Napolean Symbol for an Age: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in Istory and Culture)

By calming revolutionary turbulence while preserving fundamental gains of 1789, Napoleon Bonaparte laid the foundations of modern France. But his impact reached beyond France’s borders as well. His legacy of war, civil rights, exploitation, and national awakening reshaped identities across the European continent, while in the Atlantic world he destroyed the colonial order and helped plant the seeds of American power. In this collection of wide-ranging primary sources ― including confidential memoranda and correspondence, speeches, memoirs, letters, police reports, and songs, most of which appear in English translation for the first time ― Rafe Blaufarb situates Napoleon within his time while opening a broad perspective on the nature and impact of Napoleonic rule. His introduction provides a narrative of Napoleon’s rise and fall and frames the key issues of Napoleon’s life and times. Useful pedagogical tools include maps, illustrations, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography.

RAFE BLAUFARB (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Ben Weider Eminent Scholar Chair in Napoleonic History and the Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at Florida State University. He is the author of The French Army, 1750–1820: Careers, Talent, Merit (2002) and Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Refugees and Exiles on the Gulf Coast, 1815–1835 (2005) and has published articles in Annales, H.S.S., French Historical Studies, French History Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, and Annales historiques de la RŽvolution Franaise. He has taught at the UniversitŽ Paul-ValŽry III (Montpellier) and he has received fellowships and research grants from the NEH, Mellon Foundation, and Camargo Foundation, as well as a Bourse Ch‰teaubriand.