Review of:

Charles J. Esdaile, Napoleon, France and Waterloo: The Eagle Rejected
by Michael Leggiere
British Journal for Military History, Vol 5 No 1 (2019)

“Esdaile ever strives to deconstruct the Legend and to reject the notion that Napoleon stood for anything that may be interpreted as progressive or commendable. Many of the eyewitness accounts that Esdaile cites are British rather than French; the few French contemporaries that he does cite are well-known for their hatred of Napoleon; and most of the French historians he cites are likewise anti-Bonaparte. He chastises numerous modern historians, including respected scholars such as Michael Broers, Alan Forrest, and Stephen Englund for finding in Napoleon a reformer ‘who was genuinely committed to building a new social and political order that was in many respects admirable’ (viii). He continues by expressing his disgust that ‘Napoleon remains a figure who continues to be associated not just with such personal qualities as romance, heroism and adventure, nor even with military genius, but also with freedom, progress, democracy, and all the advances of the modern world’ (viii). Esdaile seems genuinely bothered by the fact that the merchandise at the Waterloo gift shop gives the impression that Napoleon did indeed triumph at Waterloo. This of course is used to reinforce Esdaile’s contention that Napoleon may have lost the war but he won the peace, thanks to the Legend.”

http://journals.gold.ac.uk/index.php/bjmh/article/view/828

'Why', Esdaile asked,'is Napoleon Bonaparte like a squirrel?' His answer? 'Because, just like a squirrel, he was a tree-borne rat with great PR'. Har-de-har.