David A. Bell is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton. Born in New York and educated at Harvard, Princeton and the École Normale Supérieure, he previously taught at Yale and Johns Hopkins, where he also served as Dean of Faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of three prize-winning books, most recently The First Total War (2007).

"There are plenty of big lives of Napoleon, and the last few years have seen the appearance of a whole new crop. Their general standard has been very high, but the detail is often daunting, not to mention the weight in the hand. Pocket-sized biographies by reputable scholars have been surprisingly less common. The best English one in recent times, by Felix Markham, was published as long ago as 1963. Napoleonic studies have moved on considerably since then, and David Bell has been one of the leaders in advancing the field with his survey in 2007 of what he called the First Total War. Now he offers a crisp and up-to-date introduction to the amazing career of the man at the centre of it all. -" -- William Doyle, History

"David Bell's 'concise biography' is a welcome contribution .Bell's vivid style, choice quotations, and serious purpose make his short biography a fascinating introduction to one of the most influential men in history."--Howard G. Brown, Journal of Modern History