Reddit reviews Napoleon The Great

Sigh.

I would like to recommend you a book Napoleon the Great. The audio book edition is also really well read.

One of my personal observations from this book was regarding Napoleon's rise following the revolution.

Napoleon was Italian and his father was a minor court administrator in Corsica. At that time Italy was not yet a nation state, just a collect of city states and in order to sure up political influence, all Corsican nobility where allowed to claim admittance to the French court. Napoleon's father saw an opportunity and sent his young son to the French military school.

Fast forward a couple of years and Napoleon is now an officer in the French army. He was very well read and had written a couple of minor essays in support of the revolution. With the majority of the officers coming from French nobility, many fled (or were executed) as the revolution heated up. Napoleon was one of the few people with officer training and experience but was outside of the traditional French aristocracy and could be trusted as a revolutionary. Napoleon was a singlely talented individual, but without the circumstances of his origin, such talent may never have seen the light.

With Napoleon's personal story on your mind (as well as JP's comments about how powerful the ability to write makes you) I would like you to re-consider your stance on the Jews.

The Jews maintained their unique culture and literary traditions while literacy was lacking in the general population. Despite their high level of education they were often excluded from society due to their religious differences. Because of their education (and freedom from leading restrictions) they were often wealthy, and that wealth plus cultural exclusion would often lead to persecution.

It is easy to hypothesis that this tradition of both high education and social exclusion would put them in the perfect position if there was ever some large scale social unrest. Like Napoleon, once the educated ruling class fled (or were killed) they would be the only ones with the skills to lead. Secondly, as they had been ostracised by the ruling classes, it is only natural that they would foment revolutionary thinkers and be trusted by the masses.

There is no Jewish conspiracy. They didn't plot and they certainly didn't benefit from it. Rather, just as Napoleon was an educated individual in rare position to make use of his education, so too certain Jewish individuals, who benefited from their cultural heritage, were in a position to take advantage of the situation of large social change.

"Napoleon: A Life" and "Napoleon the Great" are the same book. The US release has a different name for some reason. This should help with price shopping. Life is a cheaper hardcover. Great is a cheaper paperback.

https://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-Great-Andrew-Roberts/dp/0141032014

https://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-Life-Andrew-Roberts/dp/0143127853

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Napoleon-Great-Andrew-Roberts/0141032014/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482429410&sr=1-1&keywords=napoleon

I'm a casual history reader, not a historian but i found Andrew Roberts book on Napoleon really interesting also gonna recommend Zeno the perils of power in 5th centuary Constantinople

Currently gathering books about Metternich for a video, ill post the best books here, though some are out of print