The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

I have a dozen of these short introductions, mostly in science and such topics. This is among the more difficult to follow. The concepts are not quite that hard to explain. The period of revolution and rising nationalism, end of slavery and all that follows in the 1800s is shared by all European nations. The section on the French revolution at the start attempted to summarize quite a lot in a few pages. All the nations involved in a short period are listed. What happened was that other kingdoms in Europe attempted to control France and take advantage to make gains of their own. All this could be explained with a few maps. There are no maps in the book. Illustrations show troops and Napoleon.The actual Napoleonic wars are a little more easy to follow, but again, no maps. I was most familiar with Alexander I and Napoleon prior to reading the book. These Russian adventures and the end game at Waterloo are the famous battles, there are plenty of precedent maps to follow. War coverage end on page 55 and the rest of the book has descriptions of the life of soldiers and sort of social history related to the war and a chapter on naval warfare. Some details rehash the material of the first 55 pages.The coverage of the 1800s in these books is rather spotty. You can buy a Short Introduction on Russian history and one on English history etc. But the century as a whole is not covered in any one short book in the series.I suggest a college text on European History, Western civilization or a historical atlas instead. There are also books covering democracy and political development that might help. In defense of the author, this is a messy period of European history, and you can't discuss Napoleon with France alone.Sorry, unlike many, this is not a keeper.

I very much enjoyed reading this very short introduction to the Napoleonic Wars. The book's title is SLIGHTLY deceptive in that it also covers the Revolutionary Wars that preceeded the Napoleonic Wars, but that is splitting hairs. The book is well written, and although it indeed helps if you are familiar with the French Revolution's particulars, it isn't absolutely necessary due to the orientation piece at the front part of the work. It is well written, both clearly and logically laid out. The book does not emphasize details of various battles, but being an overview, weaves the story of the various wars (and there were plenty of them) that immediately followed the French Revolution, and how those wars eventually reshaped the political and cultural landscape of Europe by about the third decade of the 19th century. I can highly recommend it as one of the very well done "Very Short Introductions" (I've read about ten to twenty of them at this point), and if you are interested in French history, its a must. Five Stars.

This judicious, well-written book provides a very good summary of the entire 1789-1815 period of European History (not just the later part dominated by Napoleon) Its main emphasis is on the complex political history of the period, with lesser attention to economic, social, and military history. It can serve well to refresh the memories of those who have studied the period before, to help to integrate and set in context accounts of particular parts of the overall story, or provide an attractive introduction. The Further Reading section at the back is an excellent introduction to many of the best books on the period and its individual aspects.The lack of maps is an unfortunate omission, particualarly for those relying on it as an introduction. It would have been better to leave out the illustrations (few of which contribute much) and replace them with a few well-selected maps.

This book hops all over the place and never creates a convincing and consistent narrative. Its chief theme seems to be that Napoleon was nearly always wrong while his opponents were nearly always right - especially, of course, Britain.Here is a peach on page 38 where the author seeks to excuse the fact that Britain was actually the nation to declare war in May 1803: '...the British could not fully abide by the Treaty of Amiens without giving Napoleon the scope to ignore his own treaty commitments.'He also ignores the obvious reality that European crowned heads did not stop organizing coalitions - seven in all - against post 1789 France, until they had put a Bourbon back on the French throne and hence ended the risks of French style Revolutions in their own lands. It was not so much Napoleon they wanted removed as what he represented - 'la carrière est ouverte aux talents', a career open to all talents, without distinctions of birth.Nowhere was this more true than Russia, which called Napoleon an 'anti-Christ' because he liberated Jews across Europe from their ghettos and gave them equal rights. Surely the more than 50% of Russians who were serfs would have been infinitely better off, if Napoleon had been victorious in his 1812 invasion and brought the Code Napoleon to that feudal society?

The little book that could in a short review just like the title says; provided historical review of what caused the Napoleonic wars. Concentrating in a summary form on the political history that led to the Napoleonic war; though some of it I disagree with probably due to the brevity of the book. It also looks at the economic, social, and military history though to a much lesser extent.What this book does brilliantly is to provide an attractive introduction in to this period, a good refresh, and an understanding of this period of time.The series of Very short Introductions by Mike Rapport is well worth the investment, for the Armature, and those looking to refresh their memory of the period that his books cover.I gave it 5 stars because it really disserved it in my humble opinion; it is an excellent Very Short Introduction

Have not read it yet so can't comment on the content but the print is very small, I would say stupidly small. I may return it if I cannot read it because of the small print.

I love these Oxford “Very short” introduction series to serious topics. They go a lot further than “introduction”, good books in their own right

Arrived on time. Very good introduction to an interesting period of history.

A very good book to review/research this topic,

Well written. Like the later chapters, after the chronological eventsList of further reading also helpful. Stimulates interest to explore further