Between the outbreak of war with Austria in 1792 and Napoleon's final debacle in 1814, France remained almost continously at war, recruiting in the process some two to three million frenchmen--a level of recruitment unknown to previous generations and widely resented as an attack on the liberties of rural communities. Forrest challenges the notion of a nation heroically rushing to arms by examining the massive rates of desertion and avoidance of service as well as their consequences on French society--on military campaigns and the morale of armies, on political opinion at home, on the social fabric of local villages, and on the Napoleonic dream of bringing about a coherent and centralized state.

Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society During the Revolution and Empire

History

FORREST, Alan

Europe

Oxford University Press

This scholarly account presents a provincial view of Revolutionary France and describes a region far removed from high politics in Paris. It shows how local conflicts and personal rivalries shaped events within the region, and emphasizes the importance of religion, war, peasant radicalism and commercial stagnation in defining the course of the Revolution in the south-west.

The Revolution in Provincial France: Aquitaine, 1789-1799

Clarendon Press

Bordeaux (Aquitaine, France) -- Politics and government.

Society and Politics in Revolutionary Bordeaux (Oxford Historical Monographs)

The Death of the French Atlantic examines the sudden and irreversible decline of France's Atlantic empire in the Age of Revolution, and shows how three major forces undermined the country's competitive position as an Atlantic commercial power. The first was war, especially war at sea against France's most consistent enemy and commercial rival in the eighteenth century, Great Britain. A series of colonial wars, from the Seven Years' War and the War of American Independence to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars did much to drive France out of the North Atlantic. The second was anti-slavery and the rise of a new moral conscience which challenged the right of Europeans to own slaves or to sacrifice the freedom of others to pursue national economic advantage. The third was the French Revolution itself, which not only raised French hopes of achieving the Rights of Man for its own citizens but also sowed the seeds of insurrection in the slave societies of the New World, leading to the loss of Saint-Domingue and the creation of the first black republic in Haiti at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This proved critical to the economy of the French Caribbean, driving both colons and slaves from Saint-Domingue to seek shelter across the Atlantic world, and leaving a bitter legacy in the French Caribbean. It has also created an uneasy memory of the slave trade in French ports like Nantes, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux, and has left an indelible mark on race relations in France today.

The Death of the French Atlantic: Trade, War, and Slavery in the Age of Revolution

Americas

Waterloo was the last battle fought by Napoleon and the one which finally ended his imperial dreams. It involved huge armies and heavy losses on both sides. For those who fought in it - Dutch and Belgians, Prussians and Hanoverians as well as British and French troops - it was a murderous struggle. For all its ferocity, it was a battle that would be remembered very differently across Europe. In Britain it would be seen as an iconic battle whose memory would be enmeshed in British national identity across the following century. It failed to achieve this iconic status elsewhere. In Prussia it was overshadowed by the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, while in Holland it was a simple appendage to the prestige of the House of Orange. And in France it was the epitome of a heroic defeat that served to sustain the romantic legend of the Napoleonic Wars and contributed to the growing cult of Napoleon himself. Whereas most works on the battle of Waterloo are only military in nature, Alan Forrest's outstanding work-the first in the Great Battles series -- describes every aspect of how the battle was fought but deals equally with the aftermath: how it has been commemorated, and its legacy. The GREAT BATTLES series Certain battles acquire iconic status in history. Each book in this new series will examine both the battle itself, and also its legacy in the imaginations of the victors and the vanquished. Titles in preparation include: Agincourt, Lützen, Hattin, El Alamein, and Gettysburg.

Waterloo: Great Battles

Military

This volume's juxtaposition of the empires of Germany and France in 1806, at the dissolution of The Holy Roman Empire, allows a comparison of their transition towards modernity, explored through the themes of Empire, monarchy, political cultures, feudalism, war and military institutions, nationalism and identity, and everyday experience.

The Bee and the Eagle: Napoleonic France and the End of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806 (War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850)

Wilson, Peter H.

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture (War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850)

The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had an enduring influence on the collective memory of all European nations and regions, and have given them an international dimension. These essays look at how the French Wars were remembered in personal diaries, paintings and literature, allowing a comparative analysis with atransnational perspective.

François, Étienne

Tensions between Paris and the provinces have played a significant role in French history. This book examines the effect of the French Revolution in the provinces, on the tensions between provincial interests and those of Paris, and the mediations of different political cultures, which ensured that provincial France made a distinctive contribution to the history of the Revolutionary years. Alan Forrest is Profesor of Modern History at the University of York, UK Tensions between Paris and the provinces have played a significant role in French history. This book examines the effect of the French Revolution in the provinces, on the tensions between provincial interests and those of Paris, and the mediations of different political cultures, which ensured that provincial France made a distinctive contribution to the history of the Revolutionary years. "Gracefully written and thoughtful."—History: Review of New Books

Paris, the Provinces and the French Revolution (Arnold Publication)

Arnold Hodder Publication

A major contribution to the study of collective identity and memory in France, this book examines a French republican myth: the belief that the nation can be adequately defended only by its own citizens, in the manner of the French revolutionaries of 1793. Alan Forrest examines the image of the citizen army reflected in political speeches, school textbooks, art and literature across the nineteenth century. He reveals that the image appealed to notions of equality and social justice, and with time it expanded to incorporate Napoleon's victorious legions, the partisans who repelled the German invader in 1814 and the people of Paris who rose in arms to defend the Republic in 1870. More recently it has risked being marginalized by military technology and by the realities of colonial warfare, but its influence can still be seen in the propaganda of the Great War and of the French Resistance under Vichy.

The Legacy of the French Revolutionary Wars: The Nation-in-Arms in French Republican Memory (Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare, Series Number 29)

Cambridge University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FORREST, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by FORREST, Alan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FORREST, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society During the Revolution and Empire

The Revolution in Provincial France: Aquitaine, 1789-1799

Society and Politics in Revolutionary Bordeaux (Oxford Historical Monographs)

The Death of the French Atlantic: Trade, War, and Slavery in the Age of Revolution

Waterloo: Great Battles

Waterloo: Great Battles

The Bee and the Eagle: Napoleonic France and the End of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806 (War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850)

War Memories: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Modern European Culture (War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850)

Paris, the Provinces and the French Revolution (Arnold Publication)

The Legacy of the French Revolutionary Wars: The Nation-in-Arms in French Republican Memory (Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare, Series Number 29)