Murray’s Reviews > The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History > Status Update

The plan was to listen to this in conjunction with War & Peace to provide an academic framework for the Napoleonic Wars described in Tolstoy’s fiction. However W&P begins in 1805 & this tome in 1789 with the French Revolution. It encompasses battles & treaties in Europe, Eurasia, India, Egypt, the Caribbean, America, Canada & more. The writing is brilliant if convoluted but the two books will never be in sync.

And we think we have wars. The author takes in the global aspect and we see fighting in India, the Caribbean, Egypt & the Ottoman Empire, the US & Canada, never mind Europe itself & Russia. Well put together and definitely an undergraduate course. I’m anxious to get to 1805 which is the year Tolstoy’s W&P begins.

I’m reading this alongside War & Peace. Listening to it in audiobook, actually. To get a full sense of a Europe dominated by Emperor Napoleon. Who still holds people in thrall today.