| View Larger Image | Napoleon: The Path to Power | Paperbackby Dr. Philip Dwyer (Author)
| List Price: | $23.00 | | Price: | $15.64 | | You Save: | $7.36 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Yale University Press | | Page Count: | 672 Pages | | Publication Date: | March 10, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 126,593th |
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
At just thirty years of age, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled the most powerful country in Europe. But the journey that led him there was neither inevitable nor smooth. This authoritative biography focuses on the evolution of Napoleon as a leader and debunks many of the myths that are often repeated about him—sensational myths often propagated by Napoleon himself. Here, Philip Dwyer sheds new light on Napoleon’s inner life—especially his darker side and his passions—to reveal a ruthless, manipulative, driven man whose character has been disguised by the public image he carefully fashioned to suit the purposes of his ambition. Dwyer focuses acutely on Napoleon’s formative years, from his Corsican origins to his French education, from his melancholy youth to his flirtation with radicals of the French Revolution, from his first military campaigns in Italy and Egypt to the political-military coup that brought him to power in 1799. One of the first truly modern politicians, Napoleon was a master of “spin,” using the media to project an idealized image of himself. Dwyer’s biography of the young Napoleon provides a fascinating new perspective on one of the great figures of modern history. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 60 reviews)
|
Interesting, Readable by oddsfish (Winters, TX)  5 Stars
November 20, 2009
This is the first book I've ever read on Napoleon, and so it is impossible for me to review Napoleon: The Path to Power on how it rates compared to other books on this intriguing person. Additionally, I'll confess to being a rather casual reader of biographies. When I do read biographies, I think I privilege readability. I, of course, want the work to be accurate, but I care that it is written in a compelling way, maybe even a novelistic way, more than on how well its accuracy is documented. For this audience, that is what I want.
So, it is according to that standard that I find Dwyer's work largely to be a success. It's readable, saturated with interesting anecdotes that demonstrate Napoleon's early figure and that illustrate the context that fostered his improbable ascension to the notorious role in history that we know. It remains readable despite being comprehensive (almost 700 pages--and ends when he obtains power in France). I did think that early parts of the biography are slow, up until the Egyptian campaign begins, but the source material is far too compelling not to be interesting overall.
So, this is a recommend work for the casual biography reader. I'm sure that it's a useful introduction to Napoleon's early life and rise to power for the more academically astute reader. It seems to balance the needs for those two audiences quite well.
| |
An immensely impressive study of Napoleon's formative years by Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA) 5 Stars
July 16, 2009
Before reading this book, I had no idea how little I knew about Napoleon Bonaparte. As such, I found Philip Dwyer's study of Napoleon's rise to power wholly fascinating. The man that emerges from these biographical pages is just that, a man. Dwyer does a wonderful job of separating the man from the myth, and I was surprised at just how human the Little General was in his youth and young adulthood. A competent military strategist, Napoleon's true genius is revealed by his unprecedented use of the press, specifically the written and illustrated word, to build a cult of personality to cast himself in the image of conquering hero and born leader of men that the people wanted.
Some readers may not even realize that Napoleon was not French but Corsican. Dwyer necessarily spends a lot of time describing the chaos of Corsican history at this time, particularly in terms of its incorporation into the French empire and the political winds that blew to and fro in the chaotic years of Napoleon's youth. Perhaps more surprisingly, Napoleon's early political ambitions revolved around his family, particularly his brother who was seen as the rising political star. It was only after the tides of fortune turned against his brothers in Corsica that he began focusing on his own possible successes. These formative years are crucial to understanding Napoleon's political mindset, for it was here that his development as an opportunist rather than a devoted ideologue began.
One thinks of Napoleon's ascension to power as a sort of historical inevitability, but such was clearly not the case. In fact, one could argue that Napoleon truly didn't internalize his pursuit of power until the Egyptian campaign, when he was finally forced to confront the truth of Josephine's infidelities. His successes in the Italian campaign can be seen as an attempt to impress her. It's almost embarrassing to read his lovesick letters to Josephine in these early years of their marriage, as her coolness and unfaithfulness simply emasculate this up and coming warrior as he pines for her out on the battlefield. Sometimes driven to the very depths of despair, such inherent weakness belies the image that Napoleon was building for himself as a military hero and leader of men.
Greatly exaggerating his military successes while minimizing his losses and setbacks, Napoleon gradually separated himself from the revolutionary government in Paris. As his carefully cultivated image made him a legend to the French people, the Directory proved increasingly ineffectual at controlling their brilliant young general from establishing his own political as well as military autonomy. Here was the wellspring of Napoleon's true ambition, one which would carry him to the heights of power.
Dwyer is eminently successful at separating Napoleon the man from the legend and revealing the very human qualities - both good and bad - that defined him. Napoleon: The Path to Power, 1769 - 1799 is an immensely rewarding work of history and biography, and one cannot help but highly anticipate the upcoming sequel, Napoleon: The Universal Monarchy, 1800-1821.
| |
Excellent first read on Napolean by Alexander (Massachusetts)  4 Stars
March 25, 2009
If you don't know a lot about Napolean this is a good place to start. However, the book only chronicles his early life up until he gained power. It does not cover the period of his reign or his eventual downfall. You'll need something else to fill in that gap. If you want a complete biography this book is not the right one. For that reason I took away one star. I'm not sure of this, but I think the author is working on a sequel.
What is covered is very comprehensive. Some criticisms of the book have panned it because it relies on anecdotes that are unsubstantiated. This is true but the author is upfront about this, let's you know what is unsubstantiated, and tells you how valid he thinks the source is. In this way the author shows how the "myth" of Napoleon developed and how it contributed to his rise to power. That was a major purpose of the book and in that respect it succeeded. In terms of comprehensiveness I would give the book 5 stars.
Overall the book is well-written. For that, I would also give it 5 stars. It's an easy read. In fact it reads more like a novel than an historical account. I took it on a trip and read most of it on a plane and on a beach.
| |
Excels in two historical niches by Michael Heath (North Woods of Michigan) 4 Stars
November 17, 2008
Highly recommended for two types of readers:
1) For students of Napoleon, this is an extremely important contribution. Dwyer fleshes out the transition of Napoleon the Corsican youth to the most powerful man in France in 1799 as First Consul; a path not even expected late into 1799 given Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, the person that solicited Napoleon's support, expected that designation. Dywer's most important contribution to this year is to strip away much of the propaganda that surrounds Napoleon to reach the true character of Napoleon; much of this propaganda was created by Napoleon himself to serve his political ambitions, which leads into the second niche Dwyer brilliantly services. . .
2) "Path to Power" serves as an excellent analysis of political ambition acted upon by a successful military leader. Military leaders who have political ambitions along with political scientists trying to understand how political capital can be developed by military leaders are both well-served.
The sometimes incredibly detailed deconstruction of previously reported falsehoods make this book a difficult read for general leaders who are probably better served with a more general biography of Napoleon; though I would argue to wait until other historians who write narratives of Napoleon have a chance to develop a work using the findings Dwyer lays out in this much more accurate portrayal of the young Napoleon and his rise to power.
| |
solid biography by Yalensian  3 Stars
September 19, 2008
I am a relative newcomer to Napoleon, having read only Paul Johnson's short biography in the Penguin Lives series, so I can't really assess Dwyer's arguments against recent scholarship and historiography, except to say that he supports his case with an impressive amount of research. Is the book written with the grace of David McCullough and Edmund Morris or even, to use a more academic example, James McPherson? No. But this is a readable academic-type biography, certainly worthy of the Yale imprimatur, and it whets the appetite for more about this imposing figure of European and world history.
| |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| The Reign Of Napoleon Bonaparte
by Robert Asprey (Author)
Robert Asprey completes his definitive, two-volume biography with an intimate, fast-paced look at Napoleon's daring reign and tragic demise with more of the personality and passion that marked the first volume of this cradle to the grave biography. In The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, Asprey showed us that Napoleon was not the father of chaos, but rather an heir to it. In this companion volume, we see Napoleon struggling to subdue the turmoil. We peer over Napoleon's shoulder as he solidifies...
| 
| The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
by Robert Asprey (Author)
Robert Asprey charts Napoleon's thrilling, reckless rise to power in this fast-paced first volume of the definitive biography of the fascinating, enigmatic, and still mysterious tragic conqueror. Ever since 1821, when he died at age fifty-one on the forlorn and windswept island of St. Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte has been remembered as either demi-god or devil incarnate. In The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first volume of a two-volume cradle-to-grave biography, Robert Asprey instead...
| 
| Caesar: Life of a Colossus
by Adrian Goldsworthy (Author)
As Adrian Goldsworthy writes in the introduction to this book, “in his fifty-six years, Caesar was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator . . . as well as husband, father, lover and adulterer.” In this landmark biography, Goldsworthy examines all of these roles and places his subject firmly within the context of Roman society in the first century B.C.
Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Caesar’s life...
| 
| Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815
by Charles Esdaile (Author)
A magisterial account of the wars that engulfed Europe during the rise and fall of Napoleon.
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 definitive account to date, respected historian Charles Esdaile argues that the chief motivating factor for Napoleon was his insatiable desire for...
| 
| Vienna, 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna
by David King (Author)
“Reads like a novel. A fast-paced page-turner, it has everything: sex, wit, humor, and adventures. But it is an impressively researched and important story.”
—David Fromkin, author of Europe’s Last Summer
Vienna, 1814 is an evocative and brilliantly researched account of the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modern European history. With the feared Napoleon Bonaparte presumably defeated and exiled to the small island of Elba, heads of some 216 states...
|
|
|
