Bonaparte, a militarist whose desire to conquer the Continent foreshadowed the total warfare of the 20th century, is a prime example of unbridled ambition to absolute power. The Corsican was a master of cartography and logistics, and typically sought to attack in order to isolate and conquer. But in sweeping away Europe’s old order, he substituted nepotism not enlightened government or culture; his favorable reputation largely rests on a propaganda apparatus (including mastery of the contemporary news cycle via semaphore). Though he anticipated Stalin and Hitler, the French have proclaimed him a hero. Thematic and synthetic rather than chronological, the book is a typically strong effort from Johnson.
Napoleon Bonaparte
2. Johnson, Napoleon (12 Feb 2012)
A concise biography of the world’s prototypical dictator, the first to embody Rousseau’s general will. Skillful at artillery and cartography, favoring speed and attack borne of interior lines, Bonaparte rode his 1796 Italian campaign to power, thereby ending France’s revolutionary era and creating the first 20th-century authoritarian government, replete with repressive state machinery and cultural propaganda. As a military leader, he squandered men and horses – though soldiers were permitted to pillage – while as head of state he roused nationalist resentment against France. Military failure in Spain and Russia, the British blockade, and resurgent German nationalism (newly shorn of the Holy Roman Empire), caused his downfall. Ironically, this period created, via the Congress of Vienna, an absolutist coda which survived until 1914. The short form diminished the tendency to glorify a monstrous figure.