Join us for a Commonwealth Club Salon discussion on April 30

This session will focus on the themes of our recent program about Napoleon's impact on Europe and Europe's reaction to Napoleon. The event is being hosted by the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco (595 Market Street, 2nd Floor, the Gold Room). Refreshments will be served starting at 4:45pm, with the discussion starting at 5:15pm. The cost is $8 for members and $15 for non-members. Details may be found here.

What is a salon? A salon is a gathering of stimulating people under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host partly to amuse one another, partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings. Intellectual salons have been around practically as long as there have been intellectuals.

Questions and Comments on the Napoleon program

Our 2008-09 season has ended with the Confronting Napoleon program. Although we always have evaluation forms and question cards at the event, sometimes it's good to have an opportunity to comment after a day or two of reflection.

What did you think about the program? Did you come away with some new ideas or new perspectives on familiar historical events? Do you have any lingering questions that you wish you had asked?

This is your chance to continue the discussion. It's easy to enter comments. Just click on the "__ comments" line right below this item and you will be taken to a screen where you can enter your own thoughts.

Juan Cole at Confronting Napoleon program

Juan Cole has recently published an important new book about Napoleon's invasion of Egypt entitled Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East and his talk at the upcoming Humanities West program will focus on aspects of this topic. (If you purchase the book through our link to Amazon, a small percentage of the purchase price will go to Humanities West, at no additional cost to you.)

However, Cole is also one of America's leading experts on the Middle East, and is a frequent commentator on Middle Eastern issues. If you are interested in seeing how he combines historical insight with contemporary issues and lessons, you might want to watch his hour-plus talk ("Lessons from Past Western Incursions in the Middle East") on YouTube, which compares the French experience with America's experience two centuries later. There is also a four-minute segment from YouTube in which Cole answers five questions about current political issues in the Middle East. Cole also publishes a blog, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion, which you can follow.

Napoleon in Egypt

One of our talks in the upcoming Confronting Napoleon program (April 17-18) focuses on Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. Although militarily a failure, the French invasion triggered a wave of scientific and cultural interest in Egypt that influenced French and European attitudes for decades after the fall of Napoleon.

This 5 minute clip from YouTube is a nicely illustrated summary of the lasting impact of Napoleon's attempt to conquer Egypt.

What did Napoleon really look like?

We've all seen some of the famous portraits of Napoleon by leading artists of the day, but how accurate are they?

Independent art historian Simon Abrahams writes: "Anyone interested in Napoleon may be intereted in how the most well-known portraits of the Emperor (by Ingres, David, Gros and Delaroche) look as much like the artist as the man himself. Indeed the discovery raises questions as to what Napoleon really looked like. See the visual comparisons for yourself at my website: www.artscholar.org."