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Title: A poor vision of Napoleon
Review: I opened Adam Schom's book with high hopes. A one volume biography of Napoleon that should at least give me the bones of his life and impact. But Schom is fundamentally a military historian and it shows in page after page. He does not focus on the important legal and administrative changes that Napoleon introduced throughout his reign. His rule meant that the Aristorocracy could never hope to return to France in the way they ruled before the revolution. Schom basically ignores the French Revolution and its aftermath. He tells little of the social and political whirlpool that led to Bonaparte taking power. His refusal to even acknowledge the existence of the Code Napoleon is staggering and leaves this volume with a great hole that no amount of love affairs and military campaigns can fill. The correct title should have been a military biography, but little else. A grave disappointment.
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