flâneur

Founders Notes: Napoleon

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Napoleon David A. Bell Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity to dominate Europe through a mix of military genius, relentless ambition, and masterful self-promotion, all while exploiting the upheavals of the French Revolution. His extraordinary life embodied both the breathtaking possibilities and catastrophic dangers of extraordinary personal power, showing how a man with genuinely exceptional qualities could reshape the world through strategic brilliance, political ruthlessness, and an understanding of how to manage celebrity in service of power. His life was enormously important, endlessly fascinating, and connected to some of the most controversial and constantly reinterpreted events in world history. Reading about Napoleon will increase ambition. Why, then, this book? While the current crop of biographies has many virtues, concision is not among them. Not only do many readers not have the time and patience for such tomes, but it is all too easy to get lost in the welter of details. He is the man that all the men on the field had sworn to die for. He is the man who, born in obscurity, acquired the greatest military reputation of any European military commander in centuries whil

Napoleon David A. Bell Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity to dominate Europe through a mix of military genius, relentless ambition, and masterful self-promotion, all while exploiting the upheavals of the French Revolution. His extraordinary life embodied both the breathtaking possibilities and catastrophic dangers of extraordinary personal power, showing how a man with genuinely exceptional qualities could reshape the world through strategic brilliance, political ruthlessness, and an understanding of how to manage celebrity in service of power. His life was enormously important,…

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