Napoleon was one of the great conquerors in history. Over the course of his career, he fought sixty battles and lost just seven, a record any general could envy. His battles, however, were not his greatest achievement. He ended the chaos in France after the Revolution and he established institutions that embodied the best parts of the Revolution and that have infused European life ever since.To this day, the Napoleonic Code is the foundation of European law.
Andrew Robers, in Napoleon: A Life, radically transforms our understanding of the man. In 2004, the Foundation Napoleon began publishing more than 33,000 surviving letters which Andrews used extensively in his research to paint a picture of an exceptional man who had charm, humor, and self-awareness. In his book, we discover the extraordinary general, tactician, and strategist who came very close to establishing hegemony over Europe between 1794 and 1811. More than that, we find a man who, though no revolutionary, republican or democrat, was committed to establishing the Revolution's ideas. Meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, and sound finances are among the ideas he consolidated, codified and geographically extended. To these ideas, he added rational and efficient local administration, the encouragement of the arts and sciences and the most extensive codification since the fall of Rome.After fifteen years of his rule, even the Bourbon restoration could not revive the Ancien Regime.
It is interesting that, unlike many conquerors in history, Napoleon did not seek to extend direct French rule in the countries he conquered. Instead, he implanted the Napoleonic Code and efficient administration everywhere he went, laying the foundation for the modern world.
Join us as we take a new look at Napoleon.
Andrew Roberts: Napoleon: A Life, 2014. This book has 811 pages. The reading per week is between 60 and 70 pages.