Napoleon and Hitler

Rating:
Summary: It may impossible to find two men with such lasting impact
Review: ...on modern history as Napoleon & Adolf Hitler. Unfortunately their hands are soaked in blood. Desmond Steward endeavors to compare & contrast the two dictators. This is done alternating back & forth telling their stories from the beginning. He succeeds in this. Hitler may have been loathe to admit it but it appears he took cues from Napoleon although his hero worship of Fredrick the Great of Prussia & admiration of Clauswitz is evident. Perhaps he had a desire to succeed where Napoleon failed. This in turn hastened his own departure from the world stage faster in fact than Napoleon. Emotionally, they were bound by their common meglomania & absolute belief that providence had decreed that it was their destiny to rule Europe-and beyond. England tormented them both. Each had elaborate plans for the invasion of Britain. Both had moments of clarity when even they realized that an invasion would not succeed. However, Napoleon warred constantly with England with a few years of suspicious peace. Hitler did not wish to fight England at all & tried more than once to make peace. Neither could match England's navy. They were essentially land-lubbers. Their ruin, of course lay in their invasions of Russia. The Russians played the same game twice. Fall-back, fall-back & then let the famous Russian winter finish them off. Both could have succeeded. After conquering vast areas of Europeon Russia they could have both sought a favorable peace. It would have brought all parties the time they needed. The Czar wanted peace. Likewise, Napoleon was bleeding France white. Stalin wanted time for the allies to establish a second front in western Europe. Hitler needed time-off from fighting on two fronts. It could have happened except Napoleon's ego and Hitler hatred of bolshiveikism & the Russian people in general prevented that. They departed on their views of race. Napoleon felt the Jews an asset to France. We know Hitler's views. Napoleon died a slow death on the island of St. Helena in virtual seclusion & thus was able to nurture a heroic legend through his writings. History has treated him more kindly as a result. Hitler had no such luxury. He committed suicide in his bunker while Berlin crumbled above him. As for the narration, Fredrick Davidson's use of French & German pharases sounded arrogant and was off-putting. His impersonations of Hitler & Napoleon sounded like Beldar Conehead.