Very nice piece! Curious as to why Napoleon thought freeing the serfs would lead to so much bloodshed? What evidence did he have to give credence to that feeling?
What would you recommend as reading on Napoleon and the French Revolution in general? I re-read Kropotkin's the Great French Revolution every once and a while.
I think Napoleon's reading of the opinion serfs was incredibly astute, and was proven by the fact that these were the people who would ultimately lead the 1917 socialist revolution.
With the idea that prophets are never accepted in their home town, the most sympathetic biography of Napoleon I have read is by the Englishman Vincent Cronin.
As far as the French Revolution, I would always check out the great thinkers first, i.e. Marx, Trotsky, Hobsbawm, etc. As someone who lived in France for over a decade I also recommend A Socialist History of the French Revolution by Jean Jaurès, mainly because every modern political party in France claims Jaurès for their own. Does this say more about the average Frenchman or more about Liberal Democracy - that's something I plan to write about on this Substack one day!
Thank you for the recommendations! I'll check them out.
It would also be interesting to unpack the term Liberal Democracy itself. Perhaps it exists only as a term and not a reality. One needs to concretely define and be clear what the term means. I'm honestly not sure. Does one mean Parliamentary Democracy or Multi-Party Democracy. Is it just a series of concessions made by ruling elites faced with social/socialist pressure from below. To my mind actual Liberals, true ones, morphed into Socialists long ago. If by Liberals, one means Bourgeois Liberals, well didn't they morph into Fascists as a reaction around the same time. I mean even before the term was coined. I think about fascist backed militias like the Pinkertons in the US and their analogues in other countries like the Freikorps in Germany, intent on violent suppression of freedom/workers movements.
Anyway, what seems pretty clear to me is that, at least in the West, the struggle against plutocracy has never stopped.
And these fascistic, ultimately feudalistic, forces still rule our societies. Capitalist Fascism has undergirded, in a drive back to some form of feudalism, our so called Liberal Democracies for roughly 150 years now. The level of Fascism wholly depends on the level of push back from social movements, does it not. Tragically, the Left has been eviscerated over the last 50 years and we are seeing a resurgence of the true nature of western societies. Unfortunately, the Soviets did not defeat Fascism at the end of WW2, as is popularly said. Though they dealt it a heavy blow. Nah, the Americans swooped in to save their fascistic bedfellows.
I think this quote still applies and is enlightening “I thought that I should be able to make peace, and that the Americans were anxious for it. I was deceived and I deceived myself.” The Yanks like their plutocracy, old Puts!
Thank you for your informative writings. Although I am very interested in history, I knew very little about Napoleon. In fact I probably thought he was just another megalomaniac.
A question for you: I bought a book at a used book sale several years ago by Jean-François Baqué: L'homme qui devinait Napoléon JOMINI. Do you know anything about this book or Baqué?
Thank you very much. Napoleon's ego is one thing, but he was just one part of the French Revolution, right? And he undoubtedly carried the French Revolution forward for as long as the rest of Europe's awful monarchs would let him.
Never heard of Jean-François Baqué, sorry I can't help.
Great text! Greetings from Brazil
Very nice piece! Curious as to why Napoleon thought freeing the serfs would lead to so much bloodshed? What evidence did he have to give credence to that feeling?
What would you recommend as reading on Napoleon and the French Revolution in general? I re-read Kropotkin's the Great French Revolution every once and a while.
I think Napoleon's reading of the opinion serfs was incredibly astute, and was proven by the fact that these were the people who would ultimately lead the 1917 socialist revolution.
With the idea that prophets are never accepted in their home town, the most sympathetic biography of Napoleon I have read is by the Englishman Vincent Cronin.
As far as the French Revolution, I would always check out the great thinkers first, i.e. Marx, Trotsky, Hobsbawm, etc. As someone who lived in France for over a decade I also recommend A Socialist History of the French Revolution by Jean Jaurès, mainly because every modern political party in France claims Jaurès for their own. Does this say more about the average Frenchman or more about Liberal Democracy - that's something I plan to write about on this Substack one day!
Thank you for the recommendations! I'll check them out.
It would also be interesting to unpack the term Liberal Democracy itself. Perhaps it exists only as a term and not a reality. One needs to concretely define and be clear what the term means. I'm honestly not sure. Does one mean Parliamentary Democracy or Multi-Party Democracy. Is it just a series of concessions made by ruling elites faced with social/socialist pressure from below. To my mind actual Liberals, true ones, morphed into Socialists long ago. If by Liberals, one means Bourgeois Liberals, well didn't they morph into Fascists as a reaction around the same time. I mean even before the term was coined. I think about fascist backed militias like the Pinkertons in the US and their analogues in other countries like the Freikorps in Germany, intent on violent suppression of freedom/workers movements.
Anyway, what seems pretty clear to me is that, at least in the West, the struggle against plutocracy has never stopped.
And these fascistic, ultimately feudalistic, forces still rule our societies. Capitalist Fascism has undergirded, in a drive back to some form of feudalism, our so called Liberal Democracies for roughly 150 years now. The level of Fascism wholly depends on the level of push back from social movements, does it not. Tragically, the Left has been eviscerated over the last 50 years and we are seeing a resurgence of the true nature of western societies. Unfortunately, the Soviets did not defeat Fascism at the end of WW2, as is popularly said. Though they dealt it a heavy blow. Nah, the Americans swooped in to save their fascistic bedfellows.
I think this quote still applies and is enlightening “I thought that I should be able to make peace, and that the Americans were anxious for it. I was deceived and I deceived myself.” The Yanks like their plutocracy, old Puts!
That was a good, informative and interesting read. Thank you.
Thank you for your informative writings. Although I am very interested in history, I knew very little about Napoleon. In fact I probably thought he was just another megalomaniac.
A question for you: I bought a book at a used book sale several years ago by Jean-François Baqué: L'homme qui devinait Napoléon JOMINI. Do you know anything about this book or Baqué?
Thank you very much. Napoleon's ego is one thing, but he was just one part of the French Revolution, right? And he undoubtedly carried the French Revolution forward for as long as the rest of Europe's awful monarchs would let him.
Never heard of Jean-François Baqué, sorry I can't help.