Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace

by Dominic Lieven

Overview

The first history of the epic defeat of Napoleon's empire told from the Russian perspective.

Though much has been written about Napoleon's doomed invasion of Russia and the collapse of the French Empire that ensued, virtually all of it has been from the Western perspective. Now, taking advantage of never- before-seen documents from the Russian archives, Dominic Lieven upends much of the conventional wisdom about the events that formed the backdrop of Tolstoy's masterpiece, War and Peace. Lieven's riveting narrative sweeps readers through epic battles, tense diplomatic exchanges on which the fate of nations hung, and the rise of Russia from near-ruin to Europe's liberator. Rich in detail, Russia Against Napoleon is a groundbreaking masterwork.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143118862
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/29/2011
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dominic Lieven is a senior research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a fellow of the British Academy. He previously taught Russian Studies at the London School of Economics for 33 years. His book Russia Against Napoleon won the 2009 Wolfson Prize for History and the Prix Napoleon.

Editorial Reviews

Dominic Lieven…is a distinguished scholar of the czarist empire, and in this superb book he has written his masterpiece. The story he tells—Russia's gargantuan struggle with Napoleon—will be known to most people through Tolstoy's War and Peace, and it takes a brave man to challenge the great novelist. But that indeed is Lieven's goal, and for the most persuasive of reasons. He believes that Tolstoy's account is badly misleading (Lieven has a historian's natural concern for the facts) and perhaps more important has skewed our view of Russia and contributed to our tendency to misunderstand and belittle its role in international affairs.
—The New York Times Book Review

Mark Mazower

"War," Thomas Hardy once wrote, "makes rattling good history." If you would like an example of exactly what Hardy meant, I commend Russia Against Napoleon…Mr. Lieven…does the English-speaking reader a service by telling this story from a distinctly Russian perspective, one looking west, not east…His character sketches of the main Russian players in this epic drama are sure, his depiction of Russian social, economic and military realities revelatory…This is a story of great sweep and drama, played out over the map of Europe by larger-than-life characters whose names are still familiar to us today. And Dominic Lieven, a master of the material and a fine writer, tells it rattling well.
—The New York Times

John Steele Gordon