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Hardcover Wars Against Napoleon: Debunking the Myth of the Napoleonic Wars Book

ISBN: 1932714375

ISBN13: 9781932714371

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Wars Against Napoleon: Debunking the Myth of the Napoleonic Wars

Popular and scholarly history presents a one-dimensional image of Napoleon as an inveterate instigator of war who repeatedly sought large-scale military conquests. General Franceschi and Ben Weider dismantle this false conclusion in The Wars Against Napoleon, a brilliantly written and researched study that turns our understanding of the French emperor on its head.

Avoiding the simplistic clich s and rudimentary caricatures many historians use when discussing Napoleon, Franceschi and Weider argue persuasively that the caricature of the megalomaniac conqueror who bled Europe white to satisfy his delirious ambitions and insatiable love for war is groundless. By carefully scrutinizing the facts of the period and scrupulously avoiding the sometimes confusing cause and effect of major historical events, they paint a compelling portrait of a fundamentally pacifist Napoleon, one completely at odds with modern scholarly thought.

This rigorous intellectual presentation is based upon three principal themes. The first explains how an unavoidable belligerent situation existed after the French Revolution of 1789. The new France inherited by Napoleon was faced with the implacable hatred of reactionary European monarchies determined to restore the ancient regime. All-out war was therefore inevitable unless France renounced the modern world to which it had just painfully given birth. The second theme emphasizes Napoleon's determined efforts ("bordering on an obsession," argue the authors) to avoid this inevitable conflict. The political strategy of the Consulate and the Empire was based on the intangible principle of preventing or avoiding these wars, not on conquering territory. Finally, the authors examine, conflict by conflict, the evidence that Napoleon never declared war. As he later explained at Saint Helena, it was he who was always attacked--not the other way around. His adversaries pressured and even forced the Emperor to employ his unequalled military genius. After each of his memorable victories Napoleon offered concessions, often extravagant ones, to the defeated enemy for the sole purpose of avoiding another war.

Lavishly illustrated, persuasively argued, and carefully illustrated with original maps and battle diagrams, The Wars Against Napoleon presents a courageous and uniquely accurate historical idea that will surely arouse vigorous debate within the international historical community.

Recommended

Format: Paperback

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We receive fewer than 1 copy every 6 months.

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
Can't Argue with the Facts...

Like it or not, Napoleon has been the victim of a 200 year old smear campaign that still exists today. For the simple reason that if Napoleon was right, then they must've been wrong, Britain (and to a lesser extent the rest of the Allied countries) have made it a top priority throughout the years to make sure people think it was all Napoleons fault for the violence of the early 1800's. And they are good at it. The Britons...

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Rated 5 stars
THE ENGLISH COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY WAR

The greatest threat to peace in Europe in the early nineteenth century was the British Cabinet. With its millions in subsidies it fought a mainly proxy war against France before Napoleon, and France under Napoleon. It was other countries that basically did the dying for British ends. England had been fighting France for decades and, still smarting over the loss of the American colonies, who won their freedom with crucial French...

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Rated 5 stars
LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEW

"According to these authors, it is a myth of the Napoleonic wars that Napoléon was a megalomaniacal conqueror who bled Europe dry in order to satisfy his insatiable love for war. Certainly, such is the most widely printed and accepted description of Napoléon's motive. After all, history is written by the victors. In this book, however, retired French general Franceschi and Weider (coauthor with Sten Forshufvud, Assassination...

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Rated 5 stars
Napoleon and his many accomplishments

I have just read the outstanding book titled, "The Wars Against Napoleon," written by Dr. Ben Weider and General Michel Franceschi. Placing Napoleon's civil, diplomatic and military accomplishments in the context of a European counter revolution, Dr. Weider and General Franceschi make a strong case against the widely held image of Napoleon as a war-loving conqueror. Instead they argue that Napoleon was a man of peace, forced...

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Rated 5 stars
Was Napoleon Really a 'Warmonger'?

The president of the International Napoleonic Society, Canadian entrepreneur Dr. Ben Weider has done it again. The world's foremost Napoleonic expert took on - and beat! -- the entrenched battalions of the "Napoleon-istas" (French academics who consider anything even remotely Napoleonic to be their exclusive "turf") with his 1982 book, The Murder of Napoleon, and the society's 20-page, 2004 report, The Poisoning of Napoleon:...

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