The Campaigns of Napoleon

If earlier European History in the dashing “Age of Napoleon” draws your interest, I again offer the clear master of the subject, David Chandler.

Beginning with Young Bonaparte’s apprenticeship in the art of war as an Artillery officer, you learn the battle experience that led Napoleon to one day assert that: “God is on the side of the one with the best artillery.” Chandler then recounts Napoleon’s Meteoric rise after the battles of Arcola and Rivoli and his exotic excursion to Egypt. Then, with the crown on his head placed there by his own hand, Napoleon Bonaparte became a living… show more.

This one is pricey, but is perhaps the best single source on war as carried out by Napoleon. Why does this matter? Because—less logistics, for the most part—we are still locked into an essentially Napoleonic system of making war. I love this book because the author was patient and thorough, didn’t take shortcuts, assumed the reader had a lot to learn on the subject, and taught just about everything there was to teach.

David Chandler’s Campaigns of Napoleon remains the very best overview with its brilliant scholarship, analysis, and writing. For each campaign, Chandler analyzes the dynamic among logistics, strategy, and tactics while explaining rivalries, wars, and alliances elsewhere across Europe and beyond. Campaigns of Napoleon is as great an epic and classic read as Tolstoy’s War and Peace.