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 h[...]

In this second volume of Philip Dwyer s authoritative biography on one of history s most enthralling leaders, Napoleon, now 30, takes his position as head of the French state after the 1799 coup. Dwyer explores the young leader s reign, complete with mistakes, wrong turns, and pitfalls, and reveals [...]

'Napoleon's legend is so persistent that it confounds the historical reality in the popular imagination. He himself contributed much towards the construction of his own myth, from his youth even until after he fell from power, when, while in exile, he dictated his memoirs to a group of disciples who[...]

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Prussia was but one in a mosaic of German states, but it rose to be the unchallenged leader of German-speaking Europe after the fall of Napoleon. The book goes beyond the political, military and diplomatic concerns of the Prussian elite, whose record of eve[...]