A concise, lively and up-to-date portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, including his most important battles and setting him firmly against the backdrop of the French Revolution of 1789.

• Introduction


• I. The Corsican, 1769-1796


• 2. The General, 1796-1799


• 3. The First Consul, 1799-1804


• 4. The Emperor, 1804-1812


• 5. Downfall, 1812-1815


• Epilogue: 1815-2015

David A. Bell is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton. Born in New York, educated at Harvard, Princeton and the École Normale Supérieure, he previously taught at Yale and Johns Hopkins, where he also served as Dean of Faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences.