Leggiere M.V. Napoleon and Berlin. The Franco-Prussian War in North Germany, 1813

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. 384 pgs. At a time when Napoleon needed all his forces to reassert French dominance in Central Europe, why did he fixate on the Prussian capital of Berlin? Instead of concentrating his forces for a decisive showdown with the enemy, he repeatedly detached large numbers of troops, under ineffective commanders, toward the capture of Berlin. In Napoleon and Berlin, Michael V. Leggiere explores Napoleon’s almost obsessive desire to capture Berlin and how this strategy ultimately lost him all of Germany. This is Volume 1 in the University of Oklahoma Press Campaigns and Commanders series.