The Lives of Napoleon

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/lives-napoleon

by samclemens • 5 years ago

36 38 5 years ago

TeeMassive• 5 years ago

The correspondences collection seems to be a very interesting read.

I've also enjoyed https://youtu.be/uRUfFeTmuc8 Henri Guillemin's 6 hours long presentation (French only, sorry). As someone who was only given a positive point of view growing up of Napoléon, I really appreciated the other side of the story.

eternalban3• 5 years ago

"In The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape (Profile, 2018), Mark Braude shows how even while rendered ‘invisible’ in his new, tiny dominion, Bonaparte remained a figure of fascination for locals and visitors alike. He even became a kind of tourist attraction, with people travelling [sic] from around Europe (and Britain, too) in a bid to catch a glimpse of or even to meet the ‘Corsican ogre’. Some were invited in by Napoleon: the British politician John Macnamara, visiting Elba out of curiosity, had a long conversation with him, during which he could not stop rubbing his eyes in amazement."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macnamara [note: this wiki page omits the mention of the above visit]

I remember watching a B/W (50s?) film on N. (and wish I could recall the title) where a completely revisionist/conspiracy story of his 'fantastic' return from Elba to France was told. In that film, an English visitor basically green lighted his return to France based on revised geopolitical calculations of the British.

So, to conspiracy fans' delight, we find another British "Macnamara" in Wiki (whose bio is rather thin) [1] but at least includes this delicious little factoid: "Macnamara's personal assistant in 1935–36 was the Soviet spy Guy Burgess."

Very little is ever said (afaik) in general popular accounts and histories of Napoleon Bonaparte about the role of Bankers in his rise, fall, rise, and final fall. Dickens, in his A Tale of Two Cities (with one of the said "cities" possibly a wink-wink reference to the City of London) does have English characters in the employ of a certain "Tellson's Bank" that mysteriously have rather liberal freedom of movement between the two nations during the general period of the French Revolution.

https://askinglot.com/what-is-tellsons-bank

"Tellson's Bank, Temple Bar, Fleet Street, London, England It is thought that Charles Dickens based Tellson's Bank on Child & Co Bank located at 1 Fleet Street in London. The bank is now owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_%26_Co.

Oh, fun. Banksters of the world Unite! /g

Mauricebranagh• 5 years ago

Well the fact that the UK bankrolled aka bribed a lot of the collation against France is well known.

Years ago I was at first Tuesday in London and thought that VC looks just like that Napoleonic bankers portrait that in all the history books - looked down and the name badge was "Rothschild" .

eternalban3• 5 years ago

I'm thinking also of figures such as Georges Danton and his possible banker connections, so include the bankrolling of the toppling of the Capetian Dynasty in that equation.

In one of the films on F.R. (either Danton (1983) or La Révolution Française (1989)) Robespierre makes a remark to the committee at the night of the arrest of Danton, Desmoulins, Séchelles, and Philippeaux, along the lines of 'if we don't move now, he'll have funding from the bankers in three days'.

nickik6• 5 years ago

Russia defeated Napoleon more then anybody else. Yes Britain did a lot and helped with money, but fundamentally, just as in WW2 Russia defeated Napoleon.

This gets lost in the nationalist history that were written in the next 100 years.

Money and supplies is valuable, but the Russian Army broke the French army. Russian intelligence borrowed deep into the French state and had all the information Russian light cavalry cut Napoleon of from information and made him blind. Russian light cavalry captured his communication and that is how they learned Paris was not defended. Russia supplied the largest amount of troupes.

Russia was Prussias senior partner. German historians make a great deal about the 'Volkssturm' but in reality the Prussian army was dependent on the Russian state. Prussian artillery was using Russian artillery.

Check out:

Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace

eternalban3• 5 years ago

p.s. on [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macnamara

apples_oranges3• 5 years ago

Napoleon should probably be actively forgotten, there's better people in history worth remembering. He was just a tyrant that caused a lot of suffering and death.

lostlogin• 5 years ago

Is there a leader who is know for their military conquests that you couldn’t say the same about?

apples_oranges3• 5 years ago

Sure, many generals who didn't start the wars they fought.

goto11• 5 years ago

Shouldn't we forget all of history then? Which ruler have not caused suffering or death for somebody?

apples_oranges3• 5 years ago

Maybe I phrased it badly. I think he's viewed too positively / heroically even, I think that's not warranted at all. And his actions should be re-evaluated.

But I'm not a historian, just a guy who likes reading and I haven't read anything yet that justifies for example when a modern day French Presidents honors Napoleon.

asd42322• 5 years ago

Cherrypicking only parts of history you like to be remembered is something totalitarians have always enjoyed. It's always a bad idea if you believe in freedom, human rights and democracy, no exceptions.

throwaway595532• 5 years ago

He was one of the greatest men in History, and everyone should look up to him as an example.

MomoXenosaga• 5 years ago

Napoleon is Europe's Oda Nobunaga. A demon who changed Europe forever.

holoduke• 5 years ago

He is one of the key persons who managed to reduce the power of religious institutions. And thats a good thing. Religion created an exceptional cruel period in Europe for about 1300 years.

keiferski4• 5 years ago

I always take any opportunity to recommend The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast. Over a hundred hours about his life and times.

https://napoleonbonapartepodcast.com/

eirki• 5 years ago

Also: The Age of Napoleon. https://ageofnapoleon.com

keiferski4• 5 years ago

Only one episode is listed and it goes to a dead link. Is this online somewhere else?

primq2• 5 years ago

I have yet to listen to The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast mentioned by the OP, but The Age of Napoleon is probably the best podcast I have ever listened to. I would strongly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in Napoleon.

throwaway595532• 5 years ago

I can't recommend enough the book "Napoleon the great" by Andrew Roberts.

The Lives of Napoleon

Related Stories