Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47

[cahn]

We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!

Comments

Re: Micromegas - Voltaire

[mildred_of_midgard]

Apparently I forgot to hit enter on this?

What Mildred said, and also, yes, the Turk/Russian war of 1736 - 1739 features a Russia ruled by a very unenlightened autocrat and Voltaire sees it being solely about a land grab, i.e. whoever wins, the people exchange just one tyrant for another

My current plan is to cover the 1730s next time I feel the urge to study foreign policy, so hopefully we can learn about this war sometime in 2024!

Thank you for the additional Byron context! I knew just enough to prompt you. :)

there is a lot of anti-Greek bias, and Greek interpreters or tradespeople show up as cowardly and treacherous, especially in accounts written by English folk, with the not so subtext that the TRUE heirs of ancient Greece are, of course, you guessed it.

Haha, exactly like Orlov.

(I had a response here on the 1739 vs. 1752 question, but Cahn has already responded.)