Beating Napoleon

'If it had not been for you English, I should have been Emperor of the East; but wherever there is water to float a ship, we are sure to find you in our way.' Emperor Napoleon

But just thirty-five years earlier, Britain lacked any major continental allies, and was wracked by crises and corruption. Many thought that she would follow France into revolution. The British elite had no such troubling illusions: defeat was not a possibility. Since not all shared that certainty, the resumption of the conflict and its pursuit through years of Napoleonic dominance is a remarkable story of aristocratic confidence and assertion of national superiority. Winning these wars meant ruthless imperialist expansion, spiteful political combat, working under a mad king and forging the most united national effort since the days of the Armada. And it meant setting the foundations for the greatest empire the world has ever known.

“A vivid picture of how the British Empire not only had to defeat Napoleon but also some of its own people”

Herald

David Andress is Professor of Modern History at the University of Portsmouth, where he has taught since 1994. He is the author of a number of acclaimed studies of the French Revolution and its international context, including The French Revolution and the People (2004), The Terror (2005), and 1789 (2008). As well as broadening his writing interests to embrace the British Isles, he is currently editing the Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution.

'As thorough as it is enthusiastic, [Andress] approaches his subject from a refreshing perspective and fills a serious gap in the historiography . . . [ Beating Napoleon ] should be read by all those interested in Britain's role in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars' Charles Esdaile, Literary Review Britain's defeat of Napoleon is one the great accomplishments in our history. And yet it was by no means certain that Britain itself would survive the revolutionary fervour of the age, let alone emerge victorious from such a vast conflict. In this brilliant, sweeping history of the period, David Andress fuses two hitherto separate historical perspectives - the military and the social - to provide a vivid portrait of the age. From the conditions of warfare faced by the British soldier and the great battles in which they fought, to the literary and artistic culture of the time, inhabited by the likes of Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Beating Napoleon is at once a searing narrative of dramatic events - not least at Waterloo and Trafalgar - and an important reassessment of one of the most significant turning points in our history. Previously published as The Savage Storm .

'If it had not been for you English, I should have been Emperor of the East; but wherever there is water to float a ship, we are sure to find you in our way.' Emperor NapoleonBut just thirty-five years earlier, Britain lacked any major continental allies, and was wracked by crises and corruption. Many thought that she would follow France into revolution. The British elite had no such troubling illusions: defeat was not a possibility. Since not all shared that certainty, the resumption of the conflict and its pursuit through years of Napoleonic dominance is a remarkable story of aristocratic confidence and assertion of national superiority. Winning these wars meant ruthless imperialist expansion, spiteful political combat, working under a mad king and forging the most united national effort since the days of the Armada. And it meant setting the foundations for the greatest empire the world has ever known.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.