Boney of contention

We must not allow history to become a sourcebook for theme park designers ( Napoleon Bonapark, page 5). We make a mistake if we plunder it merely for entertainment.

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If we let a figure like Napoleon – as controversial now as he was in his day – become a caricature hero we may as well forget about history offering valuable lessons.

Napoleon was many things: brilliant general, enlightened despot, dictator, megalomaniac, disseminator of humanitarian European values, genius, flawed man. It is easy to romanticise him but we should never do it in such a way that we forget the reality of the man and become incapable of distinguishing his successes from his failure. Simple he most certainly was not.

napoleon themepark letters and comment

napoleon themepark letters and comment