Napoleon and Hitler

Napoleon and Hitler: A Comparative Biography by Desmond Seward, 303 pages

Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler are the two great "men from nowhere" in modern European history.  The parallels are obvious: born into obscurity, foreigners in the nations they ruled, they inherited states reeling from war and civil strife, conquered Europe, met disaster in Russia, and were ultimately defeated by a combination of all the other great powers against them.  There are glaring differences, too - Napoleon was an officer who won glory as a general which he then parleyed into dictatorship, Hitler an enlisted man who gained power through a later political career; Napoleon was a military genius, Hitler was not; Napoleon attempted to start a dynasty, Hitler did not; Napoleon survived to help shape his legacy, Hitler did not.  Most obviously, though millions died in the Napoleonic Wars, Bonaparte never targeted whole peoples for extermination.

According to Desmond Seward, both the differences and similarities run deeper than is generally appreciated.  Napoleon's use of military backing to seize power is paralleled by Hitler's paramilitary support.  Both leaders professed a jingoistic nationalism, but both were also deeply ambivalent about the people they ruled.  Most importantly - and damningly - both men "were incapable of rational compromise, an incapacity which meant their doom" and that of so many of their followers and foes.