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The Social Order Politics and law Napoleon & De Gaulle: Heroes and History, by Patrice Gueniffey, translated by Steven Rendall (Belknap Press of Harvard University, 390 pp., $35) The distinguished French historian Patrice Gueniffey has written a profoundly countercultural book on the place of heroism in the human drama. Rejecting the reigning democratic dogma, he insists that great men, “whether they are really great or really mediocre, beneficial or malevolent, saints or monsters, front and center, or hidden behind the curtain . . . still dominate the stage of modern political theater.” As this passage exemplifies, Gueniffey writes with an élan worthy of the subject. He recognizes that we live in “flattened-out societies,” where the very idea of human greatness threatens “the levelling mentality” that “has spread to all democratic societies.” Democratic man, he shows, no longer knows how to distinguish authentic heroes from the glittering superficiality and spiri

United statesUnited kingdomFrench republicNapoleon bonaparteAbraham lincolnPatrice gueniffeyRaymond aronGeorge washingtonSteven rendall belknap press of harvard universityHer armySteven rendallBelknap pressHarvard universityCold warCharles de gaulleBritish churchill