[jalisco555]

Hanson hits the target yet again.

[tsomer]

Read anything by Paul Johnson. (On politics and history, at least)

[CatoRenasci]

Johnson is a very interesting character. His Intellectuals is a wonderfully scathing look at some of the most important figures of the modern world. For the most part, it is excellent. [I very much disagree with his reading of Nietzsche, but his view is neither uncommon or without evidence -- Nietzsche was a complex character, and I simply come out on the other side than Johnson does.] I highly recommend it. Johnson is especially good on Rousseau.

[Tancred]

Awesome...thanks for posting.

[Jason_b]

bumpforlater

[ffusco]

Next they'll go after Ceasar.

[nicollo]

Forget Barzinin, this is all the ammo I'll need to shoot up the Euros...

And, how beautifully written this article!

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Napoleon: A Penguin Life

[LexBaird]

A hit piece is of no more critical value than a hagiography. To dismiss Napoleon or Alexander as mere tyrants is to ignore their greater place in history. I won't be reading the book reviewed.

[Cronos]

As Johnson notes, "The example of Britain and the Scandinavian countries showed that all the desirable reforms that the French radicals brought about by force and blood could have been achieved by peaceful means."

Johnson does err a bit -- Britain had it's own revolution and civil war a century before the French, the Brits beheaded their King and formed a people's, well, republic. The tyrant Cromwell then seized power and menaced a lot of Europe and would have become a Napoleon if he hadn't died so quickly.

Scandanavia doesn't really count -- small nations with small populations and minuscule influence on the world. Not like the UK, France, Russia, etc.