Short resource list for "Confronting Napoleon" program.

The next program, coming up in just a few weeks, deals with Napoleon's impact on European culture.

It has been said that more books have been written about Napoleon than about any other man, except for Jesus Christ, and our extended reading list contains a number a massive biographies and histories that could keep the average reader busy for years. If, on the other hand, you are simply looking for relatively quick and painless ways to broaden your understanding of Napoleon and his impact on Europe, you might want to start with D. G. Wright's Napoleon and Europe (Seminar Studies in History series, Longman, 1984; 137pp), which combines 95 pages of balanced and concise narrative with a section of short document excerpts, an extensive bibliography, and a chronology. Alexander Grab's Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe (European History in Perspective series, Palgrave, 2003; 249pp; also available in Kindle format) provides separate chapters for each major country, clearly showing how Napoleon's impact was always a mixture of modernizing reform and Franco-centric exploitation.

For those who want to know more about the central figure of the age, Vincent Cronin's Napoleon (Harpercollins, 1995; 400pp) offers a balanced, but basically positive account of his life, without dwelling on the minutiae of his military exploits. Paul Johnson's short biography, Napoleon: A Life (Penguin Lives series, paperback 2006; 208pp; also available in Kindle format and as an audiobook) challenges the hero-worshiping view of Napoleon, seeing him as an essentially negative precursor to the traumatic era of European conflicts in the 20th century. PBS Home Video also has a four-hour documentary Napoleon (2000; re-released 2006 as part of the Empires series) available from Netflix or Amazon.

Two of our speakers have also made significant contributions of the history of Napoleonic Europe, with Steven Englund's Napoleon: A Political Life (Harvard U. Press, pb 2005; 600pp) and Juan Cole's Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave, pb 2008; 304pp; also available as an audiobook).

If you purchase any of these books (or any other items) through our Amazon link, a small percentage of the purchase price is donated to Humanities West, at no extra cost to you. A painless way to give.