him from receiving full promotions at the university until 1952. Over the years, he spoke out on political controversies, such as the Dutch Politionele acties against Indonesian decolonisation and the activities of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy against suspected communists. He also contributed to the communist daily paper De Waarheid shortly after the war. Later, he published in other leftist magazines, such as Vrij Nederland and De Groene Amsterdammer. In 1954, Presser married Bertha Hartog, his second wife. In 1959, he succeeded Jan Romein in his Dutch history chair at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Amsterdam. In 1966, he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Presser retired from his job on 31 May 1969. He died suddenly on 30 April 1970. Historical contributions One of Presser's most significant works was his extensive biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, first published in 1946. In contrast to the common hagiographies of the French emperor, Presser is quite critical of the personality and the political and military activity of Napoleon. Already in the introduction to the book, Presser makes quite clear that one of his main intentions is to try to dispel various euphemisms and legends about Napoleon. Presser depicts him as a ruthless autocrat and the axis of a group of marauders, his marshals. Napoleon comes to the fore as the organizer of the first modern dictatorship, which became an example for all later dictatorships. The book also contains extensive chapters on the pillars in French society which he used to strengthen his rule: Propaganda, Police & Justice, the Church, Education and (of course) the Army. Finally, Presser describes the legends about Napoleon in various countries. (The work is available only in Dutch and in German.) Commissioned by Elsevier Publishers in 1941, Presser wrote a comprehensive history of the United States and completed the first version while in hiding. A reworked edition came out in 1949. Shortly after the Second World War, there was a lot of interest in US history in the Netherlands. The book is rich in its descriptions, anecdotes and details. The writer explicitly sympathizes with the 'underdogs' in American history: the native Americans, the unfree immigrants ('indentured servants'), the Afro-Americans and the poor. At the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in 1976, a fourth, revised and updated edition was published with a postscript on the period