Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799 - 1815 - Philip Dwyer

Judges' Comments

Philip Dwyer’s biography of Napoleon is magisterial. In this, the second volume, he is able to compose an enormous amount of information into a readable, constantly surprising, and satisfying narrative. 
 
The book shows the life and times of a leader, and with a big historical approach it invites our understanding of that leader. Within the macro-history of France, and of Europe, there is the micro-history of Napoleon and the Bonaparte family.

Dwyer explains why and how Napoleon inspired France. His challenge in this volume was to excavate a life from the legend.  The subject had to be as much a nation as a man. Even after his abdication following Waterloo, Napoleon himself skillfully participated in the making of his image, so Dwyer had to separate out biography and history from myth, which required unflinching research.
 
Dwyer’s command of the vast archival material on Napoleon and his times is impressive. This is an absorbing biography about power and opportunism, a big achievement, and one which could only have been carried out by a writer with the control and elegance of Dwyer.

About the Author

Philip Dwyer studied in Perth (Australia), 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 Director of the Centre for the History of Violence at the University of Newcastle, Australia.