Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy (Nation Books) [Paperback]

William Duggan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2004 | Series: Nation Books

When Napoleon's Glance was first published last spring, former NATO secretary general and now putative presidential candidate Wesley Clark declared, "This is a very important book." In Napoleon's Glance strategist William Duggan shows how Clark, along with ten other important figures in the fields of politics, war and culture, owed their success to coup d'oeil. But what is coup d'oeil? Carl von Clausewitz spent twenty years struggling to pin down the genius of Napoleon. In chapter six of what would become "On War" he discovered the secret of Napoleon's strategy: Napoleon's glance. Clausewitz calls it "coup d'oeil" meaning a stroke of the eye, or "glance." A sudden insight that shows you what course of action to take, it comes from knowledge of the past, drawing on what worked in other situations in a new combination that fits the problem at hand. In Napoleon's Glance, Duggan expertly weaves intellectual history and biography in showing how important and decisive coup d'oeil is in determining victory in war, art, the civil rights movement, third world development, and the battle for women's suffrage in America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title may draw in people with a weakness for military models for civilian planning issues, but, unlike Duggan's The Art of What Works, the book is not really a planner's how-to, nor is it conventional military historiography. Instead, Duggan offers clear perspectives on how various traits-e.g. mental flexibility in reading the past and present, talent for envisioning the efforts of tens to millions, minute adjustment of tactical details-have been put to careful use by particular figures. Beyond that, it is a mixed bag. Duggan oversimplifies the military strategists he covers (Napoleon and Patton) with a dichotomy between the approaches of Clausewitz (flexible) and Jomini (rigid), leaving out, for example, the crucial role of staffs. On Sundiata (it is a nice surprise to find him here), the founder of the Mali Empire in Africa, the author lists only a single source. Also here are Alice Paul, the American suffragist, and Ella Baker, one of the founders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Joan of Arc was herself only a very short-lived strategist, drawing her insights from the legend of the Quest for the Grail-but watching her in action inspired the French statesmen and soldiers who won the Hundred Years' War. The best essay in the book, the study of Mohammed Yunus's Grameen Bank making micro-loans in Bangladesh, reflects the author's background in international development with the Ford Foundation.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"The book's own stroke of genius is Duggan's coherent reporting of coup d'oeil as it occurs throughout the centuries, while at the same time relating it in a way sure to inspire readers to discover their own formulas for success."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books; 2nd edition (March 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560256028
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256021
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, useful, and well-written!, September 17, 2003

By 

reader (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy (Hardcover)

... This is a great history of social entrepreneurs, military leaders, and other great strategists who figured out how to get what they wanted. Great short chapters on Joan of Arc, Patton, Alice Paul and the suffragists, Japan, and even Picasso and Matisse. Turned out for me to be an excellent source of fun cocktail party chatter. But it is a very very good and unusual kind of self-help book. Yes, the book is NOT about military strategy, but is is about strategy in personal life. I thought it was better than a ton of other popular history or self help books. It helped me understand how to be more successful at figuring out how to get what I want. On the cover General Wesley Clark calls this a "very important book" and I agree!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Read, September 9, 2007

By 

David N. Bernfeld "Haverford" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy (Hardcover)

Turns standard business strategy upside down. An essential read for anyone seeking an alternate perspective. You might just find that the alternative perspective regularly beats the mainstream.

21 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars He could have said this so much better!!!!, April 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy (Hardcover)

There are a few tidbits of useful info in this slender volume, but it should NEVER be confused as containing valuable, factual historical analysis beyond the most general of circumstances. Perhaps the reason for this is that the author's reading of history is simply wrong. Take the small chapter on Napoleon as an example. The author repeatedly calls Napoleon the "emperor of europe"...gag... he was "Emperor of France." And the author misses entirely the most important the issues of his battlefield genius, and totally misunderstands the 1812 campaign and WHY Napoleon went for Moscow. Hummm...perhaps he should have expanded his shallow source reading on Napleon's campaigns to far better works than the lone, vastly-overrated military work listed in the back. His information on Patton and Joan of Arc is also very superficial and lacking any meaningful depth (and the dust jacket touts the author as currently writing "a forthcoming scholarly study of strategy"?).

In retrospect, I understand what the author is trying to say and how he wants to convey the concept of "coup d'oeil" to folks for their use in everyday life. However, because of all the factual errors and superficial conclusions drawn from such shallow study, the author's message is significantly weakened. Therefore, because of the way the book is presented, I could have gleaned all useful info out of this by quickly reading through it.