is a reminder of ... former glory. The Corsican, whose diminutive size belied his continental ambitions, is back in the news for the bicentennial — and the timing couldn't have been more telling for a country facing an identity crisis and searching for its role in a 25-member European Union (news - web sites) and a wider world led by the United States. "History has been a little hard on the French lately," said Steven Englund, an American award-winning biographer of Napoleon. "And I think they're looking for reasons to celebrate their own history." The Napoleon nostalgia underscores France's obsession with retaining its influence as a self-appointed EU leader and creating a "multipolar" world — its buzzword for a counterweight to U.S. ...
