Before his world-changing clashes with Britain and Russia, Napoleon cut his teeth as a general by leading a 1798 expedition against Egypt. While delving into the psychology of the military titan and his entourage, Juan Cole crafts a multi-faceted portrait of the daily travails of the soldiers in Napoleon's army, including how they imagined Egypt and how their expectations differed from what they found. Cole ultimately reveals how this first modern attempt to invade the Arab world invented the rhetoric of liberal imperialism.