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Books > Humanities > History > European history > 1750 to 1900
It is only in the past two decades that scholars have breached the
language barrier in Germany, Austria, and Russia, permitting a
comprehensive reexamination of the Napoleonic Wars. This new volume
in the Essential Bibliography series examines the changing nature
of Napoleonic historiography in the English-speaking world and
provides the student and scholar an invaluable guide to those
changes.
In the maelstrom of Napoleonic Europe, Britain remained defiant,
resisting French imperial ambitions. This Anglo-French rivalry was,
essentially, a politico-economic conflict for pre-eminence fought
on a global scale and it reached a zenith in 1806-1808 with
France's apparent dominance of Continental Europe. Britain reacted
swiftly and decisively to implement maritime-based strategies to
limit French military and commercial gains in Europe, while
protecting British overseas interests. The policy is particularly
evident in relations with Britain's "Ancient Ally": Portugal. That
country and, by association her South American empire, became the
front line in the battle between Napoleon's ambitions and British
maritime security. Shedding new light on British war aims and
maritime strategy, this is an essential work for scholars of the
Napoleonic Wars and British political, diplomatic, economic and
maritime/military history.
In 1798, the armies of the French Revolution tried to transform
Rome from the capital of the Papal States to a Jacobin Republic.
For the next two decades, Rome was the subject of power struggles
between the forces of the Empire and the Papacy, while Romans
endured the unsuccessful efforts of Napoleon's best and brightest
to pull the ancient city into the modern world. Against this
historical backdrop, Nicassio weaves together an absorbing social,
cultural, and political history of Rome and its people. Based on
primary sources and incorporating two centuries of Italian, French,
and international research, her work reveals what life was like for
Romans in the age of Napoleon.
"A remarkable book that wonderfully vivifies an understudied era
in the history of Rome. . . . This book will engage anyone
interested in early modern cities, the relationship between
religion and daily life, and the history of the city of
Rome."--"Journal of Modern History"
"An engaging account of Tosca's Rome. . . . Nicassio provides a
fluent introduction to her subject."--"History Today"
"Meticulously researched, drawing on a host of original
manuscripts, memoirs, personal letters, and secondary sources,
enabling Nicassio] to bring her story to life."--"History"
Vivian Kogan examines the poetics of Jules Michelet's
self-portraiture as it intersects with the nation and history.
History exists because someone tells the story. In Michelet's
unique staging and performance of the past, the way the story is
told is the story. Long before Charles de Gaulle, Michelet asserted
that he "was" France. His self-representation as the "I" of the
nation and the embodiment of history ("moi-histoire") takes form as
a rhetorical personification that shapes the historian's writing.
Offering a new multidisciplinary perspective, Kogan both exposes
Michelet's vision of France, his grand narrative, and demystifies
that narrative in the analysis of Michelet's final text, "History
of the Nineteenth Century".
A leading expert examines one of Napoleon's most decisive but least
analysed victories In early July 1809 Napoleon crossed the Danube
with 187,000 men to confront the Austrian Archduke Charles and an
army of 145,000 men. The fighting that followed dwarfed in
intensity and scale any previous Napoleonic battlefield, perhaps
any in history: casualties on each side were over 30,000. The
Austrians fought with great determination, but eventually the
Emperor won a narrow victory. Wagram was decisive in that it
compelled Austria to make peace. It also heralded a new, altogether
greater order of warfare, anticipating the massed manpower and
weight of fire deployed much later in the battles of the American
Civil War and then at Verdun and on the Somme.
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