UM professor wins award for new book on Napoleon

ORONO – University of Maine history professor Alex Grab has been named the first-prize winner in an international book competition of the International Napoleonic Society.

The award, which carries a stipend of $2,500, attracted 13 entries worldwide. Three were selected for the society’s literary honors. Grab received the top award for his most recent book, “Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe,” originally published in 2003 and now in reprint by Palgrave MacMillan publishers in London.

The International Napoleonic Society is a Montreal-based organization dedicated to promoting the study of the Napoleonic Era. The society gathers leading thinkers, writers, academics and historians in the field to create, review, make awards to and financially support Napoleonic scholarship.

In addition to his book, Grab has written numerous articles on the Napoleonic rule over Italy. What is significant about “Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe,” Grab explained, is that it is a manageable, 264-page book that tackles the transformation of Europe under the French general and later emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821, from the perspective of the countries Napoleon occupied.

The 10 states that comprised the Napoleonic Grand Empire included France, Belgium, Germany, the Illyrian Provinces, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The Illyrian Provinces included parts of the former Yugoslavia.

“Most of the books on Napoleon,” Grab explained, “focus on France and devote relatively short space to the rest of Europe. After all, Napoleon was a French emperor who conquered much of Europe. My book, on the other hand, focuses on Europe.”

Historians estimate that more than 200,000 books have been written on Napoleon, the subject of more books than any other individual in history, according to Ben Weider, president of the International Napoleonic Society.

Grab’s book dedicates a chapter to each of the countries Napoleon occupied and shows how his rule affected those countries’ economies, societies, militaries, governments, schools and tax systems.

Napoleon may be remembered for his military strength, but he also changed many aspects of life for the countries he ruled. He introduced the military draft, centralized governments, Code Napoleon, modern school system, and implemented other new policies and practices that were more efficient than those that had existed. At the same time, these policies meant the exploitation and subjugation of the occupied populations, according to Grab.

In his congratulatory letter to Grab, society president Weider said that the quality of Grab’s book, “especially in the area of research, originality, style and analysis, represents a significant contribution to Napoleonic studies.”

The book includes maps and chapters on the formation of the Napoleonic Empire, collapse of the Napoleonic Empire and the legacy of Napoleon.

An Old Town resident, Grab was born and raised in Israel and emigrated to the United States 30 years ago. He has been a faculty member at UMaine for 23 years.