Greg Afinogenov writes:

Marie-Pierre Rey acknowledges the contradictions of Tsar Alexander I, but manages to extract from them a remarkably coherent image of a principled man who embraced constitutionalism when it still smelled of the guillotine, who gave constitutions to Finland, Poland and France, and who sought to ensure the survival of constitutional systems all over post-Napoleonic Europe – but who ultimately failed his country as well as his ideals. The Tsar Who Defeated Napoleon leaves no doubt about the imprint its subject has left on the liberal and, however uneasily, united Europe of today.

(LRB 7 February 2013)

Northern Illinois University Press | Hardback 504 pp. |ISBN: 9780875804668