Temporary Archive: Suzanne Brockmann's Message Board

I can't agree about Napoleon. I think you can argue, by the same logic you use in saying that "those who fought for communism in the SU did an enormous amount of good for themselves for years...given where they started..." that Napoleon's France was a great improvement, and that his Napoleonic code of laws, which still underlies French law today, was considerably better for most citizens than what preceded it. It is also true that Napoleon extended rights and freedoms to many previously oppressed minorities in countries he brought under his sway, and that many of those continued after he was no longer in charge. I'm not saying that he wasn't power hungry or that he didn't hurt his people in overreaching militarily and spending too much time and too many lives. But he wasn't Hitler or Stalin.