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Napoleon on the Art of War

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NAPOLEON. The world has viewed him as a hungry conqueror, a man always victorious in his days, and the greatest general the world has ever known.He is popular in books and encyclopedias as the master of strategies and tactics, the God of war, a military genius,etc.etc.Then try to read this book, and you'll find that the key to his successes is only one: Never be irresolute, calculate everything prudently, move with confidence and spirit and never leave anything to Fate.In this book you'll find how he used his army from the creation of the fighting forces until the operational art to the gate of victory. He also said that military education, fortification and high morality played an important role in war.But he also made some fatal mistakes that caused his failure in battle, you can find it all in the chapter"Generalship and the art of command".If you're truly interested in military strategies and tactics, this book is certainly presented for you. Jay Luvaas has in this book reflected the mind of history's greatest conqueror.Go and get it. This masterpiece will forever change the way we view THE EMPEROR.

This book is made from real life experience by a very successful military leader and as such should be reviewed. Following it precepts should allow a soldier at arms to avoid loss of resources and personnel by avoiding learning from mistakes on-the-job. I was impressed with the admissions that some of your enemy's attacks will succeed, but gives advice on the goal of such encounters. These tactics are a great place to start your battle.

The book is short, concise, candid and readable. It is direct and formulaic about different military postures and use of forces. Obviously these tactics lack any consideration of air power, limited to artillery and cavalry being the firepower of the day. Notable is the lack of any political perspective, understandable due to the fact that Napoleon was emperor and general: the state and military were one in purpose and consistent with the books focused purpose to explain force on force encounters.

Those working in the profession of arms should find this informative for strategizing large scale engagements. But lacking perspective on the reach and versatility of air power and today's millennial one sided insurgent guerilla wars lacking large scale force on force encounters does place this better suited for world war scenarios. Most of today's (US) engagements begin without airpower and therefore the principles may be adapted at all levels for initial force on force contact. And since history repeats itself, regardless of how any two wars are the dissimilar, the war on the ground is the winning engagement.

This book is a very good compilation of Napoleon's writings, in which is discussed the policy, composition, discipline, and strategy that armies must employ to be successful. There is a quote in the book from Kircheisen, a Napoleonic Scholar, stating that Napoleon's ability to successfully wage war was not in the realm of strategy, instead it was grounded in organization and attention to detail, which leads me to the intrinsic irony of this book: In the end Napoleon did not follow many of his own axioms.

Ultimately it was his total failure in the Russian Campaign that caused his downfall. This incident demonstrated to the rest of Europe that Napoleon was not the living reincarnation of the god of war; quite to the contrary, he was a mediocre strategist. His failure was the result of his lack of organization, and his inability to compete with the Scorched Earth Policy and a small typhus endemic. In fact, his failure was so total that his "Grand Army" was decimated from 422,000 men strong to a mere 10,000: that is 97.6% casualties. This complete failure was caused because he did not heed the things that he himself propounds in this book.

That begs the question: Can this book truly be reflective of Napoleon?

If you want to know how to run an army: read this book.

If you want to keep your idealized version of Napoleon: avoid this book because it will demonstrate just how absurd his command was in the end.

I have many other books on the great man himself. Along comes this "must-have" book and I plonk down my money. Afterwards, I realise that many of these maxims and one-liners are already embedded in my other books. The truly bad thing about books like this is that it takes things out of context.
It is probably a great read for business managers.

this book is the missing link to the other napoleon works.

I have studied the lives of great men...from Caesar to Picasso to Emerson to Machiavelli....

but....this book ....left me .....speechless.

Perhaps one day....I too will 'awaken' the masses.

MB. (ICQ 37317778)