Apr 14, 2021
“I saw the Emperor – this world-soul – riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it." You might recognize Hegel’s description of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican-born French emperor, ruler of Europe's fate for nearly two decades. Why on earth are my two favorite European podcasters riffing on Napoleon, I hear you ask? Partly because this year marks the 200th anniversary of his death in exile at Saint Helena. But more fundamentally, a connecting thread throughout our show endeavors to define the European experience by way of political, cultural and intellectual History. When it comes to delineating what makes us European, History rarely features if at all; and when it does, the post-1945 imperative of transcending it has a way of shadowing that past which isn't found to be symbolically valuable to supranational ideals. And yet if you are in continental Europe, your legal and administrative structure is most likely directly inherited from Napoleonic France, to cite just one form of inheritance. Does that legacy make Napoleon a great European? Listen to leading historians Michael Broers and Adam Zamoyski grapple with the question.
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