Reviews for Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte

The average rating for Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-01 00:00:00 Darrell Perry Of all the books I have read about the First World War, none have changed my mind about an aspect of it more than this. I used to buy into the popular idea of Kaiser Wilhelm II as an unstable militarist who was largely responsible for the First World War. But, as this book demonstrates, the Kaiser was not much of a militarist. He tried to be, but was never at ease and the soldiers looked on him with contempt. And, as the war approached, he was, as often as not, a moderating influence on German policy. As Clark makes clear, there were many individuals and institutions pushing Germany to war prior to 1914, not least of which was the army. Wilhelm was certainly an incompetent monarch, but the constitutional of the newly formed German Empire would have put any monarch in a difficult position. It placed both great responsibility and little real power in the hands of one man. The Kaiser was not up to this challenge, but it is doubtful that anyone else would have been.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-05-11 00:00:00 Sandy Liu A very well researched and balanced book on the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. It centers around the question of how much power the last monarch really had and how big his influence on german politics between 1888 and 1918 was. Don't go into this expecting a biography. It is an essay about the german monarchy and constitution of 1871 and how Wilhelm shaped the role of the German Kaiser. Clark paints a well balanced picture of Wilhelm II., which goes much deeper than the ususal demonization of Wilhelm. I especially liked the part about Wilhelm's foreign politics and his part in the outbreak of WWI - while Clark is far from taking the blame away from Wilhelm altogether, he suceeds in painting a larger picture that cannot just be seen in black and white. It's always easy to measure history by its outcomes. Clark takes the more difficult route by trying to shift contemporary statements into a broader context and not taking a few ill-considered declarations (which, to be fair, Wilhelm made very easy) to reinforce an already set view on the matter.