
Glory Days: Adam Zamoyski's “Napoleon” - magda_wang
https://www.weeklystandard.com/algis-valiunas/adam-zamoyski-napoleon-review-glory-days
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ajuc
Fun fact - Napoleon is almost a national hero in Poland thanks to recreation
of kinda-Poland (Warsaw Duchy) and almost defeating Russia. He's even
mentioned in Polish anthem.

Adam Zamoyski being Polish might have been inspired by that to treat Napoleon
more fairly (or at least differently) than English (and American) literature.

~~~
piokoch
That's true. I think Poland is the only country where Napoleon is (was?)
perceived as a hero - for a good reason, he was the enemy of Poland's enemies.
The rest of Europe considered him to be someone more like Hitler of his times
- for a good reasons too - battles that he fought were really bloody, he
didn't care about his own soldiers' life, he didn't care about civilians being
killed (those were more civilized times and typically soldiers fought only
soldiers), as soon as he did away with Catholic Church influence on government
he made slavery legal again.

Polish literature that made Napoleon to be a hero and symbol of freedom was
also detached from the reality. Napoleon indeed created Duchy of Warsaw
(Poland didn't exists at that time) but its king was not Polish but it was
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. Polish Legions that were part of Napoleon's
army were eventually sent to Haiti to put down Haitian Revolution. So legions
that were created to fight for Poland freedom and independence were used to
fight other people who wanted the same for themselves (some legion soldiers
even joined Haitian rebels). In addition out of 6000 soldiers sent roughly 70
percent were killed (mostly by tropical diseases), only about 400 soldiers
came back. So, effectively, Polish army lost all those people doing nothing
good for the sake of Poland.

~~~
goto11
> The rest of Europe considered him to be someone more like Hitler of his
> times

This is absolutely not true. He was revered by many idealists at the time all
over Europe. Just take Germans like Goethe or Hegel. The comparison to Hitler
is totally anachronistic.

> as soon as he did away with Catholic Church influence on government he made
> slavery legal again

Can you elaborate on that? My impression was that slavery had been abolished
by the revolution which also tried to do away with religion. Napoleon era was
partially a reaction against the excesses of the revolution, hence re-
instating slavery and tolerating the church.

~~~
jhbadger
Well, the Spanish at least certainly weren't fans. One of the most famous
anti-war paintings is Goya's "The Third of May 1808", depicting Napoleon's
soldiers executing resistance fighters.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_of_May_1808](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_of_May_1808)

~~~
goto11
Yes, and on the other hand you have works like the Puccini opera Tosca where
Napoleon is the harbinger of freedom which liberates Rome from tyranny and
oppression of the Church. It just goes to show there were differing opinions
around Europe. As another example he gave Jews full civil rights (which of
course offended the church greatly), which also makes the comparison to Hitler
ridiculous.

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lkrubner
For anyone who likes Adam Zamoyski, I include several very long excerpts from
his other book here:

[http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/poland-was-
shockingly...](http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/poland-was-shockingly-
liberal-in-the-1400s)

When I started dating a woman from Poland I decided I should learn something
about the history of her country, and she recommend Adam Zamoyski to me.

I was surprised to learn about Poland. When I wrote “Poland was shockingly
liberal during the 1400s” I was expressing my discovery of Poland’s experiment
with democracy, which every Pole knows about but few other Westerners know
about.

~~~
billfruit
James Michener wrote a novel "Poland", like his other novels is a very
readable slightly fictionalized account of a country/topic.

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hristov
The more I learn about modern history and current politics the more I realize
that modern society is greatly harmed by the worshipful study of past
warmongering despots.

A lot of the seemingly irrational and idiotic decisions taken by modern
western politicians can perhaps be explained by the fact that they worshiped
julius ceaser, alexander the great, napoleon, etc. at young impressionable
age.

So sure we should study napoleon, but lets not worship him. In my opinion
Napoleon is best remembered as part of the retreat from moscow. His army just
a massive mob of running, freezing, starving men tripping along a snow covered
path littered with frozen corpses and gold and silver and silk that they stole
and realized they couldn't carry home. The great emperor abandoning his army
and running quickly away on a fast sled, because he was already facing a coup
at home.

~~~
crocal
I respectfully disagree. Napoleon should be primarily remembered for the “Code
Civil”. That stuff is a towering good deed, and dwarfs any battle won or lost.
It’s reported that Napoleon himself admitted that, but I never could confirm
the veracity of this quote. EDIT: typo.

~~~
jerry40
Sounds quite cynical considering hundreds of thousands of soldiers and
civilians who have died because of Napoleon's ambitions.

~~~
goto11
"because of Napoleons ambitions" \- it is pretty unfair to lay the blame for
the wars solely on Napoleon. The wars started because the monarchies of Europe
ganged up against France after the revolution because they saw France was
weakened and they wanted to prevent the ideas of the revolution to spread.
Napoleon rose to prominence during these wars but just happened be be an
extremely successful general. When France started winning, the propaganda of
the monarchies like England painted him as a "madman" who wanted to "conquer
the world", but from the viewpoint of France these were defensive wars.

Of course England at the time was fighting merciless wars of conquest all
around the world in building their colonial empire. So they couldn't claim
there were anything morally wrong with conquering the world. Instead their
propaganda focused on the fact that Napoleon was a _commoner_ rather than of
old royal stock - something which was both offensive and scary to the old
monarchies.

~~~
jerry40
I understand your point of view. Of course I simplifed his reasons too much.
But still, I have strong impression that he was too 'romantic' and passionate
to be a winner who would remain in the history of mankind as one of the
greatests rulers. His war in Russia was unbelievably daring plan, for example.
Did he just want to be equal to Batu khan and others who had taken Moscow too?
I would not be surprized at all. Again, it is just my personal impression, it
can be far from reality of course.

