Steven Englund's Napoleon: A Political Life

Throughout western history, there have been many rulers or emperors who have created an impact on society and how it is ran. In my analysis, I will be discussing the book “Napoleon: A Political Life” by Steven Englund in which the author discusses Napoleon’s political career from his early years to his death. Now when discussing Englund’s works, the language becomes complex and tends to ramble at times, but the compisition is usually good and easy to read. I believe it is strongest when viewing at Napoleon's political aspects and the nature of his government. However, his examination of Napoleon's international affairs, policies and diplomacy is stereotyped and he fails to highlight the number of key political figures and treaties. He blames Napoleon for the start of wars without full examination of the situations. In one instance (p. 623) Englund writes that "Bonaparte didn't have to drive England to war, but in view of what he did, England had to declare it" basically saying to …show more content…
I think that the author provides a clear, attentive view of France and Napoleons actions to it which leads into discussing about the emperor and showing his mistakes and rough areas of leadership. In class we discussed about the emperor Louis XVI who was known as a terrible ruler and didn’t handle France’s financial issues. He was a ruler who simply cared about himself and being rich. This relates to Napoleon since he was involved with the National Assembly which is one of the reasons he was dealing with the ruler’s mistakes of not taking care of the country such as peasantry and their education. I also noticed that the author often uses Julius Ceasar and Alexander the Great to compare it with how Napoleon learnt from his broad knowledge of history and identifies the common traits which are associated with such great leaders. In the book, he