Napeolan

1) "Napoleon's Art of War." In The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966. CARL 940.27 C455c.

This section of Chandler's classic and highly readable The Campaigns of Napoleon evaluates Napoleon's philosophy of war, his strategic and battle methods, and the sources of his ideas. While Napoleon was not an original military thinker, he refined the ideas of others to develop sophisticated combined arms attacks against enemy armies. Chandler assesses Napoleon as a strategist and master of the operational art. Grand Tactics in the Napoleonic era comprised the science and art of handling men, horses, and guns during the crucial moves when close contact had been established with the enemy. Using numerous diagrams and illustrations, Chandler clearly and vividly explains how Napoleon used Grand Tactics to achieve victory.

2) Waterloo: the Hundred Days. New York: Macmillan, 1980. CARL 940.27 C455w.

Chandler provides a good, general description of the famous battle, the events leading up to it, and its consequences. With excellent maps and an expert knowledge of the battleground, he analyzes the campaign and the battle at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.

3) Napoleon: A History of the Art of War . . . Great Captains. 4 vols. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1904-07. CARL 923.144 N216d6.

These five biographies and campaign histories of famous military commanders comprise the Great Captains series produced in the 18908 by Lieutenant Colonel Dodge. Each of them follows a similar pattern in terms of length and style. Besides providing a campaign history, each book also functions as a treatise on the art of war as practiced in the respective time period. Useful for the investigation of how operational art and strategy were practiced by the masters, the books contain numerous maps, charts, and drawings.