51����

JACKSON, Tenn. — Oct. 26, 2021 — Award-winning historian David A. Bell hosted two lectures at the 24th annual Carls-Schwerdfeger History Lecture on Oct. 25 at 51����. He spoke in the G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel on “George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution,” and before that, he lectured on “Napoleon Bonaparte and the Origins of Modern Total War” in the Carl Grant Events Center.

In his first of two lectures, Bell addressed the significant shift in the cultural perspective of war in the late 1700s, especially between the years 1790 to 1792. During a time where war prestige was primarily exclusive to the nobility, Bell said the French Revolution and Napoleonic reign advocated for an ideology that war can regenerate any individual.

As Napoleon championed the notion that absolute destruction of the enemy is necessary in war, the idea of total warfare — an “apocalyptic, absolutist ideal” that goes beyond simply outmaneuvering the enemy — dramatically increased. Napoleon used tactical language in his military campaigns, denouncing all enemies as “criminal monsters.”

“I would say that the language of criminality was already dominating international relations throughout the Napoleonic wars on both sides, and the ironic result for Napoleon was that after his defeats, he was treated as a criminal himself and wasn’t allowed to remain on his throne,” Bell said.

In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to the island Elba and then to the island of St. Helena after his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo. However, the ideals of self-expression and self-revitalization in war remained significant within the cultural understanding of war.

Bell argued it is with great intentionality that Napoleon was exemplified in this era as such an extraordinary figure, and in this radical societal movement toward total war, Napoleon stood as the personification of such an ideal.

“Almost no political military figure in history has done quite as much to promote his own reputation,” Bell said. “He presented himself as an individual wrestling with destiny, being tested by it, prevailing and then finally, in the end, being sacrificed, in fact.”