clock … watching time, the only true currency

History gets written to react to the present.

So when Juan Cole, a professor at Michigan wanted a new way to comment on the Middle East (beyond his blog), he wrote a book.

Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East chronicles the French attack and occupation in 1799-1800. Napoleon was smart enough to scoot back to France, leaving his troops mired in a war that was neither lost nor won. Cole connects the two Western invasions as direct parallels. I’ve read a lot about the Napoleonic era, so I picked up this book…but the overbearing overlay of America in Iraq dampened my enthusiasm. Cole isn’t wrong, but he’s heavy-handed. I hadn’t read his blog before, and I’m not starting now.

Cole’s blog about the book offers some of the original sources, which I applaud.