The Age of Napoleon, J Christopher Herold

An interesting history of Napoleon, but it goes off into tangents about a lot of things. It's organized by idea, so there's a whole chapter on the Spanish civil war, and a chapter on the colonial effects of Napoleonic rule, but it's not chronological; the author just assumes you know what happened when with Napoleon. That drove me nuts. Also the author doesn't think much of Napoleon or people who admire him; he spends most of the book explaining why those people are wrong. Which, fine, that's an interesting argument, but I just wanted a history of Napoleon.

Dear publishers of history books: HOW ABOUT SOME MAPS. Honestly. This book has one as a frontspiece which is the entirety of Europe with a dotted line showing where Napoleon went. That is not helpful! I meant to say this about Vienna 1814, but jeez, I don't know where the boundaries of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire were in the 19th century. HELP A GIRL OUT, PUBLISHERS.

Grade: C

Originally posted 2009