Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

[cahn]

Last post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.

Comments

Re: Swedish politics

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ha! It's hard to say anything that Voltaire hasn't already said on the subject. Just read this in the Struensee bio:

"Our people are cruel. There are perhaps seven or eight hundred people in France of well-educated society, the flower of the nation, by whom foreigners are deceived. And so one judges the nation by these and is completely misled. Our ancient priests and officials, however, are just like the human-sacrificing druids of antiquity. The customs have not changed."

(Not that educated people themselves aren't likely to commit atrocities, see also Fritz and his war crimes, but the point about France's good PR stands.)

Re: Swedish politics

[cahn]

Voltaire! :D :P