The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars: Volume 1, Politics and Diplomacy

Volume I of The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars covers the international foreign political dimensions of the wars and the social, legal, political and economic structures of the Empire. Leading historians from around the world come together to discuss the different aspects of the origins of the Napoleonic Wars, their international political implications and the concrete ways the Empire was governed. This volume begins by looking at the political context that produced the Napoleonic Wars and setting it within the broader context of eighteenth century great power politics in the Age of Revolution. It considers the administration and governance of the Empire, including with France's client states and the role of the Bonaparte family in the Empire. Further chapters in the volume examine the war aims of the various protagonists and offer an overall assessment of the nature of war in this period.

About the Author

Michael Broers is Professor of Western European History and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. He has written extensively on Napoleonic Europe. His previous publications include the first two volumes of his three-volume life of Napoleon published in 2014 and 2018 and The Napoleonic Empire in Italy, 1796–1814. Cultural Imperialism in a European Context (2005) which won the Prix Napoléon.

Philip Dwyer is Professor of History and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He has published widely on the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, his publications include a three-volume biography of Napoleon and Violence: A Very Short Introduction (2021). He is the general editor of a four-volume Cambridge World History of Violence (2020), and co-editor of The Darker Angels of Our Nature: Refuting the Pinker Theory of History & Violence (2021).