Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
11 used & new from CDN$ 14.54

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
 
See larger image
 

The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It (Paperback)

by David A. Bell (Author)
No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
List Price: CDN$ 19.95
Price: CDN$ 14.56 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.39 (27%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

7 new from CDN$ 14.54 4 used from CDN$ 14.69
Looking for Textbooks? Save up to 37% on New--and up to 90% on Used
Hit the books in Amazon.ca's Textbook Store and save up to 37% on over 100,000 new textbooks shipped from and sold by Amazon.ca. For even bigger savings, get up to 90% off the list price of thousands of used listings. Learn more.

Frequently Bought Together

The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It + The Air War: 1939-45 + The Face of Battle
Total List Price: CDN$ 72.85
Price For All Three: CDN$ 55.20

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It by David A. Bell

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • The Air War: 1939-45 by Richard Overy

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • The Face of Battle by John Keegan

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Air War: 1939-45

The Air War: 1939-45

by Richard Overy
CDN$ 23.16
The Face of Battle

The Face of Battle

by John Keegan
4.7 out of 5 stars (48)  CDN$ 17.48
The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805

The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805

by Frederick Kagan
CDN$ 18.50
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

by Anthony Everitt
3.7 out of 5 stars (3)  CDN$ 16.02
Pursuit Of Glory

Pursuit Of Glory

by Tim Blanning
CDN$ 27.27
Explore similar items

Product Details


Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Bell combines his roles as professor of history at Johns Hopkins and contributing editor for the New Republic in this interpretive study arguing that history's first total war was waged during the Napoleonic era. Scholars have increasingly stressed the global aspects of the network of conflicts extending across North America, South Asia and Europe during that time. Bell goes further, presenting a fundamental transformation of war from an ordinary aspect of human existence to an apocalyptic experience whose "terrible sublimity" tested societies and individuals to their limits and ultimately became a redemptive experience. Total war developed not in the context of nationalism or revolutionary zeal, but in the fundamental sense of a "culture of war" driving participants in the direction of complete engagement and total abandonment of restraint. Ironically, the intellectual roots of this modern militarism are in the Enlightenment belief in the coming of perpetual peace. Revolutionary France transformed a moral concept into a practical one: war to emancipate humanity from its past. Bell's conclusion that this mentality survived two world wars is open to challenge, yet his appeal for the rediscovery of restraint and limitation is particularly relevant at a time of nuclear proliferation and apocalyptic rhetoric. (Jan. 12)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The wars of the French Revolution acquired a pitiless character and an unprecedented scale for which historians have groped for explanations: ideology and French nationalism are most commonly cited. Bell elaborates an alternate viewpoint without dismissing traditional analyses. The author of two books on the ancien regime, Bell roots his thesis in Enlightenment theorizers of progress and, less philosophically, in the eighteenth-century aristocratic attitude toward war. Bell effectively personifies his case in a nobleman favorable to the Revolution but ultimately consumed by it, titled the Duke of Lauzun. The boudoir and the battlefield were all the same to him, stages for stylized and restrained performances of honor. When Lauzun was sent to western France to quell royalist revolt in 1793-94, his scruples doomed him as radicals demanded the annihilation of rebels. In this shocking civil war of the Vendee, Bell observes the seeds of the "total war" methods that grew apace in ensuing wars and established dark precedents for the future. Astute and fluid, Bell's study has ramifications beyond his historical specificity. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
79% buy the item featured on this page:
The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
CDN$ 14.56
Gods War
17% buy
Gods War 3.7 out of 5 stars (3)
CDN$ 18.18
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
2% buy
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
CDN$ 16.02
The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805
2% buy
The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805
CDN$ 18.50

Customer Reviews


There are no customer reviews yet.
Video reviews
Video reviews
Amazon now allows customers to upload product video reviews. Use a webcam or video camera to record and upload reviews to Amazon.



Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.