Leggiere's two-volume study of the 1813 campaign is an excellent work that fills a much needed void in Napoleonic scholarship. Despite its importance, the campaign has elicited very little attention from modern scholars with the standard works on 1813, Petre and Maude's books, coming from the early twentieth century. Leggiere's main area of study is modern Prussia and his scholarship incorporates a lot of the relevant historiography produced on Central Europe during the Napoleonic period. Additionally, Leggiere has also had the benefit of a close relationship with Alexander Mikaberidze, who is one the foremost scholars on Napoleonic Russia today. This has allowed him to incorporate Russian materials and primary sources, which is one of the serious blindspots of older historiography on the Napoleonic wars; scholars writing during the Cold War often did not have direct access to Russian materials and as a result, their treatment of Russia is somewhat mediocre (Elting in particular was guilty of this sin). The book tends to draw a very critical eye towards Napoleon and there is a considerable amount of pages devoted to the back and forth diplomacy surrounding the campaign. This diplomatic focus has drawn the ire of some Amazon reviewers who lament the military descriptions were lax, but this is kind of missing the forest for the trees. Military operations in 1813 were often shaped by the diplomatic situation and focusing too much on martial affairs has a tendency to obscure the fact that Napoleon had sunk himself into a very deep hole in 1813 and what was remarkable about the 1813 campaign is that the Allied coalition actually managed to unite and hold together, which in and of itself, warrants considerable attention to the politics of the period.

Overall, it is an excellent piece of scholarship and both volumes are worth picking up.