Bret Devereaux

And that's why he was a genius!

If this was a time without pestilence I would love to meet and discuss this. Briefly, I think the ‘heroic’ tag is often misplaced. Wait till you hear what I think about Napoleon...

As would I! It is always an interesting debate to have. Agreed on hero worship (Napoleon or otherwise) ... I was afraid for a moment that you were about to claim that Caesar was one - thankfully not.

There are so many (military) figures from history that are in the same position, as well - historiography has a lot to answer for!

The world has always been about marketing

True, but I think there's actually more to this. Following Azar Gat, for most of our history, societies that were the most warlike were the most successful. That changes with the industrial revolution, making war so destructive that it no longer pays to be bellicose.

Consequently, our values have begun to shift as 'being a good war-monger' no longer seems like quite so grand an idea to us. So we're now unpacking the legacy of a few thousand years of written history and records which glorify behaviors that have now become maladaptive.

Consequently, reevaluating Napoleon and Alexander, I think, can be seen as part of the leading edge of a society-wide reevaluation of the value of war and bellicosity itself.