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In
How Far from Austerlitz? accomplished military historian Alistair Horne covers the pivotal decade of Napoleon's career. Starting with the victories at Ulm and Austerlitz and concluding with the defeat at Waterloo, Horne treats his subject like the hero of a Greek tragedy, full of the hubris that ultimately will cause his downfall. He shows, for instance, that once the conquering begins, it can rarely stop. One victory demands a second to protect the gains of the first, and so on. Before long, resources are spread thin and the empire topples. That's essentially what happened to Napoleon, and Horne tells the tale well. In addition, he draws interesting parallels between the French emperor and Hitler: both were more or less confined to the European continent by British naval power, both launched a doomed invasion of Russia, and both had an fatal thirst for conquest.
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The New York Times Book Review, Richard Bernstein
The new volume shows Horne doing what he does best: writing lively, interesting, anecdote-enriched and scholarly popular history.... with his customary sure-handedness and his eye for the arresting detail, he takes his readers through a kind of diorama, a literary version of the display you can view at Waterloo in Belgium, where Napoleon's last battle was fought.... Horne writes clearly and colorfully, never bogging down in technical detail.... In all,
How Far from Austerlitz? is what popular history should be, fascinating and edifying, a rattling yet also sobering good story.
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