Rating: 
Summary: Mr Attridge check the sources
Review: "Baronet" Hamilton-Williams (he also made up a title to go with his sources) needs to be taken with a big grain of salt. I sincerely recommend that you actually check his sources...yes his "conclusions" run counter to a lot of the opinions that currently exist..it's just too bad he has no facts to support any of his "conclusions".He even started signing his letters to me with "of that Ilk" below his name. As as Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society and the person who hosted the Debate on CNN on the poisoning of Napoleon, I can assure that "Baronet" Hamilton-Willimas "of that Ilk" has no credibility amongst scholars in the time period. George Nafziger has written some very detailed reviews of his work in which he goes through the source material, source by source...literally there is virtually nothing that is factual...when he cites carton number xxx at the archives national and then you go and look at the carton cited...there is nothing in the carton even on the same subject that he is using it as his source...he is absolutely incredible. He even used a letter which purported to be authored by David Chandler to write some introductions to some computer games on the Napoleonic Wars... He has since changed his name and is using just Williams and has authored some fictitous stuff on Nelson. Unfortunately the way the world works today publishers just run spell checkers on books...they don't check the facts...one recent book on Napoleon had more than 400 factual errors and was chosen by History Book of the Month as a featured selection. The Late Col.John Elting (Swords Around a Throne) wrote a review of that book which I paraphrase..."the index, helpful for once list both dates Josephine died, unfortunately, both are wrong..." Michael La Vean
Fellow International Napoleonic Society
Rating:
Summary: His Introduction Tells It All
Review: After reading the various pros and cons of this book, I thought I would take it for a spin from my local library. Unfortunately, for the author, he runs off the road in the first two pages. In this short space, he talks about how terrible it was that when Napoleon fell from power the great personal freedom(???) that the French people had was lost, onerous reparations that France had to pay, and how great social institutions were dismantled. Those three statements alone are enough to show that this author should be stopped for WWI (Writing While Intoxicated). As an example of the great personal freedom that the French people had he mentions that people were able to rise due to merit. Hmmm, I guess being a relative of Napoleon is meritous since that's all it took to become the king of Spain - even when Joseph didn't want to be the king of Spain. Titles and estates were given hither and yon simply for being a good general in the rape and pillage of innocent countries. Maybe the author meant free speech, but no there was none. Newspapers were closed. A printer *in another country* was kidnapped to France and executed for having the audacity of printing a anti-Napoleon pamphlet. Napoleon was the sole arbiter of plays, music, newspapers, etc.
The state was everything... the individual, nothing. Elections were fixed, his assistants virtual slaves. His secretary of ten years asked to leave due to health problems. His house was stripped, his reputation ruined, his ability to earn a living destroyed simpley because he wished to leave a job. Maybe he meant freedom of property or commerce. Confiscatory taxes were used to supply the army. If taxes didn't cover it, then you would supply a loan at the point of sword. If you asked for repayment... another sword point would meet you. After the taxes, the loans, and simple confiscation they would come and take what they needed including your son. In Poland, Napoleon got a mistress by threatening the countries nobles. Even if you weren't French, you could conscripted in to their army. There was no freedom of commerce. If you traded with England for anything, anywhere in the world, you were an enemy. Napoleon was genius, but a heartless, flawed, faithless and incredibly malicious and cruel genius.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a bad book
Review: As with this authors other work on Napoleon there are some mistakes, but given the sloppy level of "scholarship" that abounds in Napoleonic studies this work is hardly a candidate for historiological oblivion - despite the best efforts of the more hysterical and strident readers/guardians of the "truth" The author's take on Bonaparte is realtively one-sided, but, so what? That's not a crime. Perhaps buyers of this book could place it at one end of their shelf and Alan Schom's "biography" at the other with the truth falling in-between? Either way, more reading is always better than less. Buy this book and enjoy it, it's not bad. A Reader
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad book
Review: As with this authors other work on Napoleon there are some mistakes, but given the sloppy level of "scholarship" that abounds in Napoleonic studies this work is hardly a candidate for historiological oblivion - despite the best efforts of the more hysterical and strident readers/guardians of the "truth" The author's take on Bonaparte is realtively one-sided, but, so what? That's not a crime. Perhaps buyers of this book could place it at one end of their shelf and Alan Schom's "biography" at the other with the truth falling in-between? Either way, more reading is always better than less. Buy this book and enjoy it, it's not bad. A Reader
Rating: 
Summary: Clear, complete, compelling.
Review: Hamilton-Williams builds his book around original documents, including memos and orders. His view is as free of bias as one can hope, while building a compelling case against the Grand Alliance and for Napoleon
Rating: 
Summary: Challenging
Review: Hamilton-Williams places an entire new slant on the subject of Naploeons fall and uses his many sources well ( and provides warnings when the sources are not trustworthy ) most of his conclusions are viable on the evidence provided and well written. Half his problem are that a large amount of his conclusions destroy the assumptions that a large portion of Napoleonic historians make and like to continue to make and hence the backlash against him. His view of Napoleon essentially brought down from within is one that is gaining more and more acceptance and anyone who is prepared to cope with his partisan approach to the issue will enjoy and learn from this book. With regards to emphasis the book leans heavily on the undercurrents, political manouverings of this period and thus provides a fresh look on an overwritten subject. Excellant
Rating:
Summary: Redemption From The British Isles
Review: I have been studying the Napoleonic era for many years and have built up quite a library as a result. If I were obliged, however, to retain only one of them, it would be this one. The volume is so well-written and researched that one is surprised that history can be so riveting. Hamilton-Williams has indeed made the dry bones live. His other volume, Waterloo-The Great Battle Reappraised, is just as brilliant and profound. No one who reads these books will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Redemption From The British Isles
Review: I have been studying the Napoleonic era for many years and have built up quite a library as a result. If I were obliged, however, to retain only one of them, it would be this one. The volume is so well-written and researched that one is surprised that history can be so riveting. Hamilton-Williams has indeed made the dry bones live. His other volume, Waterloo-The Great Battle Reappraised, is just as brilliant and profound. No one who reads these books will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Sloppy Research or Sheer Fantasy?
Review: It was not for reasons of "sloppy research" that the publisher of this author cancelled the third volume. It was because the facts about both this author and his work became public knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Beware!
Review: See some of the reviews of this author's "Waterloo - New Perspectives". He is not all that he makes out to be and neither are his books.
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