Napoleon’s Wars

No other soldier has provoked as much anger and fervour as Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he a conqueror or liberator? An aggressor or a victim? A sinner or a saint? Charles Esdaile’s compelling history reframes our understanding of this titanic figure, going beyond the legend that Napoleon himself helped create, to form a new, genuinely international context for his military career. From Spain to Russia, the Balkans to Scandinavia, Poland to Turkey, Napoleon’s Wars looks anew at the conflicts that lasted twelve years and claimed nearly two million lives, and the ruinous quest for glory that lay behind them.