The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know ItHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014 M06 3 - 432 pages “A mesmerizing account that illuminates not just the Napoleonic wars but all of modern history . . . It reads like a novel” (Lynn Hunt, Eugen Weber Professor of modern European history, UCLA). The twentieth century is usually seen as “the century of total war.” But as the historian David A. Bell argues in this landmark work, the phenomenon actually began much earlier, in the era of muskets, cannons, and sailing ships—in the age of Napoleon. In a sweeping, evocative narrative, Bell takes us from campaigns of “extermination” in the blood-soaked fields of western France to savage street fighting in ruined Spanish cities to central European battlefields where tens of thousands died in a single day. Between 1792 and 1815, Europe plunged into an abyss of destruction. It was during this time, Bell argues, that our modern attitudes toward war were born. Ever since, the dream of perpetual peace and the nightmare of total war have been bound tightly together in the Western world—right down to the present day, in which the hopes for an “end to history” after the cold war quickly gave way to renewed fears of full-scale slaughter. With a historian’s keen insight and a journalist’s flair for detail, Bell exposes the surprising parallels between Napoleon’s day and our own—including the way that ambitious “wars of liberation,” such as the one in Iraq, can degenerate into a gruesome guerrilla conflict. The result is a book that is as timely and important as it is unforgettable. “Thoughtful and original . . . Bell has mapped what is a virtually new field of inquiry: the culture of war.” —Steven L. Kaplan, Goldwin Smith Professor of European history, Cornell University |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... sides saw this long struggle in apocalyptic terms: “a war to the death,” as one of its early French advocates declared, “which we will fight . . . so as to destroy and annihilate all who attack us, or to be destroyed ourselves.” Neither ...
... sides saw this long struggle in apocalyptic terms: “a war to the death,” as one of its early French advocates declared, “which we will fight . . . so as to destroy and annihilate all who attack us, or to be destroyed ourselves.” Neither ...
Page 4
... side likes to admit, for in each case, war figures as something wholly exceptional, wholly outside the established social order. Not surprisingly, intellectuals and statesmen have often braided them together in the idea that one final ...
... side likes to admit, for in each case, war figures as something wholly exceptional, wholly outside the established social order. Not surprisingly, intellectuals and statesmen have often braided them together in the idea that one final ...
Page 15
... side denies the very humanity of the other. For a time, the historical profession differed from the social scientists. In the nineteenth century, history was still preeminently a literary, narrative art, and the past offered no more ...
... side denies the very humanity of the other. For a time, the historical profession differed from the social scientists. In the nineteenth century, history was still preeminently a literary, narrative art, and the past offered no more ...
Page 23
... sides of Lauzun's career — the seducer and the soldier — sit uneasily with each other, to say the least. Yet in eighteenth-century France, the boudoir did not seem anywhere near as far from the battlefield as it does today. One of ...
... sides of Lauzun's career — the seducer and the soldier — sit uneasily with each other, to say the least. Yet in eighteenth-century France, the boudoir did not seem anywhere near as far from the battlefield as it does today. One of ...
Page 35
... side to fire first. “Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers,” are the words attributed to the Frenchman. An exchange of this sort probably did take place (not all great historical lines are apocryphal), but modern military historians ...
... side to fire first. “Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers,” are the words attributed to the Frenchman. An exchange of this sort probably did take place (not all great historical lines are apocryphal), but modern military historians ...
Contents
1 | |
21 | |
2 Conscience Commerce and History | 52 |
3 Declaring Peace DeclaringWar | 84 |
4 The Last Crusade | 120 |
5 The Exterminating Angels | 154 |
6 The Lure of the Eagle | 186 |
7 Days of Glory | 223 |
8 Wars Red Altar | 263 |
Epilogue | 302 |
Back Matter | 319 |
Notes | 321 |
Bibliography | 360 |
Index | 397 |
Other editions - View all
The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Modern Warfare David Avrom Bell No preview available - 2007 |
The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know it David Avrom Bell No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
allies aristocratic armed Assembly Austrian battle battlefield Bertaud Bonaparte Brissot British campaign century Charles-François Dumouriez civilian command conflict conscription Convention culture d’Holbach death declared deputies despite Dumouriez eighteenth eighteenth-century Empire enemy Englund Enlightenment entire Europe European Fénelon fight Fontenoy forces France France’s French army French Revolution French Revolutionary Wars German Girondins glory guerrilla Hébertists historians honor human Ibid insisted insurgents Italy Jacques-Louis David Joseph Joseph Bonaparte Joséphine killed king king’s La Vendée Lameth later Lauzun levée en masse Louis Manège March Maurice of Saxony military Mirabeau modern Moniteur Napo Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte National noble officer Old Regime Paris patriote peasants perpetual peace philosophes political population prisoners Prussian Quoted radical ranks rebels remained Revolutionary Robespierre royal sans-culotte soldiers Spain Spanish territory thousand tion took total war troops turned Turreau Valmy Vendéans Vendée victory Voltaire warfare wars wrote