Napoleon: The Lamentations of a New-ish History Teacher
This week’s newsletter is coming to you on Monday. We hosted Friendsgiving this weekend and my basketball team had a game–your boy is coaching JV hoops. So the weekend was closer to a workend. In today’s newsletter, we have a review of Ridley Scott’s historical epic, Napoleon, and a few more reader questions from our One Year Take-iversary.
I don’t normally teach history.
Back in the States when I was referred to as a “history teacher,” I didn’t bother correcting people. I typically teach Political Science class and Geography is my sidepiece. But here in Abu Dhabi, I have a World History class for the first time in ages. In fact, I haven’t taught World History since 2009 (and that was grade seven Ancient Civ).
My course this year covers from 1200 to the present, with a focus on the Afro-Eurasian landmass (because they’ll learn about events in the Western Hemisphere next school year). We’re currently in Unit #3, 1750-1914. So, for the first time in my career, I am walking students through the decline of absolutism, the formation of modern nation-states, and the rise of anticolonial resistance movements—the real juicy stuff.
Last week, we used Brinton’s framework from his 1938 Anatomy of Revolution as a template to teach the French Revolution. Brinton posited that revolutions don’t come out of thin air. They tend to follow a pretty predictable path, like an infection—incubation to symptomatic to crisis to convalescence (the resolution). Now this week students are researching their own examples: in Latin America, Haiti, Germany, and Italy.
If you aren’t a teacher, it may sound weird but you’re often learning or relearning along with the students. Like, I know about the Jacobins, royalists, and the shortcomings of various figures, Robespierre among others, but I haven’t really dug into this period since I was an undergrad in the Bush years.
So last week, the movie Napoleon came into my life. A Hollywood blockbuster aligned with something you’re teaching always serves as a great hook. Unfortunately, I went and saw it this weekend and the film is bad. The movie is excellently directed and well-shot. The visual effects, costume, and set design are all top-notch and pull you into the film. But the screenplay is just terriblé. It isn’t telling a coherent story but rather jumps like a Wikipedia article from battle to battle. Interlaced between Austerlitz and Waterloo is a sort of romantic comedy between Napoleon and his wife/lover Josephine. The film is like eating a Whopper from Burger King, kinda enjoyable but a charred taste of regret lingers in your mouth.
Sir Ridley Scott is a notoriously prickly, British filmmaker. The 85-year-old is one of our greatest living directors. His credits include Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down (which I dislike), and The Martian.
As a potential saving grace, Scott’s 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven, was widely panned when it came out. However, the subsequent Director’s Cut of the film is a masterpiece. There are reports that Scott has created a four-hour cut of Napoleon for Apple TV+. Assuming they left story rather than additional battles in the cutting room, it will hopefully be a better film. But I don’t subscribe to Apple’s service so there’s that.
The Final Few Reader Questions from the Take-iversary
You've been outspoken on the podcast in support of Initiative One (a recently passed Tenant Bill of Rights Initiative in Tacoma). But you're also a landlord yourself, how do you square those two circles?
There's a saying that “there's no ethical consumption in capitalism,” well we're trying. Hope and I rent our house back in Tacoma to a couple. We consider them friends and we set the rent for them back in 2019 below the market rate. We are not trying to get rich. I get messages from the property manager all the time telling me how far below the going rate we are but our goal is to keep somebody in the house, not to exploit people or maximize profits.
Matthew Desmond's book Evicted informs my views on housing. He talks about how the landlord lobby dominates municipal politics across the US. Our local ordinances are extremely anti-tenant and this initiative and wider political movement is hopefully the policy pendulum swinging the other way.
I saw your post on Blue Sky about your Arab American colleagues souring on Biden over the situation in Gaza. Do you think there’s a danger of Biden’s left flank crumbling over them switching to Trump or staying home?
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: Absolutely, yes.
The US is essentially a co-belligerent with the IDF and the current US policy stance is demonstrably to the right of where it was two decades ago under George W. Bush.
I came across this quote from a 2001 New York Times article that I thought was telling about where US policy is now and how much of a departure it is from recent history:
The Bush administration said today that Israel's policy of pinpoint killings of Palestinians was inflaming the Middle East conflict and urged the Israelis to alleviate what it called the humiliations of the Palestinian people… Richard L. Boucher, said that ''Israel needs to understand that targeted killings of Palestinians don't end the violence but are only inflaming an already volatile situation and making it much harder to restore calm.
This is not a statement that I can imagine coming from the current administration. I recently listened to an interview where Amir Tabon, an Israeli correspondent, referred to Joseph Biden as the "most important Zionist in the world today." He went on to say that Biden appears "more committed to Israel's security than some of its own leaders” and “Biden is Israel's best friend in the whole world.”
Do I think large numbers of Arab Americans and pro-Palestinian leftists are going to switch their votes toward Donald Trump? No. But that second possibility, that many of them stay home or undervote (not mark a choice for President), is very possible.
I haven’t seen you talk much about them. Generally, what are your thoughts on labor unions?
I am pro-Union AF.
In my prior activism back in the US, I was not as vitriolic as people wanted me to be about school choice and about charter schools. It's not that I necessarily support charter schools, it's that I don't support taking options away from parents, particularly parents of color, who are often forced to send their children to schools that don’t meet their needs. The real work is to fight and make those schools better for kids but nobody should have to send their child into a meat grinder while we sort out the right policy.
But because of that tweener stance, I think people suspect I'm not a supporter of unions. As a teacher in Tacoma, I walked a picket line, twice. When I started attending national teacher convenings, I was always blown away to hear about the low salary numbers of teachers elsewhere in the country.
I currently work at a school where there is no union, in fact, they're prohibited by local law. I haven't needed a union here (knock on wood), but I think every worker should have one, except the police.
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share Takes & Typos with their friends.
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share the newsletter with their friends.