Prince Louis Napoleon was born with a compelling sense of destiny. The eldest nephew of Bonaparte, he came from exile and ignominy to rule France, first as President then as Emperor for 22 years, from 1848 to 1870. Under his benevolent dictatorship, the nation grew in artistic fulfilment, industrial wealth and international influence - until catastrophic defeat at the hands of Bismarck in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 cast her back into the shadows.
In July 1858, Count Cavour, prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, met Napoleon III to plot the provocation of war with Austria, the result of which would be the complete expulsion of Habsburg power from Italy and the creation of an Italian confederation. This work describes the means whereby diplomacy was utilized to precipitate the war and traces its continuing role during and after the hostilities.
The culmination of decades of nationalist aspiration and cynical Realpolitik, the Second War of Italian Unification saw Italy transformed from a patchwork of minor states dominated by the Habsburg Austrians into a unified kingdom under the Piedmontese House of Savoy. Unlike many existing accounts, which approach the events of 1859–61 from a predominantly French perspective, this study draws upon a huge breadth of sources to examine the conflict as a critical event in Italian history. A concise explanation of the origins of the war is followed by a wide-ranging survey of the forces deployed and the nature and course of the fighting – on land and at sea – and the consequences for those involved are investigated. This is a groundbreaking study of a conflict that was of critical significance not only for Italian history but also for the development of 19th-century warfare.
Profiles the life and rollicking times of the man who became the Emperor Napoleon III, detailing his improbable rise, his theatrical politics, and the numerous liasons that made him the most scandalous ruler of the day
Louis Napoleon, the future Emperor Napoleon III, was fourteen years older than his first cousin Prince Napoleon. Notwithstanding this difference in age, an intimacy was established between them from an early date, and although at time a few clouds drifted over the atmosphere, nothing was ever to break the close connection binding them together. Their friendship, formed in a land of exile in which both passed their childhood and a portion of their youth, was proof against every trial, and endured up to the death of the Emperor.They were, however, very different in character, and in many points quite contrary to each other. In order to unfold the nature of this friendship, this work leaves aside official letters and keeps to those which reveal an intimate character. The reading of these letters, written with no eye to future publication, will assist the unprejudiced historian, more than anything else, to come to a true understanding of their real natures.
A breakout biography of Louis-Napoleon III, whose controversial achievements have polarized historians. Considered one of the pre-eminent Napoleon Bonaparte experts, Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian Alan Strauss-Schom has turned his sights on another in that dynasty, Napoleon III (Louis-Napoleon) overshadowed for too long by his more romanticized forebear. In the first full biography of Napoleon III by an American historian, Strauss-Schom uses his years of primary source research to explore the major cultural, sociological, economical, financial, international, and militaristic long-lasting effects of France's most polarizing emperor. Louis-Napoleon’s achievements have been mixed and confusing, even to historians. He completely revolutionized the infrastructure of the state and the economy, but at the price of financial scandals of imperial proportions. In an age when “colonialism” was expanding, Louis-Napoleon’s colonial designs were both praised by the emperor’s party and the French military and resisted by the socialists. He expanded the nation’s railways to match those of England; created major new transoceanic steamship lines and a new modern navy; introduced a whole new banking sector supported by seemingly unlimited venture capital, while also empowering powerful new state and private banks; and completely rebuilt the heart of Paris, street by street. Napoleon III wanted to surpass the legacy of his famous uncle, Napoleon I. In The Shadow Emperor, Alan Strauss-Schom sets the record straight on Napoleon III's legacy.
