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Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is going to be the highlight of the year

There’s little doubt that this is going to be the best film about Napoleon made in a very long time, perhaps the best one ever. But for me it will depend a lot on how Scott depicts Napoleon. The word “tyrant” in the trailer isn’t a good sign.

And just a reminder for people like this guy who claim nonsense like “he was a shameless pathological liar who killed millions of people for his own insatiable vanity”, Napoleon didn’t start a single war. It was always the other European monarchs who attacked France, trying to restore the Bourbon monarchy. They were terrified that a successful French Revolution might start a trend in their own countries.

Napoleon wasn’t perfect, by any means. He made mistakes. Big mistakes. Huge mistakes! He was arrogant and ruled France with a strong hand. But he had his reasons for both of those things. In the context of his time and place, he was quite enlightened, worked his ass off to make France strong and to keep the Bourbons off the throne. Ultimately, of course, he failed. The united monarchs of Europe over-powered him. But this idea that he was some kind of psychotic tyrant is ridiculous and nobody who suggests that can be taken seriously.

All Napoleon Now Free!

I’ve decided to make the entire series FREE. Think of it as a Xmas present. Huzzah!

Inventing The Messiah

Just a plug for Cameron’s latest project:

A secular documentary about early Christianity called “Inventing The Messiah”. Check out the teaser video on Kickstarter and support it if you can! Whether you’re a Christian, atheist, agnostic, pastafarian, or something else, you will probably agree with us that the tale of the rise of Christianity is one of the most amazing in all of history. How did a fringe, desert, Jewish cult, whose founder ended up being executed by the authorities because he was accused of being a terrorist, manage to take over the Roman Empire?

 

 

The Vegas Sessions – Part One

On January 12, Cam, David, and Ray Harris, Cam’s co-host from the Life Of Caesar podcast, sat down in front of a live audience in Las Vegas for 70 minutes to discuss Napoleon, Caesar and Alexander.

The is the video of that session is now available for a measly $9 (US). Register for access here.

Once you’ve registered for access, you will be able to stream it from this site or download it to watch it on your phone, tablet, PC or TV. It’s a ~700 MB download.

The Rothschilds and Waterloo

I’ve always been fascinated with the story of how Nathan Rothschild supposedly used his early knowledge of the result of the Battle of Waterloo to make a killing on the London Stock Exchange. However, this new article claims that the story is false, just a piece of anti-Semitic libel. Unless you read the whole article. Buried towards the end of the article you read:

“So, while it is confirmed that Rothschild had early news, he was not the only one. Did Rothschild have time to buy shares? Apparently, but in the thin market of the period, it could not have been enough to accumulate holdings sufficient to earn him the millions that Dairnvaell wrote of.”

The entire article up to this point seems to be designed to discredit the old story – but then, at best, it moderates it, so say yes, he had early news, early enough to buy shares, but he probably didn’t make much money out of it.

What I find fascinating is that this story is always portrayed as anti-Semitic. While I don’t doubt at all that anti-Semitism was rife during the 19th century, there were plenty of reasons for people to hate the Rothschilds that had nothing to do with them being Jewish. For a start, Nathan had almost single-handedly financed the unjust British war effort against Napoleon. How many hundreds of thousands of deaths, how many destroyed homes and towns, were the result of his money?

 

A New Napoleon Podcast Is Online!

After a break of 3.5 years, WE’RE BACK, BABY!

Sir J. David Markham – yes, he’s an actual KNIGHT now (see photo below) –  and Cameron Reilly are back with a brand new episode. And what brought the show out of retirement, we hear you ask?

The wonderful new 800-page biography by Andrew Roberts “Napoleon The Great”, we reply.

 

Andrew joined us from NYC to explain how he manages to both be British *and* a fan of Napoleon; why Napoleon was a funny dude who cracked jokes even while on the battlefield; why Napoleon wasn’t the evil warmonger he’s often portrayed as by the British; why his marriage to Josephine wasn’t Romeo & Juliette; and what his biggest mistake was.

Andrew’s book has recently been awarded the Grand Prix prize by the Fondation Napoleon and as of this Saturday will be listed in the NY Times bestseller lists (which, as you can probably guess, doesn’t happen with Napoleonic books very often).

If you want to listen to the interview, you’ll need to be a premium subscriber. You can find the details about how to do that here.

Sir J. David Markham

Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast #60 – Andrew Roberts, Napoleon The Great

After a break of 3.5 years, WE’RE BACK, BABY!

Sir J. David Markham – yes, he’s an actual KNIGHT now (see photo below) –  and Cameron Reilly are back with a brand new episode. And what brought the show out of retirement, we hear you ask?

The wonderful new 800-page biography by Andrew Roberts “Napoleon The Great”, we reply.

 

Andrew joined us from NYC to explain how he manages to both be British *and* a fan of Napoleon; why Napoleon was a funny dude who cracked jokes even while on the battlefield; why Napoleon wasn’t the evil warmonger he’s often portrayed as by the British; why his marriage to Josephine wasn’t Romeo & Juliette; and what his biggest mistake was.

Andrew’s book has recently been awarded the Grand Prix prize by the Fondation Napoleon and as of this Saturday will be listed in the NY Times bestseller lists (which, as you can probably guess, doesn’t happen with Napoleonic books very often).

If you want to skip the preamble between David and Cameron and get straight to the interview, it starts about 20 minutes in.

Sir J. David Markham

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