| View Larger Image | The Campaigns of Napoleon | Hardcoverby David G. Chandler (Author)
| List Price: | $85.00 | | Price: | $61.20 | | You Save: | $23.80 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Scribner | | Edition: | illustrated editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 1,172 Pages | | Publication Date: | March 01, 1973 | | Sales Rank: | 156,010th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Napoleonic war was nothing if not complex -- an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of moves and intentions, which by themselves went a long way towards baffling and dazing his conventionally-minded opponents into that state of disconcerting moral disequilibrium which so often resulted in their catastrophic defeat." The Campaigns of Napoleon is an exhaustive analysis and critique of Napoleon's art of war as he himself developed and perfected it in the major military campaigns of his career. Napoleon disavowed any suggestion that he worked from formula ("Je n'ai jamais eu un plan d'opérations"), but military historian David Chandler demonstrates this was at best only a half-truth. To be sure, every operation Napoleon conducted contained unique improvisatory features. But there were from the first to the last certain basic principles of strategic maneuver and battlefield planning that he almost invariably put into practice. To clarify these underlying methods, as well as the style of Napoleon's fabulous intellect, Mr. Chandler examines in detail each campaign mounted and personally conducted by Napoleon, analyzing the strategies employed, revealing wherever possible the probable sources of his subject's military ideas. The book opens with a brief account of Bonaparte's early years, his military education and formative experiences, and his meteoric rise to the rank of general in the army of the Directory. Introducing the elements of Napoleonic "grand tactics" as they developed in his Italian, Egyptian, and Syrian campaigns, Mr. Chandler shows how these principles were clearly conceived as early as the Battle of Castiglione, when Napoleon was only twenty -six. Several campaigns later, he was Emperor of France, busily constructing the Grande Armée. This great war machine is described in considerable detail: the composition of the armies and the élite Guard; the staff system and the methods of command; the kind of artillery and firearms used; and the daily life of the Grande Armée and the all-seeing and all-commanding virtuoso who presided over every aspect of its operation in the field. As the great machine sweeps into action in the campaigns along the Rhine and the Danube, in East Prussia and Poland, and in Portugal and Spain, David Chandler follows closely every move that vindicates -- or challenges -- the legend of Napoleon's military genius. As the major battles take their gory courses -- Austerlitz, Jena, Fried-land -- we see Napoleon's star reaching its zenith. Then, in the Wagram Campaign of 1809 against the Austrians -- his last real success -- the great man commits more errors of judgment than in all his previous wars and battles put together. As the campaigns rage on, his declining powers seem to justify his own statement: "One has but a short time for war." Then the horrors of the Russian campaign forever shatter the image of Napoleonic invincibility. It is thereafter a short, though heroic and sanguinary, road to Waterloo and St. Helena. Napoleon appears most strikingly in these pages as the brilliant applier of the ideas of others rather than as an original military thinker, his genius proving itself more practical than theoretical. Paradoxically, this was both his chief strength and his main weakness as a general. After bringing the French army a decade of victory, his methods became increasingly stereotyped and, even worse, were widely copied by his foes, who operated against him with increasing effectiveness toward the end of his career. Yet even though his enemies attempted to imitate his techniques, as have others in the last century and a half, no one ever equaled his success. As these meticulous campaign analyses testify, his multifaceted genius was unique. Even as the end approached, as David Chandler points out, his eclipse was "the failure of a giant surrounded by pygmies." "The flight of the eagle was over; the 'ogre' was safely caged at last, and an exhausted Europe settled down once more to attempt a return to former ways of life and government. But the shade of Napoleon lingered on irresistibly for many years after his death in 1821. It lingers yet." |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 40 reviews)
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Excellent book on Napoleon by Muzzle Loader Mike (Seattle, WA USA)  5 Stars
August 20, 2009
If you want to go beyond comic book type of books get some real information on Napoleon, this is your book... It is well written and the battle maps are some of the best I have ever seen.. It will take a couple of minutes to read at over a thousand pages...
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Must Have for readers of the Napoleonic Period by Andrew Franke (Shenadoah Valley, Va. U.S.A.) 5 Stars
August 18, 2009
Others have already stated that this is the definitive single volume book on Napoleon. I am merely agreeing with this assesment. The book is older and some recent research disputes some of the authors views. This is true of any history book that is more than ten years old. What is telling about this book is it is referred to in almost every bibliography from books on the period.
David Chandler is a superb historian and a remarkable writer. History books are often dates times and events without much else. David Chandler's books are not that way. He is a storyteller as well as a historian. He uses the facts and documents to craft the narrative that is compelling reading. It is NOT in anyway like a novel except in its ease of reading. Some may argue this point as it is a large volume. I found myself unable to put it down the first time I read it and when I had finished I started over at page one. I return to this book often especially when I am about to read a book about a specific topic on the Napoleonic Period. Reading Campaigns Of Napoleon gives me a backdrop to the book I am about to read. It will be a momentous day indeed when anyone publishes a work to rival this one.
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A constant companion by Nimbledon (Canada) 5 Stars
March 03, 2009
Utah Blaine's review is excellent, so another is probably redundant, but...
I bought Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon in the early 70s when I began reading voraciously about the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (inspired by Hornblower). Since then I have amassed a substantial library on the period, in which many of the books are very fine. Of them all this has been my constant companion, never far from my side, warts and all, for all the reasons that Utah so cogently laid out.
Now, sadly, after much hard use, my original copy is falling apart, so I'm retiring it to a place of honour on my shelf and ordering another.
It really is worth the price.
Thank you and RIP, David Chandler.
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A Must for every fun of the period by Evaggelos Charatsis (Greece) 5 Stars
January 27, 2009
I would rate this book as a Top 5 in my list of preference! It has all the details and necessary aspects that a researcher would look for, in this particular era. Together with "Swords Around a Throne", "Anatomy of Glory" and "Napoleon's Military Machine" i consider it simply as a superb masterpiece.
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Eleven hundred pages from Toulon to Waterloo by William S. Grass 5 Stars
October 20, 2008
Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon is a masterful compression of the Corsican's vast military career into "only" eleven hundred pages. After Toulon, we get the Italian campaign, and then a section on Napoleon's art of war. After that, it's one campaign after another, with descriptions of the political and diplomatic ramifications in between.
I have no complaint with the content of Chandler's work, but there were some editing issues such as misnumbered footnotes. That problem may have been corrected in a later edition.
The maps are better than usual, but Esposito's atlas should still be handy to augment Chandler. For the general military history enthusiast without a specific interest in Napoleon, Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon and Esposito's Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars are all that is needed.
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