Napoleon Comes to Power: Democracy and Dictatorship in Revolutionary France 1795-1804 (Past in Perspective Series) - Softcover

Crook, Malcom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0708314015 ISBN 13: 9780708314012

Publisher: University of Wales Press, 2007

Synopsis

This volume traces Napoleon's rise to power and also examines the events before and after the coup d'état of 1799. Recent research has suggested that the Bonapartist dictatorship was by no means a foregone conclusion, the inevitable outcome of a corrupt and discredited revolutionary regime. There is now greater awareness of the difficulties faced by the Directory (as the constitutional system was called after 1795) in steering a middle course between royalism and jacobinism and also a greater recognition of its achievements.  By the time that Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804, the Revolution was effectively over. An ingenious balance had been struck between democracy and authority, between hierarchy and equality, in short between the old order and the new, a synthesis which disarmed radicals and attracted conservatives. This hybrid of revolution and tradition only lasted for a further decade in France, but it exerted a profound influence over nineteenth-century political culture. The Napoleonic episode thus repays careful attention at a deeper level than the personal and militaryheroics that usually predominate, as this study will demonstrate.  

About this title

About the Author:

Malcolm Crook is a Reader in History at the University of Keele.

Review:

"A clear and reliable approach to an episode . . . not otherwise well served by works in English." -- French History

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0708314015
• ISBN 13: 9780708314012
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 153