Napoleon and the Art of Leadership: How a Flawed Genius Changed the History of Europe and the World

Written by William Nester

Narrated by Matthew Josdal

No one in history has provoked more controversy than Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he an enlightened ruler or brutal tyrant? Was he an insatiable warmonger or a defender of France against the aggression of the other great powers? Was he kind or cruel, farsighted or blinkered, a sophisticate or a philistine, a builder or a destroyer?

One thing is certain, if the art of leadership is about getting what one wants, then Napoleon was among history's greatest masters. War was the medium through which he was able to demonstrate his innate skills, leading his armies to victories across Europe. He overthrew France's corrupt republican government in a coup, then asserted near dictatorial powers. He would later convince the Senate to proclaim him France's emperor and even get the pope to preside over his coronation; reorganize swaths of Europe into new states; and place his brothers and sisters on the thrones.

This is Napoleon as has never been seen before. No previous book has delved so deeply into Napoleon's mind and revealed more of its complex, fascinating, provocative, and paradoxical dimensions. Napoleon and the Art of Leadership is a psychologically penetrating study of the man who had such a profound effect on the world around him that an entire era still bears his name.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666124927

William Nester

Dr. William Nester, a Professor at the Department of Government and Politics, St. John’s University, New York, is the author of thirty-seven books on history and politics. His book George Rogers Clark: I Glory in War won the Army Historical Foundation's best biography award for 2013, and Titan: The Art of British Power in the Age of Revolution and Napoleon, won the New York Military Affairs Symposium's 2016 Arthur Goodzeit Book Award.