Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich is Professor of European History at the University of Sydney, author of Vestiges of the Colonial Empire in France: Monuments, Museums and Colonial Memories (2005), and editor of The Age of Empires (2007). His latest book, Gay Life Stories (2012), was reviewed by Brian McFarlane in the June 2012 issue of ABR.
Napoleon came to power as First Consul in 1799 after a coup d’état, having recently returned from invading Egypt, his defeat there by the British spin-doctored into a victory back in Paris. Five years later he had himself made emperor, crowning himself in Notre Dame surrounded with panoply reminiscent of the ancien régime and inspired by fantasies of Roman Antiquity. Bonaparte’s armies occup ... (read more)
‘One would have to be extremely naïve not to know immediately upon entering his room what was what when one saw the decoration with its reproduction Greek statues of hermaphrodites, and its strange collection of pictures, each boasting a posterior, mixed with pictures of pretty young men from the local garrison which the talented dilettante has made himself and continues to make.’
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Robert Aldrich reviews 'Arab France: Islam and the Making of Modern Europe, 1798–1831' by Ian Coller
‘Arab France’ will immediately suggest to some readers debates about the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public schools and, more generally, about the place of North African migrants in contemporary French life, as well as the riots that erupted in 2005 in suburbs with substantial Arabic populations. To others, it may evoke memories of trips to Paris, of sipping mint tea at the elegant mosque ... (read more)