a moment that Paris had eagerly awaited, though many feared that the memories stirred would serve to further destabilize a country that had struggled for order and direction since he had been sent into…
A brilliant analysis of the downfall of Napoleon. It is based on unexploited archival materials from Paris and Prague.
It shows definitively that through the years 1812 to 1815 the allies on multiple occasions offered the French Empire generous peace terms. Napoleon for complex psychological and political reasons turned down repeatedly these overtures that would have allowed him to retain his crown.
Research and narrative at their finest, and it has the readability of a thriller.
On April 20, 1814, after a dizzying series of battles, campaigns, and diplomatic intrigues, a defeated Napoleon Bonaparte made his farewell speech to the Old Guard in the courtyard of the Chateau de Fontainebleau and set off for exile on the island of Elba. Napoleonic legend asserts that the Emperor was brought down by foreign powers determined to destroy him and discredit his achievements, with the aid of highly placed domestic traitors. Others argue that once Napoleon's military defeats began in 1812, his fall became inevitable. But in fact, as Munro Price shows in this brilliant new book, Napoleon's fall…
Bizarrely not many quality works on Napoleon’s exile and afterlife exist in English. It is much to Dwyer’s credit to have written a superb account of the stricken eagle’s exile on Saint Helena.
It depicts well how the reality of confinement contrasted markedly with the myth that was fostered by exiles. This is an excellent analysis of these humid days on the South Atlantic followed in the second half by a masterful analysis of how Napoleon became the new Prometheus and Christ for liberals who opposed the Restoration. A riveting read.
'Vibrant and illuminating ... [Dywer] tells a fascinating tale' The Times
This meticulously researched study opens with Napoleon no longer in power, but instead a prisoner on the island of St Helena. This may have been a great fall from power, but Napoleon still held immense attraction. Every day, huge crowds would gather on the far shore in the hope of catching a glimpse of him.
Philip Dwyer closes his ambitious trilogy exploring Napoleon's life, legacy and myth by moving from those first months of imprisonment, through the years of exile, up to death and then beyond, examining how the…
Admittedly this is not a book about Napoleon but about the architect of his defeat. Siemann spent decades in European archives producing a biography that would finally supersede that written by the Nazi von Srbik in the 1920s.
He accomplishes this task brilliantly by presenting a Metternich who is much more human, complex, uncertain, and more of a ‘dove’ in terms of geopolitics than anybody had imagined. It also does a fine job in rescuing the post-1815 Metternich from the condescension of posterity showing him not to have been the vicious reactionary of Cardonaro lore. It weighs in at seven hundred pages but repays the effort bountifully.
A compelling new biography that recasts the most important European statesman of the first half of the nineteenth century, famous for his alleged archconservatism, as a friend of realpolitik and reform, pursuing international peace.
Metternich has a reputation as the epitome of reactionary conservatism. Historians treat him as the archenemy of progress, a ruthless aristocrat who used his power as the dominant European statesman of the first half of the nineteenth century to stifle liberalism, suppress national independence, and oppose the dreams of social change that inspired the revolutionaries of 1848. Wolfram Siemann paints a fundamentally new image of the…
Noam Chomsky has been praised by the likes of Bono and Hugo Chávez and attacked by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Alan Dershowitz. Groundbreaking linguist and outspoken political dissenter—voted “most important public intellectual in the world today” in a 2005 magazine poll—Chomsky inspires fanatical devotion and fierce vituperation.
In The Chomsky Effect, Chomsky biographer Robert Barsky examines Chomsky's positions on a number of highly charged issues—including Vietnam, Israel, East Timor, and his work in linguistics—that illustrate not only “the Chomsky effect” but also “the Chomsky approach.”
Chomsky, writes Barsky, is an inspiration and a catalyst. Not just an analyst…
The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower
"People are dangerous. If they're able to involve themselves in issues that matter, they may change the distribution of power, to the detriment of those who are rich and privileged."--Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky has been praised by the likes of Bono and Hugo Chávez and attacked by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Alan Dershowitz. Groundbreaking linguist and outspoken political dissenter--voted "most important public intellectual in the world today" in a 2005 magazine poll--Chomsky inspires fanatical devotion and fierce vituperation. In The Chomsky Effect, Chomsky biographer Robert Barsky examines Chomsky's positions on a number of highly charged issues--Chomsky's signature issues,…
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