Napoleon and Europe - Reviews - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2002

Napoleon and Europe. Philip G. Dwyer, editor. Longman. [pounds sterling]16.99 p.b. 328 pages. ISBN 0-582-31837-8. As the editor points out, Napoleon's Empire was not just a post-script to the Revolution but 'a conflict over the future shape of Europe in which social, economic, political and even intellectual interests were at stake'.

The thirteen essays in this collection try to place the imperial era in the larger context of French and European history, to examine the influence of the Empire on France and Europe and to give readers the fruits of the latest research and thinking on this period. The essays are grouped into three areas: Napoleon and French Society; The Nature of the Empire; and, finally, Napoleon and Europe. Individual essays trace Napoleon's rise to power, the influence of the military on the Empire (in which it more resembled the Roman Empire than the modern, French-led E.U.), the impact on French society and the role of the police in controlling people. In the second part there are essays on the nature of 'Napoleonic Imperialism' (a most interesting essay by Geoffrey Ellis), the use of French force in creating the Empire and the role of taxation. The final group of essays look at Napoleon's relations with Britain, the Peninsular War and, finally, the role of Russia in the Napoleonic wars. The essays are, on the whole, well written and stimulating but one does wonder what Frenchmen will say on reading that Napoleon was 'in some respects ... an evil necessity, the foreign-political and social equivalent of an enema; never very pleasant, it can help clean out the system'. (M.H.)