Great! I hope you'll let us know what you think of these books once you've perused them.
Your enthusiasm has been contagious, I'm just back from a bookshop where I picked up second-hand copies of the
Nouvelle histoire de la France médiévale published by Points. It's been some time since I did some serious, focused reading of history books. For the last few years I've generally just read the bare minimum I needed to understand Medieval Latin or Manchu texts, so that was all scattered. Now could be the time for some more organised knowledge.
Carmody wrote:And if you ever have some extra time, I would love to know hear how you think people in France view Napoleon today. I sense as with most things it changes with time.
That's a tough question and I don't know if I have anything to offer really.
My first instinct would be to say that the average Frenchman is unlikely to hold any sort of opinion about Napoleon. It just seems too far away and irrelevant to people's everyday lives to matter in any kind of way.
If you asked 100 random people in the street, would you find some who know something about him? Probably. Would many (or even any) of these know enough to have formed an opinion about Napoleon? I doubt it.
I remember that in 2005 there was some debate on whether France had done enough to celebrate the 200th anniversay of the battle of Austerlitz. Many said no and pointed out that France had sent its aircraft carrier, the
Charles de Gaulle, to the British celebration of Trafalgar just a year before. So the whole thing sparked a debate on national self-mortification, whether Napoleon's victories should even be celebrated, etc.
The same kind of thing happened this year (200th anniversary of his death) but does this mean the French have strong opinions about Napoleon and his heritage or was it just some people trying to stir things up for their own benefit (political or otherwise)?