Shortlist year: 2014
Shortlist category: Non-fiction
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
This second volume of Philip Dwyer's outstanding biography sheds further light on one of the great figures of history. After a meteoric rise, a coup in 1799 established Napoleon Bonaparte in government, aged just thirty. Dwyer examines the man in power, from his brooding obsessions and capacity for violence, to his ability to inspire others. One of the first modern politicians, Napoleon skilfully fashioned the image of himself that laid the foundation of the legend that endures to this day; Dwyer's ambitious work separates myth from history in its exploration of one of history's most charismatic and able leaders.
About the author
Philip Dwyer
Philip Dwyer studied in Perth, Berlin and Paris, where he was a student of France's pre-eminent Napoleonic scholar, Jean Tulard. He has published widely on the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, and is the editor of Napoleon and Europe, the author of Talleyrand, and has co-edited Napoleon and His Empire: Europe, 1804-1814. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Modern European History and is Director of the Centre for the History of Violence at the University of Newcastle, Australia.