Napoleon For and Against
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
"My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading." --Pt. II, sc. v, Spirit Sinister, Thomas Hardy |
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Napoleon For and Against (1946) is a book by Pieter Geyl.
In 1940, Geyl wrote an article on how historians view Napoleon. It was due to be published in June 1940, but after the German occupation in May 1940, the publishers declined to publish Geyl's article out of the fear that comparisons could be made between Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. In September 1940, Geyl used his article for the basis of series of lectures at the Rotterdam School of Economics.
Napoleon For and Against was an account of how French historians of different ages and views have regarded the French emperor. From Napoleon's time to the present, French historians have presented Napoleon as either a Corsican adventurer who brought death and destruction to France or as a patriotic Frenchman who brought glory and prosperity. Geyl used his book to advance his view that all historians are influenced by the present when writing history and thus all historical writing is transitory. In Geyl's view, there never can be a definitive account for all ages because every age has a different view of the past. For Geyl the best that historians could do was to critically examine their beliefs and urge their readers to do likewise. Geyl felt that history was a progress of "argument without end", but did not feel that this meant that an "anything goes" interpretation of history was acceptable.
References
- Napoleon: voor en tegen in de Franse geschiedschrijving, 1946: translated by O. Renier into English as Napoleon, For and Against, New Haven, CT; Yale University Press, 1948.
