How Far from Austerlitz? Napoleon 1805-1815

National Review, June 30, 1997 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

THE author is the renowned British historian whose specialty is France, bes- otted for a century and a half with glory and humiliation, power and power- lessness, a history dominated by the mythogenic figure of Napoleon. Mr. Horne's current contribution tells the reader everything he'd want to know about the military vicissitudes of Napoleon's career, and much else that informs, amuses, and repels.

Napoleon was a creative genius whose extra-military accomplishments endure. The French have him to thank for the lycees, for the metric system, for their legal code, and for the layout of Paris. But the price for the above was dead bodies. The book reminds us of what we learned from The Price of Glory, Mr. Horne's storied account of the First World War. It is that whatever the capacity of great generals to weep for the loss of their men, by sundown they are merely ciphers whose end caught the emperor/general's attention only on two scales: How many men did the enemy lose? And, How hard will it be to find replacements? Mr. Horne's famous eye for detail instructs us that the loss of horses in the Russian campaign of 1813 outweighed in military gravity the loss of men. Of the latter, a half-million; replaceable. Of the former, 180,000. The stock of military horses had not been replenished when, eight years later, Napoleon ended his forlorn life on St. Helena. There are many who, many years ago, swore never to read one more book about Napoleon Bonaparte. How Far from Austerlitz? reminds us that swearing is a bad idea, here standing, except for those of us who know when to transcend our oaths, between the reader and an engrossing work by a master historian.