Art and Architecture Collection > Napoleonic Era: A Research Guide

Social History Resources

Historical Survey

Dallas, Gregor. 1815: The Roads to Waterloo. London: Richard Cohen Books, 1996. (JFE 97-2263)
Investigates the complicated historical, social, and foreign relations that led to Europe’s final confrontation with Napoleon on the battlefield of Waterloo.

Ellis, Geoffrey. The Napoleonic Empire. London: Macmillan Education, 1991. (JFD 91-9143) Authoritative survey history of the First Empire in France, with cogent explanations of Napoleon’s Continental System and the resultant economic effects of this blockade on England and Europe.

Herold, J. Christopher. The Horizon Book of the Age of Napoleon. New York: American Heritage Pub. Co., 1963. (G-10 1439)
Textbook-style summaries of Napoleon ’s career and historic context.

Lyons, Martyn. Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan, 1994. (JFD 95-6845)
Historical survey that evaluates the relationships between Napoleon and the ideals of the French Revolution; describes the role of France within Europe at that time.

Roberts, Andrew. Napoleon and Wellington. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2001. (JFE 01-16566)
Terse study in biographical and ideological contrasts between Napoleon and his English military adversary.

Shaw, Philip. Waterloo and the Romantic Imagination. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2002. (JFD 02-26267)
Explores Napoleon’s last great battle within the context of Romantic Era literature, and assesses the use of Waterloo as a metaphor within Romanticism in general.

Sutherland, Donald. The French Revolution and Empire: The Quest for a Civic Order. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2003. (JFE 03-3376)
Evaluates the changes in civil liberties for the French nation in the period between the beginning of the Revolution and the end of the First Empire.

Political and Foreign Relations

Broers, Michael. Europe Under Napoleon 1799-1815. London: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. (JFE 97-489)
Discusses Napoleon’s foreign relations policies during his years of influence.

Madelin, Louis. The Consulate and the Empire, 1809-1815. New York: AMS Press, 1967. (DAF The National History of France, vol. 7)
Official political history with bibliographies.

Muir, Rory. Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807-1815. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. (JFE 96-6112)
Evaluates Britain’s steadfast political policy of opposition to the French Emperor, and the consequences of British army opposition to the French forces.

Schom, Alan. One Hundred Days: Napoleon’s Road to Waterloo. New York: Atheneum; Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992. (JFE 92-10604)
In-depth examination of the confluence of political and diplomatic factors that determined Napoleon’s escape from Elba and the circumstances leading to his last stand at Waterloo.

Art and Decoration

The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789-1815. Katell le Bourhis, general editor. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; H.N. Abrams, 1989. (3-MML+ 90-4501)
Visually impressive survey history of dress during these periods, based on a popular exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum ’s Costume Institute.

For a more exhaustive bibliography of arts in the age of Napoleon, see The Empire and Regency Styles.