Napoleon at Peace

William Doyle’s study is at once succinct and scholarly, and it is as much about the effects of the Revolution as about the measures taken by the Consulate. It analyses a short but critical period when Napoleon deployed his considerable strategic skills to destroy a different enemy, the division and discord that he had inherited from the republic. * Times Literary Supplement *
[this] new book has interesting and important things to say . . . Written with the sort of élan that would inspire envy in a squadron of cavalry, Doyle's book provides a scholarly and succinct account of General Bonaparte's unmaking of the French Revolution and his own remaking as an absolute prince. * Literary Review *
Doyle's study of Napoleon at peace vividly evokes the pivotal period, between the end of the revolutionary wars and the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars, when the First Consul would be king, briefly sheathed his sword before returning to the fray in pursuit of glory. * Ruth Scurr, The Critic *
To be sure, the French Revolution made Napoleon: officer commissions were no longer limited to nobility; the Corsican cultivated his celebrity with new forms of battle-focused propaganda; and, with great foresight, he appealed to le peuple, the emergent and dominating authority in politics. Many posit Napoleon’s coup d’état of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) to be the end of the French Revolution, but, as Doyle argues in Napoleon at Peace, the "popular genera" — to borrow a term from Burke — spent three more years ending the Revolution’s wars on European kingdoms, on religion, and on monarchic authority, ultimately gaining one year of true peace before war broke out again in 1803. * The New Criterion *
William Doyle, the distinguished historian of the Old Regime and the French Revolution . . . has turned his attention to Napoleon Bonaparte in this short, readable book. Largely a work of synthesis, the study nonetheless provides a fresh perspective on a man (and a regime) about whom one could reasonably argue we already know pretty much everything. In focusing on the narrow window of time between 1799 and 1802, and avoiding reference to what came later, we gain an understanding of these years that differs significantly from standard accounts, which tend to keep an eye on what Napoleon is most known for: his military prowess. Instead, the book focuses on Bonaparte’s efforts to address head-on the divisive issues that had proven impossible to resolve over the course of the previous decade. -- Denise Z. Davidson * H-France Review *
William Doyle’s enlightening history immerses us in a crucial phase of Napoleon’s career and France’s past with originality and erudition. * Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History, University of Cambridge *
Napoleon at peace may seem a contradiction in terms. Yet paradoxically, as William Doyle shows in this incisive and perfectly judged study, it was the brief period when he was not at war, the fourteen months between March 1802 and May 1803, that saw his most constructive achievement: restoring religious and civil peace to France after a traumatic decade of revolution. * Munro Price, Professor of Modern European History, University of Bradford *
William Doyle argues incisively that Napoleon’s primary aim during the Consulate was political rather than military, as he sought to reverse what he saw as the errors of the Republic – to restore executive authority, curb disorder and insurgency, and resolve the religious schism that was the legacy of the previous decade. This book goes far to explain what Napoleon meant when he talked of his commitment to “end the revolution”. * Alan Forrest, Professor Emeritus in History, University of York *