Napoleon's Wars

An International History, 1803-1815

By: Charles Esdaile

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 24 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

No military figure in history has been quite as polarizing as Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he a monster, driven by an endless, ruinous quest for military glory? Or a social and political visionary brought down by petty, reactionary kings of Europe?

In the most definitive account to date, respected historian Charles Esdaile argues that the chief motivating factor for Napoleon was his insatiable desire for fame. More than a myth-busting portrait of Napoleon, however, this volume offers a panoramic view of the armed conflicts that spread so quickly out of revolutionary France to countries as remote as Sweden and Egypt. Napoleon's Wars seeks to answer the question, What was it that made the countries of Europe fight one another for so long and with such devastating results? Esdaile portrays the European battles as the consequence of rulers who were willing to take the immense risks of either fighting or supporting Napoleon---risks that resulted in the extinction of entire countries. This is history writing equal to its subject---grand and ambitious.

©2007 Charles Esdaile (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Deft, authoritative, often strikingly counter-intuitive, this is the definitive word on the subject." ( Telegraph (London))

A thorough read, even for the casual history lover

This text shines a light on Napoleon, exposing the man, the myth, and the legend. Though it can be very dense in places, the work is approachable to readers who lie outside the professions of history and expertly communicates the great endeavors that were the Napoleonic Wars. Simon Prebble's delivery was, as always, stellar in all regards.

Fantastic Book on the Napoleonic Wars

If you study any of the subjects of this period, then this book you must listen to. It is well researched, fair in my opinion and fantastic on clear points of view. Worth ever cent to listen to this book and don't be scared by the length, it will fly by come to think of it I will listen to it again. This is my favourite book thus far, well non-fiction book on the subject of Napoleon. The next is Tim Clayton's 'Waterloo', which I believe you can get on Audible as well. Well worth the listen to both of these.

Only slightly marred by poor audio editing

As someone who previously knew next to nothing about Napoleon's wars, this was a wonderful first book on the subject. As other reviewers have noted, having a decent grasp of the geography of Europe - particularly Europe of the late 18th century - is helpful. If you have a general idea of what the map looked like prior to the first world war, you shouldn't have any trouble keeping up.

The reading is pretty solid. Some questionable pronunciations of foreign words should not be much of a knock on the reader in a book with such a variety of foreign place names. My main problem is the slightly distracting cuts between different takes. Often there will be a brief pause in the audio midsentence which is picked up with a clearly different recording, which usually very quickly cuts back after a few words. It's not awful, but if amateur podcasters can do better in their basement for free, I don't know why I should receive worse quality from a paid product.

Understanding the age and grasping the facts

This well-narrated and well-written book is giving me the background I need to teach a history-and-literature series on the aftermath of the American Revolution in Europe. The narrative has helped me begin to understand the confusing complexities of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Prior to this book, we read aloud and studied Unlikely Allies, The Great Upheaval, and of course Tale of Two Cities. In conjunction with it we are studying The War for All the Oceans (by Adkins) and Tolstoy's War and Peace (the latter using Audible's audiobook also). In addition, the Sharpe series by Cornwell is providing some additional relaxed level historical fiction as we read through those in order. Esdaile's narration is a pleasure to listen to. (I have a hard copy of the book but am a bit too busy now to sit down with it much, so the audio keeps me going; I drop in post-it notes at the parts I want to relate to my high schooler.) (By the way, I'm a veteran home school mother and a retired physician. All my children have loved history taught using this approach.)

A Terrific Tory History of Napoleon

The story of this up jumped warlord laying siege to an entire continent, opposed only by the brave and honorable British - flawed only by occasional missteps and their love of peace. Hear about how much of an awful despot Napoleon was, while ignoring anything about the despotism of his opponents.
The fact that this is a fantastic history is what makes this book so disappointing. I was hoping for a well researched and argued look at a fascinating moment in history. Something that manages to steer between the Napoleonic hagiography and anti-Napoleonic screed that so many books on the man are. This certainly is well researched and well written, but is quite poorly argued. Actions by Napoleon are outrages, the same outrages by the British are strategic moves. In fact, almost any British misstep is either quickly glossed over or blamed on rogues. Attempts by Bonaparte for a peace treaty are obfuscation designed to buy time for war. Attempts by his enemies for a peace are presented as proof that war was always Napoleon's fault. The author takes great pleasure in knocking down the idea of Napoleon as a progressive force in Europe, but nary a word is mentioned about the reactionary despots he opposed on the continent - all of whom history would render verdicts on in the succeeding century. And at various points we hear about how much both Hohenzollern and Romanoff monarchs truly despised war and loved peace.
Again, this is very well written and I should add that the narration is top notch. If you're familiar with the Napoleonic Age and would enjoy re-visiting it through a very British lense, I would recommend this book. If this is your first foray into this topic I would strongly urge you to look elsewhere.

So so

This book was just average. For the most part, I found it boring but at the same time, there are some other parts that I found to be very interesting especially the third part.

Exhaustive

If someone described this book to me I would be very excited and would anticipate reading something that I would really enjoy. Yet this wasn't one of my favorites. I really didn't think it was possible for history to be boring or indeed "too detailed." However, it became impossible for me to keep from zoning out at times while listening to this book.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if I were all ready an expert in late 18th century-early 19th century European History. That way I could keep all the names and places straight in my mind.

The most frustrating thing was the fact that I was really unable to tell what the truly key turning points in the narrative were. The author would go on and on speculating and dissecting each side's different points of view, taking a half hour to describe the events leading up to the outbreak of war, and then spend 5 minutes talking about the fighting. Esdaile wrote more in this book about the French and Indian War in North America than he did about Napoleon's return to Paris and the climactic Battle of Waterloo combined.

Every Part of the War - Excellent

What did you love best about Napoleon's Wars?

Great detail about the wars.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Napoleon.

Have you listened to any of Simon Prebble’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

All War - All The Time.

Any additional comments?

Read books on the French Revolution and Napoleon before you attempt this listen. Otherwise, you'll be irritated because the author doesn't get deep into background material. The title describes the content perfectly. This book would be 4 times the length if he tried to do it all.

Great history, confuSed by Title

Esdaile is thorough, very intelligent, and deep in period history. He makes some cautious psychiatric guesses on Napolean (Obsessive Compulsive) which are possible but out of character for the well sourced book.

I certainly agree with Napolean’s contemporaries on his superhuman energy, military and political genius, and impact on the planet. But Esdaile equal scholarship of Napolean leans the reader more toward a fast candle that burned out as a narciccistic tyrant, self-serving ego-maniac for whom personal wins “, subjugation of Europe and prestige — not France— were the overarching objective of his genius.

Napolean’s very well documented thoughts and behavior had me going so far as to comparing Napolean To Hitler and other some other Historic demigod-villains who horrified mankind, and were inspired at least in part by his Machiavellian ways.

I happen to know a number of individuals who actually have a diagnosis of narcissistic and historionic personality disorder. They act predictably, very uniformally and just like Napolean. We would be wise to keep them from a position of power, though I believe many those positions are taken— structured to assign and reward such people !

Last comment concerns the Title: Napolean’s Wars spend little time on battles, and a great deal of quality time discussing geopolitical and diplomatic causes and implications. Very well done on this count.

Not an international perspective

This book does not live up to the promise of answering the question, "What was it that made the countries of Europe fight one another for so long and with such devastating results?"

I expected an analysis of the allies, in the style of Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals". Or a study of the period and cultures, like Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror".

Instead, the first third is a litany of observations about the decade before Napoleon came to power, that only make sense to someone already familiar with that period of history. If you don't know the difference between a Jacobin and a Jacobite, or the Terror and the Directory, or the story behind a "whiff of grapeshot", you might as well skip this section.

The second section goes into more traditional historical detail about the peninsular war and skirmishes in South America, but they are typically brief and unsatisfying. Foreign ministers are named, and treaties are cited, but with scant detail about motivations or consequences.

The third section pays the usual homage to Napoleon's foray into Russia, interleaving a brief mention of the War of 1812 in the U.S. with the morbid accounts of the retreating French.

It is a thin sketch with few broad strokes, that doesn't provide an overall picture.

The main theme is that Napoleon's Wars were a product of a personal psychological and political need for continual military victories to maintain legitimacy. At every opportunity, when peace was possible and even achieved, Napoleon chose to pick new fights and maintain a perpetual state of war.

David Wetzel's lectures are a much better alternative to this book, such as History 162A - Empires, Wars, and Nations 1648-1914 - Fall 2012 UC Berkeley, available on iTunesU.