In the autumn of 1813, all of Europe looks to Leipzig - filled with fear, but also with hope. Over four days, the fate of the continent is decided here, in the largest battle in human history to date: Napoleon's troops, reinvigorated after the failed Eastern campaign, confront the coalition of Prussia, Russia, Austria, England, and Sweden at the gates of the city. From October 16 to 19, the fighting, which will go down in history as the "Battle of the Nations," lasts with six hundred thousand soldiers from over a dozen nations, ninety thousand dead, and countless civilian casualties. On the 200th anniversary of the battle, the climax of the Wars of Liberation, Andreas Platthaus creates a vivid panorama of those days between devastation and ecstatic joy, the downfall of the old world, and the dawn of a new one. He describes the course of events, showing how rulers and...