Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire

The improbability of this ruler makes the story! I might have never known for the positive things that Napoleon III was responsible for, like the Eiffel Tower. If you enjoy reading about the lesser known facets of history, I highly recommend this book.

This is History as sheer entertainment. The story of how a used car salesman of a man becomes the Emporer of France. Against all odds, with shameless optimism, populist appeal, administrative incompetence and relentless sexual exploitiveness, protected and tolerated by virtue of a booming economy, Louis Napoleon proceeds Clinton in a virtual parody of the present by coming to power in an unlikely set of scenarios filled with irony and hilarity in the middle of 19th century France. The first elected populist turn Dictator - Louis Napoleon Bonaparte preceded Hitler by 90 years. More Clinton than Hitler, This story of a harmless flirt turn despot is a marvelous parady of the banal ambitions of all politicians. This man is so much like the present day Clinton in shamelessness, ambition, optimism, sexual opportunism and maybe unlike Clinton, gross administrative incompetence as to form the most unlikely story in all history. With so many cunning men greedy for power, how is it that such a man should come to power? Not only did he achieve power but the Charlatan Napolean III out lasted the Original Napolean by ruling France from 1848-1870 (22 years, The First Four years as an legaly elected President, the Last 18 years as Emporer). His reign gave stamp to an age and a style refered to as "Second Empire". Napolean III's rule, like Clinton's, was sustained by a period of unprecedented Economic Growth - preciding over the initial stages of Industrialization in 19th Century France. All but forgotten now, Napolean's greatest legacy to the present is modern Paris, to which he gets very little credit. Of course none of this would be worth while if not exploited properly. Fortunately John Bierman is more than equal to the task. Well written, both insiteful and humorous, Bierman's sophisticated repartee never fails to exploit an opportunity for irony or the humor in his subject. Reading this book was more like eating a box of candy - I could not put it down - and was sad when it came to an end. It has been said great men are produced by times of dire circumstances. Bierman proves this postulate by pointing out how great times produced, in 19th century France, a man of small stature. Despite the shallow glamour of the Second Empire, it crashed on the sham that it was when confronted by the politics of real consequence in Bismark's Prussia (Bismark's Realpolitik of Blood & Iron). For the next hundred years, begining with the tragedy of the Paris Commune, France had to struggle to cope with Napolean III's other great legacy: a unified Germany on its eastern boarder. Napolean III stands as an important history of the dangerous consequences that self serving populist charlatans pose for all history. Clinton ought to be carefull of the entanglements he gets involved in. Like Napoleon III, it could very well be his undoing.