The Shadow Emperor

May 21, 2018
Napoleon III, emperor of France from 1852 to 1870, is most often presented in English-language sources as a figure of fun or pathos, a simulacrum of his world-striding uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte. Historian Strauss-Schom inverts these stereotypes in an excellent biography, portraying Napoleon III as a builder and a reformer, a planter of forests, and a reclaimer of wasteland. He reconstructed and redefined Paris. He created jobs and sponsored department stores, overhauled educational and financial systems, and encouraged scientific and technical research. In these pages, he emerges as the underwriter of modern France. Yet, unlike his uncle, a man of war and statecraft, Napoleon III was a mediocre diplomat and an ineffective commander. He came to power at a time when Europe’s map was being redrawn, and he frequently misjudged international situations: his imperial ambitions generated unwanted confrontations with Britain; his Italian policies enabled unification, but did not complete the process; above all, he was repeatedly and spectacularly outmaneuvered by Prussia’s Otto von Bismarck. Napoleon III’s failures led directly to his own downfall and to France’s displacement as Europe’s primary power. This work’s perceptive synthesis of recent research will interest scholars, and its engaging presentation and fast-paced narrative will attract general readers.

June 15, 2018

Strauss-Schom (One Hundred Days) sheds much-needed light on France's Second Empire in this compelling biography of Emperor Louis-Napoleon III (1808-73). Raised in reverence of his famous uncle, Louis's single-minded determination to reestablish a Bonaparte empire carried him through an unsettled youth and two failed coup attempts to become president then emperor of a France little changed since Napoleon I's defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Focusing not on conquest but on the rebuilding and revitalization of France, Louis's regime laid the groundwork for the nation's future, modernizing its banking system to create a robust economy and transform Paris from a medieval city into a glittering cosmopolitan capital. Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian Strauss-Schom's portrayal, while sympathetic, doesn't gloss over Louis's flaws: his serial infidelities poisoned his relationship with Empress Eugénie, while his indecisive foreign policy culminated in the Franco-Prussian War. But in stressing the progressive even benevolent ideas that shaped the achievements of his reign, Strauss-Schom helps bring this Bonaparte out of the shadow of his more brutal forebear. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers of European history and historical biography.--Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

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