The Bulletin

Napoleon published his own campaigns to the French public while the fighting was still going on. Within his lifetime the word for those reports became French for a lie — and the private letters survive, so you can watch it happen.

A course on the thought of Napoleon.

Philosophy · Modern

Course outline

  1. The Bridge He Did Not Take — At Arcola in November 1796 Bonaparte seized a flag and ran onto a bridge, and his own men would not follow. The crossing failed. Within a fortnight the episode had been turned into the founding image…
  2. The People Had to Have Their Heroes — Conscription turned war from an affair of kings into an affair of nations, and a nation at war needs somebody to be at war on its behalf. The cult of the revolutionary martyr had already given way to…
  3. Machines of War — Stendhal, who served in the campaigns, said the bulletins were engines of war and siege-works, not historical documents. They were also a persona — a commander who has not taken his boots off in a…
  4. The Town He Was Painted Healing — In March 1799 the garrison of Jaffa surrendered on terms and was executed on Bonaparte's order, after he put the decision to his generals three times and they would not take it. Five years later the…
  5. A Battle Called Doubtful — Eylau in February 1807 was a bloodbath that could not honestly be called a victory. The planned thanksgiving was cancelled because it would distress the bereaved. So the state announced a painting…
  6. Reading Between the Lines — A machine that runs for sixteen years trains the people it is aimed at. The French acquired an idiom for it — to lie like a bulletin — and by 1812 the Russians were printing counter-bulletins in the…
  7. One Man at a Barracks Door — General Malet escaped confinement, forged a document announcing that Napoleon had died at Moscow, and took over part of Paris before breakfast. The police minister was arrested, the governor of Paris…
  8. The Weather Did It — The 29th Bulletin admitted the destruction of the Grande Armée, at three times the usual length, and blamed the cold. The cold is checkable, and it does not carry the weight. What the document really…

Built from

A synthesis of 5 books.

Part of the Simposeum course library.