The renowned military historian peter young uncovers the lives of the twenty-six marshals of france, stripping back the glamourization, tradition and preconceived notions surrounding men like murat, ney, berthier, and bernadotte, to provide an engaging picture of the grande armée’s leaders.
Young delves into the original sources to provide accurate accounts of the marshals’ careers, their personal lives and relationships, their moments of victory and failure. What emerges is a surprisingly varied group of men drawn from every class of society who had fought their way to the fore in the wars of the revolution and the empire.

Inside you will discover:
•How the corps system reinvented warfare and demanded a new administrative state to feed and move it
•Why the civil code became one of the most influential legal exports in history
•How prefects, gendarmes, and the légion d’honneur turned ambition and surveillance into tools of governance
•How italy became a laboratory for roads, cadastres, emancipation, and identity
•Why spain’s uprising and russia’s vastness exposed the limits of imposed modernity
•How the continental system tried to police an entire economy and spawned a continent of smugglers
Napoleon bonaparte achieved so much, and lived such an incredible life, that it almost seems as if it was fiction. From obscurity he became emperor of france and virtual ruler of europe. After he was beaten and driven from france, he was left on a tiny island, back into obscurity. But that was not the end of napoleon. He bravely returned to france, and alone met an army sent to crush him. He reversed history and that army, and led it to victory winning paris back, and once again he was in power. Alone, european countries were no match for him, but allied together the ‘nation of shopkeepers’ et al, defeated him at waterloo.