This sophisticated and masterful biography, written by a respected French history scholar who has taught courses on Napoleon at the University of Paris, brings new and remarkable analysis to the study of modern history's most famous general and statesman. Since boyhood, Steven Englund has been fascinated by the unique force, personality, and political significance of Napoleon Bonaparte, who, in only a decade and a half, changed the face of Europe forever. In Napoleon: A Political Life, Englund harnesses his early passion and intellectual expertise to create a rich and full interpretation of a brilliant but flawed leader. Napoleon believed that war was a means to an end, not the end itself. With this in mind, Steven Englund focuses on the political, rather than the military or personal, aspects of Napoleon's notorious and celebrated life. Doing so permits him to arrive at some original conclusions. For example, where most biographers see this subject as a Corsican patriot who at first detested France, Englund sees a young officer deeply committed to a political event, idea, and opportunity (the French Revolution) -- not to any specific nationality. Indeed, Englund dissects carefully the political use Napoleon made, both as First Consul and as Emperor of the French, of patriotism, or "nation-talk." As Englund charts Napoleon's dramatic rise and fall -- from his Corsican boyhood, his French education, his astonishing military victories and no less astonishing acts of reform as First Consul (1799-1804) to his controversial record as Emperor and, finally, to his exile and death -- he is at particular pains to explore the unprecedented power Napoleon maintained over the popular imagination. Alone among recent biographers, Englund includes a chapter that analyzes the Napoleonic legend over the course of the past two centuries, down to the present-day French Republic, which has its own profound ambivalences toward this man whom it is afraid to recognize yet cannot avoid. Napoleon: A Political Life presents new consideration of Napoleon's adolescent and adult writings, as well as a convincing argument against the recent theory that the Emperor was poisoned at St. Helena. The book also offers an explanation of Napoleon's role as father of the "modern" in politics. What finally emerges from these pages is a vivid and sympathetic portrait that combines youthful enthusiasm and mature scholarly reflection. The result is already regarded by experts as the Napoleonic bicentennial's first major interpretation of this perennial subject.

In the dead of the winter of 1940, Hitler decided to return from its burial place in Vienna the ashes of Napoleon II, known as the "Aiglon," the only son of the emperor Napoleon. The gesture was intended to win the support of the French people, but only managed to precipitate a political crisis at Vichy, where Marshal P�tain ordered the pro-German Deputy Prime Minister Pierre Laval arrested. Based on new research and previously unknown documents, the author, historian Georges Poisson, at last sheds light on an incident most historians--including Robert O. Paxton--have been at a loss to explain.

The year 2003 marks the 200th anniversary of the Coronation of Napoleon, the military and political genius who rose from the ashes of the French Revolution to become the most charismatic and dominant leader since Alexander the Great. Lavishly illustrated, this volume includes rare and previously unpublished material, not only on Napoleon's stunning military victories but also on his astonishing innovations in government, introducing a powerful national bank, a well-organized code of law, universal education, an efficient civil service, public museums and more. Highlights of Napoleon's meteroic career and passionate romances with Josephine and other beautiful aristocratic women are recalled in more than 300 reproductions, including masterpieces by Jacques-Louis David (Napoleon's official court painter), through Jean-Louis Messonier and, in our own time, Larry Rivers. No previously published biography of Napoleon can compete with the combination of scholarship and elegant presentation that this book offers.

This Companion brings together 29 essays from leading theorists and historians on the origins of wars, their immediate causes and consequences and the mechanisms leading to the breakdown of peaceful relations. The essays are arranged thematically in four parts and include analysis of significant conflicts and consideration of long term, systemic conflicts and highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches to the study of war as a global phenomenon.