On August 15, 1769, exactly 252 years ago, he was born Napoleon Bonaparte. One of the most influential personalities of all time and, certainly, one of the most fortunate figures from a historiographical and literary point of view. Whole libraries have been written about him, dissecting every aspect of his complex and fascinating figure. But the truth is that one never stops writing about a man like Napoleon.
Was he a popular leader or the great normalizer of the bourgeois revolution? A military genius only or also (if not above all) a statesman and visionary? Emperor or dictator? On these and other questions the debate remains open.
This year, on the occasion of the bicentenary of Napoleon's death (which took place on May 5, 1821 in exile on the island of Sant'Elena), "Napoléon le Stratège de la Communication”, by Roberto Race, the updated French version of the “Napoleon the Communicator”, published by Egea, the publishing house of Bocconi University.
Race, who is a journalist and consultant in corporate and reputation strategy, focuses on a particular aspect of Napoleon's personality: his ability to dialogue with public opinion, a conceptual category that was born with him.
“The Napoleon I tell in this book – explains the author – makes one think of those leaders who know how to motivate and involve their collaborators by making them share in the challenges they will have to face together. What for Napoleon is the battlefield, for the entrepreneur and the manager are the factory and the market, where only those who know what it means to be on the front line can give orders and be listened to. A classic sketch of what we now consider a successful entrepreneur. Just like so many leaders, Napoleon knows that it matters more to him to be authoritative than authoritarian. Napoleon, in his own way and with all the contradictions and ambiguities with which he ends up being both dictator and standard bearer of the new law born of the French Revolution, is also the bearer of some values whose lack is often lamented in the current ruling class and European political and institutional. Napoleon knows well that you cannot lead a people without showing them a future. I believe that today the re-reading of Napoleon in these terms can favor the rediscovery of aspects of his figure of an impressive modernity ”.
The volume comes out on Amazon, published by ScriptaManent, both in paper format, with distribution in a few days all over the world, and Kindle and can be purchased in the main international bookstores.
Among the novelties of the French edition is the afterword by Charles Bonaparte, Napoleon's last heir and president of the European Federation of Napoleonic cities.
