| Napoleon
has attracted much attention from historians and has become
a hero to many over the years since he lived and ruled in
France. To them he carried on the beneficial aspects of the
French Revolution of 1789. Others see him as just another
tyrant who betrayed the ideals of the revolution, suppressing
elections and bringing back the monarchy and aristocracy.
But everyone agrees that he was an extraordinary man who
left a lasting imprint on the world in which he lived.
Napoleon's
own statements were contradictory. He called himself a "son
of the revolution" and the champion of its principles:
liberty, equality and fraternity. But according to the
Marquis de la Cases' Journals of the Private Life and
Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon, toward the
end of his life he said that "revolution is one of
the greatest evils by which mankind can be visited."
Part
of Napoleon: Tyrant or
Hero exhibit
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