Happy Birthday El Presidente!

Today (Dec 26) is David’s birthday! I would tell you his actual age but I wouldn’t want to get myself into trouble. Please raise your glasses in a toast – to the President!

Napoleon’s Trip to St Helena – The Weekly Aurora

My Xmas present from my awesome little sister Anita today was a newspaper called the “Weekly Aurora” from Pennsylvania and dated September 22, 1815. The back two pages, in a section called “Latest Foreign Intelligence”, contain detailed news of Napoleon’s exile to St Helena, including accounts of Napoleon’s response to the news of his destination, as we as detailed account of St Helena. I’ve scanned these pages, and the masthead, for your enjoyment. I always find it exciting to read accounts of Napoleon’s activities from contemporary newspapers. This particular newspaper doesn’t seem too fond of the Emperor. I love this sentence:

“At length, after a career of insolent pretensions on one hand, and of strange and ungovernable curiosity on the other, the departure of this disturber of the world has taken place.”

Foreign Intelligence Page 1
Foreign Intelligence Page 2

TPN Server Issues

In case you didn’t notice, we’ve been down for a couple of days. As you can read on the TPN blog, it was due to a hard drive failure on one of the servers. We’re in the process of re-building and it might take a few more days. At the moment we’re missing all of the media files (audio and video). I’ll get these re-uploaded asap. Stay tuned.

The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast #48 – Rafe Blaufarb

Continuing our series of chats with eminent Napoleonic scholars, today our guest is Rafe Blaufarb, Ben Weider Eminent Scholar and Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at Florida State University.

Dr. Blaufarb is a specialist in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. He is the author of several books on the social and political history of the French military during this period: The French Army, 1750-1820: Careers, Talent, Merit (Manchester, 2002) and Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835 (Tuscaloosa, 2006). He has published articles in the American Historical Review, Annales, H.S.S., Comparative Studies in Society and History, French Historical Studies, and Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française on the French army, the French nobility, noble fiscal privilege, and the geopolitics of Latin American independence. His current research focuses on the politics of property during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era.

Rafe joins us to talk about the history and focus of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at FSU, how he got interested in Napoleonic studies, Napoleon’s views on economics and how he might have dealt with America’s current financial crisis, and Napoleon’s legacy in the Western Hemisphere.

NAP 01




NAP 01

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly

Do you think a fan of The Emperor owns this Brisbane Benz I spotted yesterday?

As Nicholas Stark pointed out in the comments to the last show, December 2 was the 204th anniversary of Napoleon and Josephine’s coronation. I hope you all raised a glass of your finest medication in his honour. I did!

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