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Robert Asprey completes his definitive, two-volume biography with an intimate, fast-paced look at Napoleon's daring reign and tragic demise with more of the personality and passion that marked the first volume of this cradle to the grave biography. In The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, Asprey showed us that Napoleon was not the father of chaos, but rather an heir to it. In this companion volume, we see Napoleon struggling to subdue the turmoil. We peer over Napoleon's shoulder as he solidifies his growing empire through a series of marriages, military victories, and shrewd diplomatic manipulations. We watch Napoleon lose control of his empire, plot his return from Elba, rally peasants in his march to Paris, endure defeat at Waterloo and suffer exile and a lonely death on the island of St. Helena. Robert Asprey tells this fascinating, tragic tale in lush narrative detail.

Previously published as v. 1 of The rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Most of the material covers the World War II underground and the Indochinese wars. Includes material on guerrilla warfare in the American Revolution, Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, Peninsular War, Philippines war, Boer war, Mexican revolution (Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata), Lettow-Vorbeck in East Africa (World War I), Lawrence of Arabia, Irish Republican Army, Mao Tse-tung, OSS, Ho Chi Minh, Vo Nguyen Giap, William Slim, Orde Wingate, Domino theory, Viet Minh, Greek Civil War, Mau Mau, Jomo Kenyatta, Palestine, Cyprus, Algeria, Fidel Castro, Viet Cong, Tet Offensive, and many other conflicts.

In his early years, Napoleon was a Corsican nationalist who considered the French to be oppressors. Nevertheless, he was sent to military academies in France, and when he graduated in 1785, at the age of 16, he became a second lieutenant in the French army. Napoleon's military career presents a surprising paradox. His genius at tactical manoeuvring was dazzling, and if he were to be judged only by that, he might perhaps be considered the greatest general of all time. In the field of grand strategy, however, he was prone to making gross blunders, such as the invasion of Egypt and Russia, and, because of his eventual defeat in 1815, all of his foreign conquests proved ephemeral.

A very readable account of King Frederick the Great of Prussia.