13 Notes from Napoleon, Iowa: Musings on the Edge of the French Empire [With Book(s)]

A celebration of Napoleon’s birthday. Born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, Napoleon was the ruler of Iowa between 1800 and 1803 when he served as the First Consul of the French Republic. Iowa City, Iowa, evolved out of the 1838 settlement named after him -- Napoleon, Iowa -- the location marked today by Napoleon Park, off Napoleon Lane, just south of Iowa City. The book illuminates aspects of Iowa’s French past, such as cities named after the Napoleonic battles of Marengo and Waterloo, and explains the mystery of Iowa’s distinctly French-looking flag. Along the way, the author muses on other Napoleon-related matters, such as Empire waist gowns, Goethe’s and Byron’s Bonapartism, the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna, and to what extent Europe’s current internal contradictions have been impacted by its Napoleonic past.

Anna Barker is an educator and journalist who, with her husband Jim, raised three children in Iowa City, Iowa, and teaches at the University of Iowa. She walks her Yorkie Watson along the Iowa River, writes on Iowa Avenue, publishes essays in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and believes that this designational monotony could have been easily avoided if Iowa City would have retained the name of the original 1838 settlement - Napoleon. Over the decades, Anna has taught War and Peace 20 times; curated a Dostoevsky exhibition; initiated a lecture series at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis; and was invited to give talks on Tolstoy at his literary museum at Yasnaya Polyana and on Napoleon in Paris. Her prolific literary commentary - 1,400,000 words and counting - can be accessed on Substack at Anna’s Thinking Cap and is dedicated to the exploration of weighty tomes, such as Paradise Lost, Les Misérables, and Brothers Karamazov, in a historical and cultural context. Her full biography is available at the University of Iowa website.