Napoleon – Johnson Paul (2021)

From the acclaimed historian and bestselling author Paul Johnson – "a very readable and entertaining biography" (The Washington Post) of one of the most significant figures in modern European history: Napoleon Bonaparte. Few individuals have managed to influence history as profoundly as Napoleon Bonaparte. Although he was in power for only a decade and a half, his impact is still evident today, and many people continue to admire his indomitable will. One of the main theses of Johnson's book is that Bonaparte was not an ideologue but an opportunist who managed to exploit the historical coincidences of the French Revolution to rise to the pinnacle of power. He then unleashed the most devastating wars Europe had ever experienced. For the first time, mass conscription played a significant role in the enormous growth of armies, and entire nations clashed in battles. He birthed a new concept of total war, and institutions such as secret police, extensive professional espionage, government propaganda machinery, and the pretense of allegedly democratic procedures, elections, and plebiscites emerged. Johnson engagingly introduces readers to many facts about Napoleon's private life, whether it concerns his family, two wives, mistresses, or his exile and death on Saint Helena.