In January 1829, an angry mob in Tehran murdered Russian poet and diplomat Alexander Griboedov, author of the verse comedy Woe from Wit and architect of the Russian annexation of the north Caucasus from Persia after the Russo-Persian War. A century later, the Russian formalist writer Yury Tynianov wrote a historical novel about the event entitled The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar. In this wide-ranging study, Anna Aydinyan posits that The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar conceptualizes Orientalism fifty years before Edward Said coined the term. She argues that Tynianov parodied historical works on the Caucasus in his novel in order to critique the ways in which exoticizing the East enabled imperialism and colonization. Analysing literary and non-literary texts on Russia's relationship with Iran, along with the economic and cultural development of Transcaucasia after the Russo-Persian War, Formalists against Imperialism studies Russian culture within the framework of comparative colonialisms and examines the twentieth-century Russian reconsideration of the country's imperial past.

This work is the second in a three-volume series on the 1813 campaign; it is the first significant study on the 1813 campaign since Petre. Unlike the other English works on the campaign, it was prepared using French archival and published sources, as well as German, Danish and Russian published sources. It discusses every battle and significant action in all parts of Germany - including various sieges. Detailed color maps support the major battles and a large collection of orders of battle drawn from the French Archives, as well as period-published documents, support the discussion of the campaign, complemented by a large selection of images. Both images and maps are new to this edition of the work.

Napoleon Bonaparte dominated the public life of Europe like no other individual before him. Not surprisingly, the story of the man himself has usually swamped the stories of his subjects. This book looks at the history of the Napoleonic Empire from an entirely new perspective- that of the ruled rather than the ruler. Michael Broers concentrates on the experience of the people of Europe- particularly the vast majority of Napoleon's subjects who were neither French, nor willing participants in the great events of the period- during the dynamic but short-lived career of Napoleon, when half the European continent fell under his rule. In a new edition of a highly acclaimed book, Broers weaves together a myriad of regional experiences to produce a social history of the Napoleonic Empire with a truly panoramic scope.

IN AUGUST 1805, Napoleon abandoned his plans for the invasion of Britain and diverted his army to the Danube Valley to confront Austrian and Russian forces in a bid for control of central Europe. The campaign culminated with the Battle of Austerlitz, regarded by many as Napoleon's greatest triumph, whose far-reaching effects paved the way for French hegemony on the Continent for the next decade. In this concise volume, acclaimed military historian Gregory Fremont-Barnes uses detailed profiles to explore the leaders, tactics and weaponry of the clashing French, Austrian and Russian forces. Packed with fact boxes, maps and more, Napoleon's Greatest Triumph is the perfect way to explore this important battle and the rise of Napoleon's reputation as a supreme military leader.

..". an imaginative and dispassionate re-examination of thesignificance of the Mongol Conquest and its aftermath for Russia's historicaldevelopment." -- Slavic Review

"On all counts Russia andthe Golden Horde infuses the subject with fresh insights and interpretations."-- History

"Combining rigorous analysis of the majorscholarly findings with his own research, Halperin has produced both a much-neededsynthesis and an important original work." -- LibraryJournal

"Halperin's new book combines sound scholarship and aflair for storytelling that should help publicize this all too unfamiliar tale inthe West." -- Virginia Quarterly Review

"It is a seminalwork that will be repeatedly cited in the future... " -- TheHistorian

..". ingenious and highly articulate... " --Russian Review

The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted during the earlier Regency period (1811-1820) when the profligate Prince of Wales-the future king George IV-succeeded his father. Around the Prince Regent surged a society of contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. Capturing the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of artists-the Shelleys, Austen, Keats, Byron, Turner-scientists and inventors-Stevenson, Davy, Faraday-and a cast of dissident journalists, military leaders, and fashionistas, Robert Morrison captivatingly illuminates the ways this period shaped the modern world.

Leipzig dashed the dreams of a French Empire when the armies of Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden converged on Napoleon and his Grande Armee. It was the greatest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, so decisive it would be called "the battle of the Nations". Smaller countries like Poland and Saxony seemed to be submerged in the titanic struggle and the battle shaped Europe for more than a century. "Napoleon at Leipzig" not only covers this pivotal battle, but also the manoeuvres that led up to it and the retreat that followed. At Hanau, the Bavarians learned to their dismay the Napoleon was still the master of the battlefield. The book includes the campaigns of Marshal Davout in the north, and the fate of the besieged French fortresses. From glittering field marshals to ragged cossacks, in massive battles or small skirmishes, we see the dramatic campaign unfold. George Nafziger's intensive research into the 1813 campaign shows how the finest general of all time was brought to bay. The greatest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, and the campaign that led up to it, is thoroughly studied for the first time in English in "Napoleon at Leipzig". This edition includes a new set of images and newly-commissioned colour maps.

The Crimean War, fought by the alliance of Great Britain, France, and the tiny Italian Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia alongside Turkey against Tsarist Russia, was the first 'modern' war, not only for its vast scale (France mobilised a million men) but also the technologies involved, from iron-clad battleships to rifled artillery, the electric telegraph and steam. Best known for the blunder of the Charge of the Light Brigade, the fearful conditions in the trenches at the front, and the quiet heroism of Florence Nightingale, the Crimean War saw the railway go to war for the first time. The Grand Crimean Central Railway was the brainchild of two Victorian railway magnates, Samuel Morton Peto and Thomas Brassey; in order to alleviate the suffering at the front, they volunteered to build at cost a steam railway linking the Allied camps at Sevastopol to their supply base at Balaclava. In the face of much official opposition, the railway was built and operational in a matter of months, supplying hundreds of tons of food, clothing and materiel to the starving and freezing men in their trenches. Largely worked by civilian auxiliaries, the Grand Crimean Central Railway saw the railway transformed into a war-winning weapon, saving countless thousands of lives as it did so.

No army of the German Confederation of the Rhine underwent such fundamental changes in organization and uniforms as did the Saxon forces of the Napoleonic era. Based on the experiences from the 1806-07 campaigns on Prussia's side and 1809 allied with the French, the Saxon Army undertook extensive reforms. This book presents this "new" Saxon Army with numerous contemporary illustrations, with plates by Patrice Courcelle and Edmund Wagner as well as graphic tables of uniforms of all the regiments by Peter Bunde. A description of the war experiences rounds out the presentation and thus the volume gives the reader a good, thorough introduction to the organization, uniforms and history of the Saxon Army of 1810-1813.

The events which unfolded south of Brussels on 18 June 1815 conferred instant immortality on those who took part in them. For the Duke of Wellington, Waterloo consummated victory in a long battle for what he considered to be his due recognition. Whilst he guarded that reputation jealously, he also jeopardised it by his decision to enter politics in what proved to be an especially partisan age. Even the outpouring of national grief which accompanied his death in 1852 could not totally obscure the ambivalence he had aroused in life. The memory of Waterloo, meanwhile, followed its own trajectory. Travellers initially flocked to the battlefield as if drawn by a magnet. What the triumph meant for Britain, and the wider world, moreover, became a battle in itself, one fought variously in the political, literary and artistic theatres of war. As the nineteenth century advanced, it was only Waterloo's less-exalted participants who, relatively, faded from view - or were ignored. Drawing on many under-utilised sources to illuminate some less familiar themes, this timely study offers fresh perspectives on one of Britain's best-known figures, as well as on the nature of heroism. The reader is also given pause for thought as to appropriate forms of commemoration and how national celebrations are prone to manipulation, for their own purposes, by those in government.

Napoleon is supposed to have said, 'glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever', but this collection of essays both revisits some of the most glorious episodes of the Napoleonic Wars and rescues from obscurity some fascinating but overlooked episodes For over 20 years the Napoleon Series website and forum have functioned as a major hub for the international community of Napoleonic scholars. This book was commissioned with the support of Napoleon Series editor, and distinguished Napoleonic scholar, Robert Burnham and the writing team are all contributors to the website. The chapters cover topics ranging across the European conflict from 1805 to 1814. There is material here on the armies of France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria as well as some of the smaller German states and the single British unit to play a part in the Battle of Leipzig. It is anticipated that this will be the first of several collaborative volumes, with potential future titles highlighting new scholarship on the Peninsular War, the Hundred Days, and the French Revolutionary War.

Austria was one of the five major players of the Napoleonic Wars. In early 19th century, the Austrian army (Kaiserliche-KoeniglicheHeer) was the third largest and one of the best-trained armies in the world.The individual regimentsperformed well and were considered solid. However, hampered by the inherent conservatism of the hierarchy, the Austrians had to face the most modern army in Europe. Despite the many defeats suffered, the Austrian soldiers performed with discipline and played a central role in the coalitions against France, from the campaigns in 1790s, to the Austerlitz campaign of 1805, the closely-balanced battles of 1809, and the final victorious campaigns of 1813-1814. Austrian cavalry, in particular, was considered one of the best in Europe by allies as well as enemies. For the first time, this topic is introduced starting from the first campaign against France. The book includesthe regimental histories of each unit after the original sources, unpublished iconography, and is completed by detailed illustrations depicting uniforms and equipment of the mounted 'kaiserlich' white coats.

**A brilliant new history of Georgian Britain through the eyes of the artists who immortalised it, by one of the UK's most exciting young historians** 'Alice Loxton is the star of her generation ... the next big thing in history' DAN SNOW 'Vivid, pacey and endlessly engaging, this brilliant debut brings the late Georgian period dazzlingly to life. Irresistible stuff' TRACY BORMAN London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power. Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars, UPROAR! follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power, from the Prince Regent to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Their prints and illustrations deconstruct the political and social landscape with surreal and razor-sharp wit, as the three men vie with each other to create the most iconic images of the day. Alice Loxton's writing fizzes with energy on every page, and never fails to convince us that Gillray and his gang profoundly altered British humour, setting the stage for everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Private Eye and Spitting Image today. This is a book that will cause readers to reappraise everything they think they know about genteel Georgian London, and see it for what it was - a time of UPROAR!

Documents pertaining to the activities of the Loyal Suffolk Yeomanry Cavalry at a time when England was under threat of invasion. With invasion by the French revolutionary armies thought to be imminent, in 1794 a county-wide subscription was raised to support groups of Suffolk gentry, farmers, tradesmen and professionals to provide a defence for Suffolk. They formed themselves into a volunteer and part-time cavalry - the Loyal Suffolk Yeomanry Cavalry. Cornelius Collett, a banker in Woodbridge, joined his local Troop at its inception and remained a member for the next twenty six years. During this period, he collected and transcribed - in three large, leather-bound books - a range of unique and wide-ranging documents. These included, as well as details of musters and reviews, letters from the Lord Lieutenant,orders from central government, and plans for evacuation that would be put into place should the French arrive on Suffolk's shores. In addition to the external threat, Collett also gives details of the Yeomanry's secondary role of aiding the civil authorities in case of social unrest at home - something that became more important as a result of economic hardship after the conclusion of the French Wars. With relevance to the whole of Suffolk, these volumesalmost certainly represent the most comprehensive collection of documents of its kind. The volumes are presented here with an introduction and notes, providing new insights into the role and functioning of the Suffolk Yeomanry between 1794 and 1820 and the nature of its patriotic duty.

Intelligence is often the critical factor in a successful military campaign. This was certainly the case for Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular War. In this book, author Huw J. Davies offers the first full account of the scope, complexity, and importance of Wellington's intelligence department, describing a highly organized, multifaceted series of networks of agents and spies throughout Spain and Portugal - an organization that was at once a microcosm of British intelligence at the time and a sophisticated forebear to intelligence developments in the twentieth century. Spying for Wellington shows us an organization that was, in effect, two parallel networks: one made up of Foreign Office agents ""run"" by British ambassadors in Spain and Portugal, the other comprising military spies controlled by Wellington himself. The network of agents supplied strategic intelligence, giving the British army advance warning of the arrival, destinations, and likely intentions of French reinforcements. The military network supplied operational intelligence, which confirmed the accuracy of the strategic intelligence and provided greater detail on the strengths, arms, and morale of the French forces. Davies reveals how, by integrating these two forms of intelligence, Wellington was able to develop an extremely accurate and reliable estimate of French movements and intentions not only in his own theater of operations but also in other theaters across the Iberian Peninsula. The reliability and accuracy of this intelligence, as Davies demonstrates, was central to Wellington's decision-making and, ultimately, to his overall success against the French. Correcting past, incomplete accounts, this is the definitive book on Wellington's use of intelligence. As such, it contributes to a clearer, more comprehensive understanding of Wellington at war and of his place in the history of British military intelligence.

In Napoleon's Briton's Paul Brunyee presents a fresh study of Napoleon's last years as a captive on St Helena, telling the story of this final chapter in Bonaparte's life as seen through the eyes of the Britons around him. The Royal Navy officers to whom he surrendered; the people of Brixham who came to gaze in awe at the man when he appeared on the deck of the Bellerophon; the British radicals who recalled what he had done to curb the French Revolution; and those whose job it was to guard and entertain the most famous dictator in Europe on the small island to which he was banished. Brunyee offers insight into the reasoning behind the decision to send Napoleon to the remote island, and paints a fascinating portrait of Napoleon's life on St Helena, his turbulent relationships with his captors, his relationship with Admiral Cockburn and his efforts to persuade visitors to the island to his cause.

In the 1700s, Kazan Tatar (Muslim scholars of Kazan) and scholarly networks stood at the forefront of Russia's expansion into the South Urals, western Siberia, and the Kazakh steppe. It was there that the Tatars worked with Russian agents, established settlements, and spread their own religious and intellectual cuture that helped shaped their identity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Kazan Tatars profited economically from Russia's commercial and military expansion to Muslim lands and began to present themselves as leaders capable of bringing Islamic modernity to the rest of Russia's Muslim population. Danielle Ross bridges the history of Russia's imperial project with the history of Russia's Muslims by exploring the Kazan Tatars as participants in the construction of the Russian empire. Ross focuses on Muslim clerical and commercial networks to reconstruct the ongoing interaction among Russian imperial policy, nonstate actors, and intellectual developments within Kazan's Muslim community and also considers the evolving relationship with Central Asia, the Kazakh steppe, and western China. Tatar Empire offers a more Muslim-centered narrative of Russian empire building, making clear the links between cultural reformism and Kazan Tatar participation in the Russian eastward expansion.

For over 20 years France was the dominating, controlling and conquering power of the western world, a result not only of Napoleon's inspired leadership, but of the efforts of almost an entire generation of Frenchmen under arms. The French Revolution heralded both social change and a seismic shift in how armies were organized, trained and deployed.
This book provides an analysis of the preparation of French troops from manual regulations to the training ground, studying the changing quality of command and control within the army, which initially ensured that the French infantry were virtually unstoppable. Paddy Griffith not only explores the role of the French infantry at the apex of their powers and their actions in key battles, but also provides a detailed explanation of their eventual decline leading to defeat at Waterloo, providing a critical overview of French Napoleonic infantry tactics.

The End of Empire is a continuation of Nafziger s definitive military studies of the Napoleonic era beginning with the 1812 campaign and progressing through the 1813 campaign. Having suffered a massive reversal of fortunes in Russia Napoleon found himself confronted, in Germany, by the combined forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. After the disaster of Leipzig Napoleon s German allies fell away and he was forced to fall back, beyond the borders of France. Offered a negotiated peace on the basis of a return to the pre-1792 borders, Napoleon chose to continue to fight, trusting in his star. He was, however, desperate for troops and short of horses and cash. Cornered and threatened by three armies invading from the north, northeast, and east, every chance to stop the Allies had to be taken and there was desperate battle after desperate battle. Of all his campaigns, Napoleon s 1814 campaign was one of his most brilliant. Eventually, after several terrible defeats, the Allies refused to engage him in battle when he confronted them. Instead they pushed their other two armies forward, slowly driving him back as he rushed to block the advance of the other armies on Paris. This strategy proved successful and eventually Napoleon was obliged to abdicate when his marshals refused to fight further. "The End of Empire" includes a detailed text, specially commissioned maps and the author's trademark extensive orders of battle."

This Very Short Introduction provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context. David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility-for both good and ill-that Napoleon represented. By his late twenties, Napoleon was already one of the greatest generals in European history. At thirty, he had become absolute master of Europe's most powerful country. In his early forties, he ruled a European empire more powerful than any since Rome, fighting wars that changed the shape of the continent and brought death to millions. Then everything collapsed, leading him to spend his last years in miserable exile in the South Atlantic. Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued, and his success in mobilizing human and material resources. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.

From Roger Knight, established by the multi-award winning The Pursuit of Victory as 'an authority ... none of his rivals can match' (N.A.M. Rodger), Britain Against Napoleon is the first book to explain how the British state successfully organised itself to overcome Napoleon - and how very close it came to defeat For more than twenty years after 1793, the French army was supreme in continental Europe. How was it that despite multiple changes of government and the assassination of a Prime Minister, Britain survived and eventually won a generation-long war against a regime which at its peak in 1807 commanded many times the resources and manpower? This book looks beyond the familiar exploits (and bravery) of the army and navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It shows the degree to which, because of the magnitude and intensity of hostilities, the capacities of the whole British population were involved: industrialists, farmers, shipbuilders, gunsmiths and gunpowder manufacturers. The intelligence war was also central; but no participants were more important, Knight argues, than the bankers and international traders of the City of London, without whom the armies of Britain's allies could not have taken the field. ROGER KNIGHT was Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum until 2000, and now teaches at the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich. In 2005 he published, with Allen Lane/Penguin, The Pursuit of Victory: the life and achievement of Horatio Nelson, which won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military History, the Mountbatten Award and the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research. The present book is a culmination of his life-long interest in the workings of the late eighteenth-century British state. 'Superb' - Spectator

In the two hundred years since the Battle of Waterloo countless studies examining almost every aspect of this momentous event have been published - narratives of the campaign, graphic accounts of key stages in the fighting or of the role played by a regiment or by an individual who was there - an eyewitness. But what has not been written is an in-depth study of a division, one of the larger formations that made up the armies on that decisive battlefield, and that is exactly the purpose of Philip Haythornthwaite's original and highly readable new book. He concentrates on the famous Fifth Division, commanded by Sir Thomas Picton, which was a key element in Wellington's Reserve. The experiences of this division form a microcosm of those of the entire army. Vividly, using a range of first-hand accounts, the author describes the actions of the officers and men throughout this short, intense campaign, in particular their involvement the fighting at Quatre Bras and at Waterloo itself.

Patrick O'Brien provides the forward to this edition of the most successful Conway Maritime title. This book is the perfect guide to Nelson's Navy for all those with an interest in the workings of the great fleet. The book is eminently readable and is the first single-volume work to cover in such depth this vast and complex subject. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the sailing navy the book contains considerable original research to give a clear and authentic picture of the Senior Service as a whole. With a foreword by one of the most successful maritime fiction authors of the current age, the book is also of interest to all those with enthusiasm for the literature based on the Nelsonic-era.