Much of Alexander's reign (1801--25) was spent in the titanic struggle with Napoleon. His defeat left the triumphant tsar the dominant figure in continental Europe, promoting a new political vision ultimately embodied in the Holy Alliance. But Alexander's chief bequest to Russia itself was the enduring, and disastrous, alienation of the educated elite from the imperial regime. This absorbing reassessment of his strange and contradictory character -- reformer in precept, reactionary in practice -- finds him more consistent than his reputation, but shows how circumstances fatally limited his freedom of action.