Another review
Adventures In Historyland
"When writing biography it is usually best that the biographer like the subject they are righting about. In the first volume, Broers trod a fairly even path, this is sustained in Spirit of the Age. He neither has an axe to grind nor does he appear to pay homage were it is not due. This book, even more than the first is allot to do with military glory. Never quite spilling into hagiography, he does however finding himself bowing the knee to the legend now and then. A fairly easy way to tell if someone would die for Napoleon is to ask them whether or not they would have had Marshal Bernadotte shot for his inaction at Jena-Auerstadt. Broers makes a good case for Bernadotte richly deserving a bullet, though he seems to wish the marshal’s blood as recompense for the dead of III Corps."