Napoleon and the Awakening of Europe

Felix Markham

The meteoric career of Napoleon altered European history in manner equalled only by Alexander the Great and Hitler. Felix Markham here presents a straightforward narrative and a perceptive summing-up of an extraordinary ruler and military leader.

Ironically, Napoleon left no enduring political monument behind him. His dream of an United States of Europe evaporated – doomed by an unfavourable political climate still shaken by the French Revolution and queasy with nationalistic rumblings. And the costly wars, prompted by his personal ambition, led directly to the fall of the first Empire.

‘The greatest tribute’, the author thus concludes, ‘that can be paid to him is the fact that his personality remains, with all its obvious faults of character and judgement, potentially greater and more complex than his achievements.’

The cover shows a detail from ‘The Battle of Hanau (1813)’ by Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet, in the National Gallery, London.