Napoleon Comes to Power by Malcolm Crook

Napoleon Comes to Power by Malcolm Crook

This latest addition to the Past in Perspective Series traces the rise to power of Napoleon and also examines the events before and after the coup d'etat of 1799. Recent research has suggested that the Bonapartist dictatorship was by no means a foregone conclusion, the inevitable outcome of a corrupt and discredited revolutionary regime. There is now greater awareness of the difficulties faced by the Directory (as the constitutional system was called after 1795) in steering a middle course between Royalism and Jacobinism and also a greater recognition of its achievements. By the time that Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804, the Revolution was effectively over. An ingenious balance had been struck between democracy and authority, between hierarchy and equality, in short between the old order and the new, a synthesis which disarmed radicals and attracted conservatives. This hybrid of revolution and tradition only lasted for a further decade in France, but it exerted a profound influence over nineteenth-century political culture. The Napoleonic episode thus requires careful attention at a deeper level than the personal and military heroics that usually predominate, as this study will demonstrate.

".. a clear and reliable approach to an episode in French Revolutionary and Napoleonic history not otherwise well served by works in English. Published in the Past Perspective series, it combines sure-footed textual analysis with a selection of illustrative documents." French History

Malcolm Crook is a Reader in History at the University of Keele.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780708314012
ISBN 10	0708314015
Title	Napoleon Comes to Power
Author	Malcolm Crook
Series	The Past In Perspective
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University of Wales Press
Year published	1998-03-19
Number of pages	128
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.