eBook

Napoleon and the Revolution

Jordan, David P.

2012

Overview

01 02 Napoleon was much more than a warlord consumed by vanity and ambition. He was the very spirit of the militant Revolution. Virtually everything he did during the fifteen years of his preponderance was derived from and linked to the French Revolution. Much of his hold over contemporaries was his embodiment of the aspirations as well as the boundless energy of the Revolution. Even his enemies, foreign and domestic, were fascinated by the man and uniformly saw him as 'the Revolution on horseback'. He fought off vengeful reactionary powers long enough for the Revolution to sink deep and permanent roots in France. The Allies who finally defeated Napoleon found it impossible to undo his subversive work - the genii of the Revolution was out of the bottle, and for good. Through his incessant table talk and dictated autobiography he focused the attention of posterity, inculcating his version of himself, events, and their significance. 08 02 'David Jordan has a clear thesis - that Napoleon not only inherited the political changes made possible by the French Revolution but inadvertantly helped to make them permanent. The book is written with a certain panache, and Napoleon emerges as a more complex figure than has been suggested by many of his biographers' - Professor Alan Forrest, University of York, UK 04 02 Preface Acknowledgements Prologue: Napoleon and the French Revolution Becoming a Revolutionary First Revolutionary Steps Italy the Imperial Revolution Egypt Power Entr'acte: Revolution and Empire The Weapons of Revolution Entr'acte: A Sighting in Jena Napoleon at Zenith Entr'acte: Napoleon and the Political Culture of the French Revolution Catastrophe and Decline Entr'acte: Napoleon Explains the Revolution Napoleon Brought to Bay Ending the Revolution Entr'acte: Reputation The End of the End Game Death and Rebirth Epilogue: Napoleon and the Revolutionary Tradition Appendix: Some Remarks about Arsenic Poisoning Notes Bibliography 02 02 This new study of Napoleon emphasizes his ties to the French Revolution, his embodiment of its militancy, and his rescue of its legacies. Jordan's work illuminates all aspects of his fabulous career, his views of the Revolution and history, the artists who created and embellished his image, and much of his talk about himself and his achievements. 13 02 DAVID P. JORDAN was born in Detroit, Michigan and educated at the University of Michigan and Yale University, USA. He is the author of books on Edward Gibbon, the French Revolution, and Paris, is a passionate chamber music player and lives with his wife and daughter in Chicago, where he taught for many years. 19 02 The book makes the argument for Napoleon as the inadvertent saviour of the French Revolution, a thesis that has not hitherto been argued in this way The story of his fabulous career stressing his cultural achievements as well as his more traditional political and military accomplishments The structure of the book, using topical chapters (the Entr'actes) to interrupt the chronological narrative not only distinguishes the work from the more conventional treatments of Napoleon but explores topics not usually tackled in biographies 31 02 A study of Napoleon that argues he was not merely the heir of the Revolution but its embodiment, and his career, largely inadvertently, preserved its principle achievements

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,Palgrave Macmillan UK
• Subject: 18th century / 18th Century History / 19th century / Biographies / c 1700 to c 1800 / Embodiment / Europe / European 18th Century / European History / France / France -- History -- 1789-1815 / France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Influence / French History / French history; Napoleonic history; the French Revolution; Imperial and Military history / French Revolution / History / HISTORY / Europe / France. bisacsh / HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century. bisacsh / HISTORY / Revolutionary. bisacsh / History of France / History of Military / Military history / Military History and Diplomacy / Modern History / Modern/18th Century / Napoleon I [Emperor] / Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 / Napoleonic Wars / Palgrave History Collection / Political history / Revolution / Revolutionaries / Revolutionary
• ISBN: 9780230362819, 0230362818, 9781137035264, 1137035269, 9781349348640, 1349348643