Dilution of Heroes by Patrick J
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REVIEWS Dilution of Heroes by Patrick J. Walsh Napoleon and de Gaulle: Heroes and successors inherited from Napoleon an ad- The 20th century marked a further de- History ministration and a body of civil law; and volution from the 19th in what Eric Voegelin By Patrice Gueniffey from de Gaulle, a set of political institu- called “ideological deformations of reali- Belknap Press tions. Both men conceived of France as a ty.” Gueniffey writes: 416 pp., $35.00 nation of grandeur and believed that its people needed a unifying vision. From the most radical right to the Both Napoleon Bonaparte and Gueniffey is one of France’s leading revolutionary left, Action française Charles de Gaulle rose in a time of turmoil historians of the French Revolution and to communism, the same religion and war to restore order. Napoleon’s ser- Napoleon. His new book is not a strict com- was practiced, that of the direction vice to France lay in ending revolutionary parison of de Gaulle and Napoleon, nor is it of history and of inevitability. It has violence, while de Gaulle led free France a dual biography. Instead it is a wide-rang- been a hard time for great men. in the struggle to overcome Nazi dominat- ing historical essay on history, heroes, and ed Europe. The demerits on their balance how they shaped the events of their times. A further reduction of history without sheets matter little, as under the direction In our age of democratic dullness, heroes has been imposed by the European of these men France became greater. Gueniffey argues modern historical schol- Union’s standardized teaching of history. Quintessentially French, de Gaulle was arship often overlooks the element of heroic In the early 2000s, extra-European civiliza- born in Lille, France in 1890. During World influence on history. Alexis de Tocqueville tions entered European school programs en War II, he became the embodiment of the pointed out that when democracy replaced masse for the first time. To make room for French nation, which his very name now aristocracy the nature of historical schol- this new coursework, much of Europe’s own evokes. arship changed. In a democratic society, history had to be truncated or removed Conversely, the man born Napoleone di historical change is attributed to gener- from classrooms. The author believes the Buonaparte was not a native Frenchman. al causes and social forces. But in an aris- goal of this change was “to reduce all gran- Born in Corsica in 1769, he spoke French tocratic society it is attributed to the “will deur, all heroism to common proportions.” with an Italian accent, and changed his and temperament of certain men.” Gueniffey pulls no punches in his per- name to sound more French. Summarizing The author deplores reductionist devel- ceptive and wide-ranging book. For exam- his background to a journalist, Bonaparte opments of the 19th century as responsible ple, he notes that on the 200th anniversa- proclaimed himself to be “Corsican by for levelling disciplines like history, placing ry of the Battle of Austerlitz, the otherwise birth, French by adoption, and emperor them on the same level as social sciences ostentatious duo of then-President of the by achievement.” like psychology or physical sciences like ge- Republic, Jacques Chirac, and his prime Both men found themselves surround- ology. He bemoans modern European so- minister, Dominique de Villepin, abstained ed by chaos, and both “represented a so- ciety as having no sense of the future or the from celebrating France’s brilliant victory. lution, a way out, at a time when no one past, but only what he calls the “perpetual Instead, France joined Great Britain for could still imagine one.” Author Patrice present,” where egalitarianism reduces the the bicentenary of France’s defeat at the Gueniffey argues that both men forced stature of great men. Meanwhile, the most Battle of Trafalgar. otherwise irreconcilable parties to coex- mediocre are raised to the false greatness This book is not an ode to despair. It is ist, building lasting achievements atop a of celebrity and “celebrity is placed on the rather an appreciation of the imaginative series of political failures. In so doing their same footing as glory.” aspect of history to move men and women 32 above:tk Chronicles REVIEWS to acts of greatness. As Benjamin Disraeli was for France to create large tank units day comes that they order you to do some- wrote in his 1880 novel, Coningsby, “To be- backed up by artillery, supported by infan- thing that is contrary to common sense lieve in the heroic makes heroes.” try, and used in conjunction with air power. and the interest of the United States, you The details of Napoleon’s life are France fell in June 1940, but de Gaulle will have no choice but to obey.” perhaps better known than that of de refused to accept defeat. With just the Despite Roosevelt’s snub, every attempt Gaulle. Bonaparte rose on the upheaval clothes on his back, he left his family and to exclude de Gaulle or restrict his author- of the French Revolution. Former United flew to England. Through a series of radio ity during the war failed. Upon the libera- States President John Adams, reflecting broadcasts on the BBC, de Gaulle became tion of France on June 6, 1944, de Gaulle on Napoleon’s rise and demise, wrote: “a the embodiment and voice of free France. became head of the provisional govern- whirlwind raised him and the whirlwind De Gaulle was always conscious of his- ment. Two years later he abruptly resigned blowed him away to St. Helena.” tory. His father taught history, his grand- when the Fourth Republic sought a refer- De Gaulle rose almost at the last min- father was an antiquarian scholar and au- endum to create what de Gaulle regarded ute in May 1940, when he was quickly pro- thor, and his grandmother edited a Catholic as a weak constitution without executive moted to brigadier general and named newspaper and wrote 80 books during the power. It was sometimes necessary for a Undersecretary for War under Prime course of her life. De Gaulle rallied the leader to “withdraw from events before Minister Paul Reynaud. Previously a fig- French people under the symbol of Joan of they withdraw from you,” he said. ure of obscurity, wounded at the Battle Arc’s Cross of Lorraine declaring, “I have De Gaulle was right about the Fourth of Verdun in 1916, and captured by the picked up again the pieces of the sword.” Republic, which chewed up 21 prime min- Germans, de Gaulle spent almost three De Gaulle was inspired by the lines from isters from 1946 to 1958. But his principled years as a war prisoner during which time “La Ta-pisserie de Sainte Geneviève” by one resignation left him in the political wilder- he made five attempts at escape. of his favorite writers, Charles Péguy: ness for 12 years, until the Algerian crisis Promoted to captain, his ability and restored him to power. He established a writing talents were recognized by Marshal The weapons of Jesus are the strong Fifth Republic government headed Pétain, the “Hero of Verdun,” who consid- Cross of Lorraine, by a powerful president, a structure that ered de Gaulle the most intelligent offi- And the blood in the artery and continues to this day. The Fifth Republic’s cer in the French army. De Gaulle joined the blood in the vein, strong executive branch handled foreign Pétain’s staff as a ghostwriter, but the two And the source of grace and the and defense policies while appointing men later fell out in 1934 over the publi- clear fountain. prime ministers to care for the everyday cation of de Gaulle’s critique of the French operations of the government. military, Vers l’Armée de Métier (“Towards During World War II, De Gaulle faced In Gueniffey’s view, the aim of de a Professional Army”). De Gaulle argued “the unremitting hostility of Roosevelt, Gaulle’s Fifth Republic was to teach France for the modernization of the French mil- who with the terrible flippancy of an abys- self-reliance, and to chart an independent itary and new tactics for the use of tanks. mally shallow mind, used him as a tease in middle way between capitalism and com- In January 1940, during the so-called his relations with Churchill,” British jour- munism, for the greater glory of France. “phony war” before the German invasion in nalist Malcolm Muggeridge wrote. Julian As a faithful Roman Catholic, de Gaulle June, de Gaulle penned a prophetic mem- Jackson, in his 2018 biography De Gaulle, was disturbed by the materialism of post- orandum to French military leaders, warn- refers to Roosevelt’s behavior as “pragmat- war Europe, Gueniffey writes, and opined ing them that the supposedly impenetra- ic cynicism.” What a tragedy for the fu- that leadership should not be judged solely ble Maginot Line would not hold. ture of Europe that Roosevelt in his ea- by economic success. A mere “standard of In his memo, de Gaulle warned that the gerness for the Soviet Union to join the living should not be a national ambition,” development of tanks had changed the fun- United Nations shunned de Gaulle whom de Gaulle believed. Man had a higher des- damentals of modern warfare. French High he thought a “snob,” cultivating a friend- tiny that lay in the exercise of his free will Command was relying on the Maginot Line ship with Joseph Stalin instead. and which was not determined by glob- to protect France, while de Gaulle argued “You are very much for the United al events.