Part of Series
The Age of Napoleon surveys the amazing chain of events that wrenched Europe out of the Enlightenment and into the Age of Democracy: * The French Revolution—-from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotining of the King * The revolution's leaders Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre, Saint-Just—-all cut down by the reign of terror they inaugurated. * Napoleon's meteoric rise—-from the provincial Corsican military student to the Emperor commanding the largest army in history * Napoleon's fall—-his army's destruction in the snows of Russia, his exile to Elba, escape and reconquest of the throne, and ultimate defeat at Waterloo by the combined forces of Europe. * The birth of romanticism and the dawning of a new age of active democracy and a rising middle class, laying the foundation for our own era.
Author
William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for his book, The Story of Philosophy, written in 1926, which was considered "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy." They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1967 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
