Napoleon’s Undefeated Marshal: Louis Davout and the Art of Leadership

REVIEW BY ANDRÉ VAN LOON To start with what this book is not: Martin Sullivan, a lecturer in business and previously an investment banker, does not give us a straightforward biography of Louis-Nicolas Davout, Duke of Auerstädt and Prince of Eckmühl, who lived between 1770 and 1823. The book does not delve into Davout’s lineage, education at the École Royale Militaire, first experiences in the revolutionary French army, or tensions with Napoleon during the campaign in Egypt. Nor does it look at Davout’s string of victories as Marshal commanding the Grande Armée’s Third Corps or his exile from power after Napoleon’s fall. Instead, Napoleon’s Undefeated Marshal is an an