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Mar 2023
43m 29s

#294 Napoleon

David Senra
About this episode

What I learned from reading Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell.

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[3:00] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them.

[4:00] John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254)

[4:14] Miami meetup with Shane Parrish

[7:31] His life was enormously important, endlessly fascinating, and connected to some of the most controversial and constantly reinterpreted events in the world history.

[8:37] Paul Johnson’s books:

Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225)

Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240)

Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) 

[10:54] Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Founders #226)

[12:20] He knew the importance of actively crafting his image in all available media.

[15:08] Napoleon found comfort and companionship in books

[17:02] The revolution was overturning age old hierarchies and giving worldwide prominence to previously obscure figures.

[17:24] Napoleon was ruthless.

[18:36] Only after that battle did I believe myself to be a superior man. And did the ambition come to me of executing the great things, which so far had been occupying my thoughts only as a fantastic dream.

[20:00] Many are the historical opportunities that have been lost for lack of talent or vision. In Napoleon's case, the man met his hour.

[20:13] He could see in a moment how to maneuver everything for maximum effect.

[21:03] Napoleon was a man of stone and iron.

[26:27] Napoleon was something new and the keenest observers understood it.

[29:06] I wanted to rule the world, who wouldn't have in my place?

[29:26] If papa could see us now.

[29:45] Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251)

[32:15] You might as well send a cow in pursuit of a rabbit. The Indians were accustomed to these woods.

[35:30] The Empire was increasingly coming to resemble a skyscraper built in haste without a proper foundation.

[35:58] Driven: An Autobiography by Larry Miller. (Founders #168)

[39:24] The key to victory was to plan and pursue a war exactly contrary to what the enemy wants.

[39:49] Hardcore History Ghosts of the Ostfront series

[41:08] The distracted do not beat the focused.

[42:36] Success is never permanent. The same person that built the empire, destroyed it.

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