Review Policy

Napoleon Magazine

Book Review

by Dana Lombardy

When Napoleon magazine was published by The Emperor's Press of Chicago, we felt it was inappropriate for us to review books produced by our parent company. Now that Napoleon Journal is published by a separate, independent company (Napoleon LLC in California), we believe these books should also be examined. Scott Bowden's Napoleon and Austerlitz and Christopher Duffy's Eagles Over the Alps are the first to be considered. As we have begun selling books through the journal, some readers have expressed their concern that our reviews may now lack objectivity (one correspondent went so far as to suggest that we were writing reviews to sell books).

Although this accusation is patently ridiculous, we want to take this opportunity to explain our editorial process to remove any doubt about the integrity of our reviewers. We select the books based on the reviews we receive, as well as those recommended by our readers, rather than writing reviews based on the books we wish to sell.

Furthermore, we do not endorse every book we sell. For example, there are strong differences of opinion about Peter Hofschröer's Waterloo series, as we elaborated in depth in issue #14. In this issue, Scott Bowden clearly found the flaws in Digby Smith's Data Book far more serious than the reviewer in issue #14 did. Ultimately, we place our faith in the discernment of our readers.

Last issue we noted in this column that we were exploring the possibility of publishing our own books. These may include special editions similar to the journal's format, but devoted to a single topic. We are much closer to this reality and hope to have an official announcement by next issue.

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