Winner of the J. Russell Major Prize, American Historical Association
Best Book on the First Empire by a Foreigner, Napoleon Foundation

"Englund has written a most distinguished book recounting Bonaparte's life with clarity and ease...This magnificent book tells us much that we did not know and gives us a great deal to think about."-Douglas Johnson, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Englund, in his lively biography...seeks less to rehabilitate Napoleon's reputation and legacy than to provide readers with a fuller view of the man and his actions."-Paula Friedman, New York Times

"Napoleon: A Political Life is a veritable tour de force: the general reader will enjoy it immensely, and learn a great deal from it. But the book also has much to offer historians of modern France."-Sudhir Hazareesingh, Times Literary Supplement

"Englund's incisive forays into political theory don't diminish the force of his narrative, which impressively conveys the epochal changes confronting both France and Europe...A strikingly argued biography."-Matthew Price, Washington Post

This sophisticated and masterful biography brings new and remarkable analysis to the study of modern history's most famous general and statesman. 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 explores the unprecedented power Napoleon maintains over the popular imagination.

About the Author
Steven Englund is a scholar of French history.

Reviews
Englund's book feature[s] brilliantly pyrotechnic prose and a keen appreciation of Napoleon's political instincts. -- David A. Bell * The Nation *
Englund has written a most distinguished book recounting Bonaparte's life with clarity and ease... This magnificent book tells us much that we did not know and gives us a great deal to think about. -- Douglas Johnson * Los Angeles Times Book Review *
Englund, in his lively biography...seeks less to rehabilitate Napoleon's reputation and legacy than to provide readers with a fuller view of the man and his actions. -- Paula Friedman * New York Times *
Napoleon: A Political Life is a veritable tour de force: the general reader will enjoy it immensely, and learn a great deal from it. But the book also has much to offer historians of modern France. -- Sudhir Hazareesingh * Times Literary Supplement *
Englund's incisive forays into political theory don't diminish the force of his narrative, which impressively conveys the epochal changes confronting both France and Europe... A strikingly argued biography. -- Matthew Price * Washington Post *
Englund's luminous prose, and, yes, his romanticism, allow him to appreciate a quality that was central to Napoleonic experience, but which has virtually disappeared from contemporary political life, namely, grandeur... By far the best biography currently available. -- David A. Bell * The New Republic *
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) has inspired countless films, plays and books-five biographies since 1997 alone. This one is a marvelous read, all 575 pages of it, even if you're not a historian. As a political biography, it looks at the man's motives rather than at the details of his battles... This is a sophisticated, often witty biography. Englund sweeps across a brilliantly crowded canvas with clarity and dash, and he enriches his own fine writing with Napoleon's pithy aphorisms and the tart remarks of his contemporaries. -- Barbara Black * Montreal Gazette *
It is Napoleon's politics, not explicitly his battles, that interest this biographer, who subtitles his study A Political Life... His is no narrow study of how those in politics operate, hang on to power, or scratch each others' backs... All things considered, this is the best of the recent crop of Napoleonic biographies. -- David P. Jordan * Journal of Modern History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780674018037
Author Steven Englund
Format Paperback
Page Count 600
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm