Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive and incredibly detailed.
Review: A work of enormous scholarship. This is not really for the casual reader, but for those who truly want to immerse themselves in the subject. If you are looking for a concise history, look elsewhere. Chandler's main narrative is strong, but what separates him from others is his compulsion to tell you the details, asides, cross-references that others omit. If you want the full story, with no punches pulled, you will enjoy this handsome, easy-to-open work.
Rating: 
Summary: Great overall view of Napoleon in the Battle field
Review: Chandler in this book gives a clear and interesting account of Napoleon the General. The italian campaigns are richly described and come to life. Later campaigns seem less detailed or interesting... one campaign after another can tire the reader a little. Good maps and great narrative make this book great for the novice (like myself) and the expert alike. After reading this work I have become an ardent admirer of the amazing person that Napoleon was. Chandler shows very well how Napoleon was the mind behind the Grand Armee, his presence alone making the French invincible. When he did waver and slackened so did all his men. My only criticism is that some battles become to confusing to follow, but in general a very good insight into Napoleonic Warfare tactical and strategic, as well as the ways of the greatest commander of all times.
Rating:
Summary: There is Nothing Better
Review: Chandler's work is outstanding in everyway: readability, clarity of presentation, depth of understanding, and the ability to cogently offer it all up to the reader. This book is not for beginners, certainly, for it assumes a basic level of understanding of the Napoleonic era, geography, army organizations, and so forth. However, if you want to reading the single definitive study of Napoleon and his military achievements, this is the volume to own.
Rating:
Summary: The best single-volume history of Napoleon's campaigns.
Review: Chandlers' Campaigns of Napoleon is the best single-volume history of Napoleon's military genious with careful commentary on logistics, politics, and innovations. The maps are wonderful and easy to follow. Every American Civil War general studied Napoleon - you cannot understand the military background of the American Civil War without understanding Napoleon and this book is the way to do that.
Rating:
Summary: The Essential Examination of History's Greatest Soldier
Review: Could even Shakespeare have imagined the triumph and tragedy that marked the life of Napoleon Bonaparte?Like Caesar, Napoleon rose from obscurity and through sheer determination, utter ruthlessness, and all-consuming ambition to become the ruler of the most powerful nation on earth. And like Caesar, Napoleon's moment of triumph was short-lived, although the Waterloo campaign gave Napoleon the second chance his predecessor could only dream of. David G. Chandler is that rarest of historians who combines the dogged research skills of a born academic with the light writing touch of a master storyteller. While this work is enormous in both detail and scope, it is eminently readable, each page filled with the wonders of the Napoleonic Era. Far from pure biography, Chandler attempts to unravel the genius of Napoleon and explain the man and his times in terms even the military layman can understand. The longevity of this work (published 1973) attests to the success of this endeavor. This book is an excellent choice for the budding military enthusiast, the Napoleonic fanatic, or the reader who wishes to begin his introduction to one of the great captains of history with the finest monograph ever published on the subject. Lavishly illustrated with maps, photographs, and drawings, you'll find The Campaigns of Napoleon to be simply the most accessible work on on of history's great men. Vive L'Empereur! Vive Chandler!
Rating:
Summary: The Campaigns of Napoleon: The Classic Work on the Subject!
Review: David Chandler is the premier British historian on the military history of Napoleon (1769-1821). Napoleon was a Corsican who was perhaps the greatest field general in the long and sanguinary history of warfare.
Chandler's book is expensive to purchase, exhaustive to read and it quite simply the sine qua non on where to begin your serious study of Napoleon.
What a man the Emperor of France was! A military genius who could be very cruel and merciful. A tireless workaholic whose military genius burns brightly in the annals of history.
Chandler's work is replete with maps and illustrations from the Napoleonic era. His writing is clear and easy to follow. The chapter on Napoleon's strategical genius is outstanding. All of the 60 major battles are covered.
As a longtime Civil War buff jaded from reading my umpteeth account of Gettysburg I found much of interest in Chandler's
work. This work will be worth your well earned money! It is essential to add to your Napoleonic bookshelf!
Rating:
Summary: The Campaigns of Napoleon: The Classic Work on the Subject!
Review: David Chandler is the premier British historian on the military history of Napoleon (1769-1821). Napoleon was a Corsican who was perhaps the greatest field general in the long and sanguinary history of warfare.
Chandler's book is expensive to purchase, exhaustive to read and it quite simply the sine qua non on where to begin your serious study of Napoleon.
What a man the Emperor of France was! A military genius who could be very cruel and merciful. A tireless workaholic whose military genius burns brightly in the annals of history.
Chandler's work is replete with maps and illustrations from the Napoleonic era. His writing is clear and easy to follow. The chapter on Napoleon's strategical genius is outstanding. All of the 60 major battles are covered.
As a longtime Civil War buff jaded from reading my umpteeth account of Gettysburg I found much of interest in Chandler's
work. This work will be worth your well earned money! It is essential to add to your Napoleonic bookshelf!
Rating:
Summary: A thorough survey of the Napoleon's campaigns
Review: David Chandler provides a thorough review of Napoleon's 60 battles. He demonstrates that Napoleon, while not an innovator in tactics, was nonetheless a master of innovations developed by others and was capable of great innovation. The subject, of course, is extremely broad, and as long as this book is, it could have been much longer. Chandler omits a great deal of biographical detail about Napoleon to concentrate on his development as a military leader. Indeed, if you find this book too long to read or expensive to buy, I suggest getting a copy from the library and just reading the chapter that gives an overview for how Napoleon went about conducting his campaigns. I do not agree with those who say that Chandler exhibits a British bias. He clearly sees Napoleon as the greatest military leader of his time, and perhaps of all time. In other writings, he has soundly rejected comparisons made by other historians between Hitler and Napoleon. Moreover, he makes clear that, at least in the early years of his leadership, Napoleon was not to blame for the wars that engulfed Europe. Finally, despite the length of the book, I found it to be extremely readable, and not hard to finish at all.
Rating:
Summary: A thorough survey of the Napoleon's campaigns
Review: David Chandler provides a thorough review of Napoleon's 60 battles. He demonstrates that Napoleon, while not an innovator in tactics, was nonetheless a master of innovations developed by others and was capable of great innovation. The subject, of course, is extremely broad, and as long as this book is, it could have been much longer. Chandler omits a great deal of biographical detail about Napoleon to concentrate on his development as a military leader. Indeed, if you find this book too long to read or expensive to buy, I suggest getting a copy from the library and just reading the chapter that gives an overview for how Napoleon went about conducting his campaigns. I do not agree with those who say that Chandler exhibits a British bias. He clearly sees Napoleon as the greatest military leader of his time, and perhaps of all time. In other writings, he has soundly rejected comparisons made by other historians between Hitler and Napoleon. Moreover, he makes clear that, at least in the early years of his leadership, Napoleon was not to blame for the wars that engulfed Europe. Finally, despite the length of the book, I found it to be extremely readable, and not hard to finish at all.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the great historical con jobs in historiography
Review: David Chandler, former teacher at the British Military Academy at Sandhurst is often called one of the foremost Napoleonic scholars of modern times. His monumental tome, The Campaigns of Napoleon is hailed as the single best work of its kind and is the work most frequently refered to by lay people. Sadly, this overly and overtly pro-British goliath is filled with a multitude of crucial erors, omissions and misleading statements designed to convice the reader of one of Chandler's main themes; that Napoleon Boboparte was or became insane. Space precludes listing the vast number of mistakes in the book, but a few should suffice. In regards to Napoleon's invasion of Russia Chandler states that his primary source for the strength of Napoleon's army is a work by R. Burton published in England in 1913. An examnination of Burton's work on the campaign of 1812 reveals that Burton's work has neither notes nor a bibliography but "relies" on a handfull of other secondary sources including a work thought to be relaible by many scholars (Bogdonavitch's study of the war)but which is a work that its author says "relies on the word of god almighty" for its athority. In other words, Chandler has no clear idea of the size of Napoleon's army, and thus cannot calculate the number of casualties inflicted by disease, weather, and fighting! A second example is that Chandler states that under Napoleon's "crazed" directions General Junot led roughly 25,000 Frecnh troops to take Lisbon. Chandler paints Napoleon as too psychotic to appreciate the difficulties of the march and then describes how Junot "lost" 23,000 of the 25,000 men ariving in Lisbon with a little more than 1,500; the rest, Chandler implies, are all dead. However, Chandler offers no evidence for his portrait of the event and his version contrasts completely with that of Sir Charles Oman who states in his multi vollume history of the Peninsular War, that while Junot DID arrive at Lisbon with 1,500 men, the reamining 23,000 were spread out along the roads and DID eventualy arrive a few weeks later. A third and crucial example of Chandler's lazyness is his use of the memoirs of Talleyrand, Napoleon's sometime foreign minister. Despite ample evidence that Talleyrand's memoirs are a tainted, biased, and dangerously one-sided view of events, Chandler uses them without reservation to paint Napoleon as a dangerous mad man bent on nothing but conquest for the sake of his own psychotic gratification. Other mistakes abound in what is the most overrated work, in a field, already crowded to the rafters with mistake laden shilobeths. Chandler is at his best when describing events that don't require him to write the historical equivalent of "God Save the Queen" and "Rule Britania." The descriptions of the major battles and the descriptions of Napoleon's tactis are worth reading. As the book is massive it has the added benifit of covering all of the major battles in which Napoleon took some part. For that it is a worth while refrence text. Beyond that, its obsessively pro-British tilt, its mistakes, and omissions of fact, render it increasingly obselete and, in the hands of those who wont,or can't consulte other works, a dangerously misleading work of propaganda.
|
