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The Lives of Napoleon
- TeeMassive 5y agoThe correspondences collection seems to be a very interesting read. I've also enjoyed https://youtu.be/uRUfFeTmuc8 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.
- eternalban 5y 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 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 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_%26_Co. Oh, fun. Banksters of the world Unite! /g
- Mauricebranagh 5y agoWell 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" .
- eternalban 5y agoI'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'.
- nickik 5y agoRussia 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
- eternalban 5y agop.s. on [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macnamara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macnamara
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- apples_oranges 5y agoNapoleon 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 5y agoIs there a leader who is know for their military conquests that you couldn’t say the same about?
- apples_oranges 5y agoSure, many generals who didn't start the wars they fought.
- keiferski 5y agoThis is a misunderstanding of the situation. Napoleon largely “started” his wars because the rest of monarchical Europe was conspiring to have him removed.
- Foobar8568 5y agoConspiring? Other monarchies basically went to war to stop the French revolution so before Napoleon was even known (Napoleon got known through his victory in the "siege de Toulon" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Toulon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Toulon )
- keiferski 5y agoI always take any opportunity to recommend The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast. Over a hundred hours about his life and times. https://napoleonbonapartepodcast.com/ https://napoleonbonapartepodcast.com/
- eirki 5y agoAlso: The Age of Napoleon. https://ageofnapoleon.com https://ageofnapoleon.com
- keiferski 5y agoOnly one episode is listed and it goes to a dead link. Is this online somewhere else?
- primq 5y agoI have been listening to the podcast on Spotify[1]. [1] https://open.spotify.com/show/6xbzk3HMnP0pRohjm6hBvz?si=9lZicU-nR0qY_0U4Qs8riw https://open.spotify.com/show/6xbzk3HMnP0pRohjm6hBvz?si=9lZi...
- primq 5y agoI 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.
- throwaway59553 5y agoI can't recommend enough the book "Napoleon the great" by Andrew Roberts.