Learning & Tech❯Talks & Lectures❯History Talks

Join acclaimed historian Lord Andrew Roberts for a fascinating look at the men who helped build — and ultimately unravel — Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire. In his new book, Napoleon and His Marshals, Roberts brings to life the extraordinary generals who served at Napoleon’s side, from the courageous Ney and flamboyant Murat to the tenacious Masséna, iron-willed Davout, and meticulous Berthier.

In 1804, Napoleon created the Marshalate, the highest military honor of the French Empire, and over the next decade elevated 26 of his most accomplished generals to the rank. Roberts explores their personalities, ambitions, rivalries, and complex relationships with their emperor, revealing how Napoleon’s leadership both inspired fierce loyalty and fueled destructive competition among his marshals. Ultimately, only two of the 26 would ride beside him at Waterloo.

Drawing on years of scholarship on Napoleon and his era, Roberts offers a dramatic and richly detailed portrait of the men whose military brilliance helped create Napoleon’s extraordinary empire — and whose rivalries helped bring it down.

This event is a co-production with The Chartwell Society of Oregon, a chapter of the International Churchill Society.

Join us for a talk with Dr. Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic + Ancient Art!

From luxury silks to patched wool, dress across the early modern Islamic world communicated the inner and outer states of its wearers through a shared language of regional and religious codes. In this lecture, Dr. Munroe examines how clothing and textiles expressed social status, political allegiance, spiritual devotion, and personal taste.

Nazanin Hedayat Munroe is Director of Textiles and Associate Professor of Fashion at City University of New York. An artist and art historian, she is author of several books and articles, including Sufi Lovers, Safavid Silks and Early Modern Identity (Amsterdam University Press, 2023/Routledge, 2025), winner of the R.L. Shep Award from Textile Society of America.

This talk is made possible by the generous support of the Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic & Ancient Art fund.

Image: Man's Robe (Jama) with Poppies, 17th Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29.135)