The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History

Have not been overly interested in the Napoleonic era, however, after reading A New World Begins: A History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin, (also an excellent book), my interest has grown. This book is truly a masterpiece in my opinion. Excellent and in depth coverage of the whole world during the Napoleonic Wars. The author kept my interest throughout 642 pages of narrative. I learned a great deal and learned how much this time period influenced the 20th century and into today. Highly recommended!!

I ordered this book because of a rave review in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs. I've just finished reading the entire book, which lived up to that review. The author's knowledge of the subject is amazingly extensive. The book is readable and engaging throughout and is well documented with 189 pages of endnotes.The book's very effective organization protected me from being overwhelmed by the complexities of simultaneous important developments in different parts of the world. In the portion of the book covering the period 1807 to 1812, separate chapters treated Napoleon's Grand Empire, the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia, the Ottoman Empire, Iran, India, and the Americas. Each of those chapters told an interesting and manageable story. I shudder to think how tedious and confusing that portion of the book could have been had the author elected instead to present but a single chronological sequence of events.My only complaint is with the maps, of which there are 29. Several are so small that the names of cities are unreadable without a magnifying glass. Some maps include shading that is too dark to allow names to stand out from the background.

If you are buying the hard copy, not the kindle, note that it is 935 pages, only 642 of which are text. One third of the book and 300 pages are notes, some substantive, some just cites to secondary materials. Not to criticize the author, but the publisher, but, In hard copy, the book is (at least for me) physically unreadable. A classic "doorstop" people will buy and find they do not want to pick up to read. Publishers hate the idea but books of this size should be published in two volumes.

There is no shortage of histories of the Napoleonic wars but none come close to approaching this one in its sweeping depth and scope. Mr Mikaberidze describes not only the critical events in Europe but shows that these wars had global ramifications ranging from the Americas to Asia. Excellent scholarship, fine details and refined reasoning, combined with well turned prose, make this new work not only the definitive reference but a wonderful joy to read. To quote the eminent historian Andrew Roberts, this is "... an instant modern classic".

I just received my copy and scanned through it. All I can say at this point is that it’s a Herculean effort. 250 pages of detailed notes and bibliography alone! I don’t know a great deal about the author, but this would be a lifetime effort for most.Not to be too much of a pedant, but I often consider the type size for ease of reading. This book’s is adequate, but I usually like it larger. That simple couldn’t be done here without transforming it into a 3 volume set. Again, to make another pedestrian observation, this is a superlative value for amount of information contained at the price. Purchase is justified, if only to have it as a reference text along side David Chandler’s work. But there is a far better reason. The author’s writing is very good and reading for pleasure is both easy and enjoyable.Postscript: Since first writing this review, I’ve read several more chapters at the other end. I can only describe it as brilliant. And it is probably the best value book I’ve ever purchased. I can’t recommend it too highly.

Most Americans when they think of the napoleonic wars at all think of the war of 1812 or waterloo. I have been reading about the napoleonic wars all of my life. Most histories of the period focus on the stars napoleon britain and France. Finally a history that reveals the true international scope of the wars. I now have a much better appreciation of the dilemma faced by the German speaking people. They did not want to be a part of the French empire but allowing Russia to conquer Europe was not appealing either. A greatbook.

This really was a fascinating read and should frankly be a five-star book. It paints a broad picture of the global effects of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars without getting too lost in details. As such, I highly recommend it to those new to the Napoleonic Wars as well as those thoroughly invested in the subject.Unfortunately, Oxford University Press did the author a huge disservice with their dismal editing. On average, I found myself getting distracted by grammatical errors probably every two or three pages. Lots of missing words, extra words, and grammatical number errors throughout the text. The editing is downright inexcusable. As such, I can only give it a four out of five.

This is a good, if somewhat exhausting, book. It reminds us that the Napoleonic wars had the aspect of a worldwide conflict. Thus by page 331 we have passed Napoleon's last major victory at Wagram and are ready for the Russian campaign. This picks up a bit later, at page 523! In between we read about conflicts in the north (Baltic), the Ottoman Empire and vicinity, Iran and the Caucasus, the Far East, and the Americas. The 50+ pages on the Ottomans describe a particularly convoluted series of armed conflicts, treaties made and quickly broken, and shifting alliances involving all the major European powers except Prussia, as Austria and Russia had borders with and competing designs on Ottoman territory, France had strong military ties with the Sultan's regime, Britain worried about the straits and about the French, and so on. You won't remember the details (at least I won't) but you will gain a new picture of the Napoleonic era and its lasting influence outside as well as inside Europe.

Wow... this book is global in its scale and for the most part achieves this aim. It begins with a description of how France fell into revolution and the pre-war general European situation really well. This high standard lasts, for the most part, throughout the rest of the book.It is Pro-Napoleon, which sometimes works in its favour for it makes it more balanced to the English reader, making you look at it more objectively but this sometimes doesn't quite work when he says that would Europe have been happier if Napoleon had won.I enjoyed his contention that Anglo-French aspect was just a continuation of rivalry between the nations that existed for over the last 100 years and this also ties into the approach of 'wars within the wars', with all the smaller conflicts between nations. I also learnt new information such as Tallyrands services to Russia or nuggets. That said, I did feel that sometimes more information would be better in the text (or at least as footnotes), rather than tucked away in the 200 pages of endnotes.Moving on to another negatives, some maps in the hardback version need a magnifying glass to see clearly. It is though a good general history, covering lesser known areas such as the Baltic or Sourh America in enough detail to give them exposure and an understanding to what impact the wars had to the regions.This structuring of chapters, (ie Spain 1808-1812, Baltic 1807-11) works well but sometimes might confuse the 'lay reader. For example when John Moore reappears alive and well in the Baltic many pages after he after he's died at Corunna. These detours to other regions means that by the time it returns to one campaign, you're struggling to remember where everyone was left.I found it perplexing that he paints picture of the British being the global superpower but Napoleon's naval buildup post Trafalgar was so close to altering the balance of power (if only he hadn't invaded Russia). This is an example of where the author is incredibly strong on politics, diplomacy and military but less sure on the maritime aspect of the war. He then in next chapter says how British sea power was decisive in India and the approach they took there (defeating rivals, diplomacy and patrolling) is what they did in Europe then and for as long as there were great powers, such as with Wilhemine Germany a century later. Whilst the empire was important, nothing was more important than the British Isles. Lastly, on the negatives, it was equally infuriating and amusing to read his (as an Amercian based writer) interpretation of the War of 1812.It may seem that I'm more negative towards this book than I actually am. I really enjoyed it, learnt some new information and didn't find any aspect of it dull, boring or repetitive. In fact, I would argue that the fact my main quibbles are with his arguments shows how engaging this book is. It's a wonderful book.

This is one of the most boring history books I’ve ever read. It’s content is just a load of names and dates, no flow to the writing at all

Really good read even for the well read napoleonic war readers.

This is a truly global history with an incredible amount of information but the writer manages to present it in a logical and highly readable fashion. I've always been interested in this period of history mainly from a European viewpoint but Alexander Mikaberidze's book opens up a completely new wide angle on how the situation in Europe had such a major impact on other parts of the world. The writer makes it clear early on in the book that, although he refers to the various battles which were so important, it is much more than a military history. It is the broad scope of his study that makes the book so fascinating. Absolutely highly recommended.

This, is a brilliant book.But first, I must specify what it isn't: The vast majority of books on the Napoleonic Wars are about how the wars were fought, or specific battles or campaigns. If you are looking for military details of all the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, well this book is NOT for you.The actual military details are pretty minimal, and even the great battles such as Austerlitz, Borodino and of course Waterloo get very little attention.On the other hand, if you want to know why the Russians and Austrians were often distracted by the Ottomans or Iran or India, or the impact of the wars on the overseas empires of France, Spain, Portugal, Holland (not to mention the Brits) or how the fact that Britain and the US were democracies with changing leadership, while most of the European nations were monarchies that had a consistent leadership through the wars, or why, frankly, all the European nations had rather skeptical views of the British, well this is certainly a book for you.For the first time, the politics, diplomacy, and economics of the nations involved in the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars is put forth in a very easy to read, and brilliantly researched bookThe actual text of the work is 642 pages, with another 190 pages of notes so you can see where the author is getting his information, and approximately 50 pages of select bibliography.The author has really done his research!I found the book to be a fascinating and very easy read. It clarified a lot of 'off stage' events that other books sometimes refer to, but never in this detail.I also found it to be a very even handed in reviewing some of histories most famous or notorious characters (looking here, not just at Napoleon, but Wellington and especially Tsar Alexander, Metternich and Tallyrand).To anyone who is interested in the political and economic backdrop that these wars were fought against, this book is indespensible.To anyone looking for military analysis: this is not the book for you!