Classic Durant. Exhaustively detailed, delightfully opinionated. ( )

Before reading this volume I thought Napoleon had a sterling reputation. When I was finished I thought he was overrated. He was charming, extremely intelligent, organized and over ambitious.

Most of the good Napoleon accomplished is tarnished with blood of the dead. ( )

Tedious reading, too much detail that doesn't matter. Just around in time--you need to know the history before reading this or it doesn’t make sense ( )

Classic Durant. Exhaustively detailed, delightfully opinionated. Read it in pieces and if you're feeling a bit sleepy, don't even bother. ( )

if you have space for only one book on Napoleon, or the history of Europe during his lifetime, this is it. It's a thick book, but it has an immense amount to say.
This book demonstrates the power of chronology over the historical mind, because in the late 1920's, following his very successful "A History of Philosophy", Will Durant though t he'd write a book on Napoleon. Well, it became obvious that he'd have to start somewhat earlier than Napoleon if he wanted to explain Bonaparte, and thus the eleven volume "Story of Civilization" was begun. This is the last volume, published fifty years after the original idea forced its way to the surface. And you can't get a better survey of the history of Europe and the Middle east than this series. There's a notable quote in every paragraph, and thousands of insights on many topics. Excluding the very disappointing first Volume, that no one should bother with, every book is definitive between it's parameters. In a sense, this book is the Encyclopedia of Western Civilization. There are a lot of second hand sets floating around, get one. ( )