Ramblings & ephemera
From Louis Menard’s “From the Ashes: A new history of Europe since 1945″ (The New Yorker [28 November 2005]: 168):
[Tony Judt, author of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945] notes that France, a country with a population of some forty million, was administered by fifteen hundred Nazis, plus six thousand Germen policemen. A skeleton [...]
Posted on October 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, history, law, politics | Comments Off
From Wikipedia’s “French Revolution” (5 July 2006):
On July 14, 1789, after hours of combat, the insurgents seized the Bastille prison, killing the governor, Marquis Bernard de Launay, and several of his guards. Although the Parisians released only seven prisoners; four forgers, two lunatics, and a sexual offender, the Bastille served as a potent symbol of [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history | Comments Off
From Wikipedia’s “Napoleon I of France” (5 July 2006):
The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat; the Army had begun as over 650,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the Berezina River (November 1812) to escape. In total French losses in the campaign were 570,000 against about 400,000 [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history | Comments Off
From Napoleonic Literature’s “The Court and Camp of Buonaparte: The Ministers: Fouche“:
[Fouche,] who was so profoundly versed in the state of parties, — who was obeyed by one, courted by another, and feared by all; who, by means of his countless agents, could at any time congregate the scattered elements of resistance to the [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, politics | Comments Off
From Napoleonic Literature’s “The Court and Camp of Buonaparte: The Ministers: Fouche“:
But whatever might be the merit of his services at Nantes, it was far eclipsed by those he had soon afterwards the happiness to perform at Lyons. On his arrival there with Collot d’Herbois, he announced to the terrified citizens the reward they [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, politics | Comments Off
From Central Missouri State University’s “Joseph Fouche“:
Fouché established an organization of policing and intelligence gathering that was decades ahead of its time. Napoleon, frequently on military campaigns, depended on Fouché’s information to maintain control over France and his military effectiveness. Six days a week, every week, Fouché sent secret reports to Napoleon. The information represented [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, law, politics | Comments Off
From Central Missouri State University’s “Joseph Fouche“:
As chief police officer of the revolutionary government, Fouché was given the power to impose the government’s policies quickly and mercilessly. He demonstrated his willingness to accomplish this feat when, after the population of Lyons revolted against the government, he personally presided over the mass executions in that unhappy [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature | Comments Off
From Central Missouri State University’s “Joseph Fouche“:
Such was Fouché’s accomplishment that Chaumette, a Jacobin extremist in the Assembly, publicly praised his efforts:
Citizen Fouché has worked the miracles of which I have been speaking. Old age has been honored; infirmity has been succored; misfortune has been respected; fanaticism has been destroyed; federalism has been annihilated; the [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature | Comments Off
From Central Missouri State University’s “Joseph Fouche“:
Moreover, Fouché was not content with merely attacking the aristocracy. He orchestrated a campaign of atheistic fervor never before seen in Europe. He abolished clerical celibacy and ordered priests to marry or adopt a child within a month. Churches were pillaged, and priests were forbidden from wearing their robes [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history | Comments Off
From "The Habit of Democracy" by Adam Gopnik in the 15 October 2001 issue of The New Yorker, a review of two books about Alexis de Tocqueville:
At a deeper level, too, [Tocqueville's] turn of mind was French: witty but humorless, indifferent to empirical details, constantly searching for the lucid abstraction, what he called the "general [...]
Posted on October 16th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, history, politics | Comments Off
I wish Mother Nature would decide if she wants to snow or rain or what.
Added a product to their wishlist:
Good God a'mighty but that big man positively.WAILS on the geetar!
The amazingly loud & good Tony Campanella is just starting