Admiral Nelson's most frequent cry was for more frigates. Though not ships of the line these fast and powerful warships were the 'eyes of the fleet'. They enabled admirals to find where the enemy lay and his likely intentions, as well as patrolling vital trade routes and providing information from far-flung colonies. Together with their smaller cousins, the sloops and brigs of the Royal Navy, they performed a vital function.rnrnGenerally commanded by ambitious young men, these were the ships that could capture enemy prizes and earn their officers and men enough prize-money to set them up for life. The fictional characters Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey hardly surpassed some of the extraordinary deeds of derring-do and tragedy described in these pages. rnOriginally published in two volumes, this book is a bargain for all who want the factual low-down on the Brylcreem Boys of Nelson's navy.

Three great revolutions rocked the world around 1800. The first two - the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution - have inspired the greatest volume of literature. But the third - the romantic revolution - was perhaps the most fundamental and far-reaching. From it derive virtually all the cultural axioms of the modern world: the stress on genius, originality and individual expression; the dominance of music; the obsession with sexuality, dreams and the subconscious; the public as patron; the worship of art and artists. Tim Blanning traces the evolution of romanticism from Rousseau's conversion-experience on the road to Vincennes in 1749. Contrary to received wisdom, Blanning argues that the 18th century was an intensely religious age, but one increasingly dissatisfied with organised religion. Art and artists began to fill this void. By the mid-19th century, realism had made a comeback but fin-de-siecle and post-modernism reasserted the romantic agenda.

Napoleon's soldiers marched across Europe from Lisbon to Moscow, and from Germany to Dalmatia. Many of the men, mostly conscripted by ballot, had never before been beyond their native village. What did they make of the extraordinary experiences, fighting battles thousands of miles from home, foraging for provisions or garrisoning towns in hostile countries? What was it like to be a soldier in the revolutionary and imperial armies? We know more about these men and their reactions to war than about the soldiers of any previous army in history, not just from offical sources but also from the large number of personal letters they wrote. Napoleon's Men provides a direct into the experiences and emotions of soldiers who risked their lives at Austerlitz, Wagram and Borodino. Not surprisingly, their minds often dwelt as much on what was happening at hime, and on mundane questions of food and drink as on Napoloen himself or the glory of France. Alan Forrest is Professor of Modern History at the University of York.Among his recent books are Paris, the Princes and the French Revolution (Arnold, 2004) and (co-authored with Jean-Paul Bertaud and Annie Jourdan), Napoleon, le monde et les Anglais (Paris, Autrement, 2004)

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".

In August 1793 Republican France teetered on the brink of collapse. On every front her enemies' armies swept forwards across her borders - the very survival of the Revolution itself was at stake. In Toulon, the strategically vital home port of France's Mediterranean fleet, a coup had overthrown the Republican government and handed over the city to the blockading British navy. In this, perhaps her darkest hour, France's saviour was at hand in the shape of a Captain of Artillery whose name all Europe would soon know - Napoleon Bonaparte. This title describes the Republican victory at Toulon that not only saved the Revolution but also saw the young Napoleon Bonaparte begin his meteoric rise to power.

This volume examines one of the central political questions of the modern world, the uneasy and often violent relationship between the forces of nationalism and democracy. This subject was one of lifelong interest to the late Professor Harry Hearder of University of Wales, Cardiff, to whom the book is dedicated. The focus is on the nation-states of western Europe during the period 1985-1970. Much of the content explores varieties of conflict and compromise between these two 'cultures, ' which had in many aspects a contradictory dynamic, but which nevertheless shared some basic aspirations, and often contrived to coexist, both on the national and international level.

This narrative account of three Napoleonic battles adheres rather closely to the Aristotelian configuration of evolving tragedy. The historian succeeds in presenting herein events and character not only in historical reality but also in unities employed by the artist or tragedian. For a beginning of this lively, military story, Harold T. Parker chooses a portrayal of Napoleon at the height of his power, the battle of Friedland. The middle episode is concerned with Napoleon in his first serious personal check, the battle of Aspern-Essling. To complete the unity and to conclude the tragic progression, the author resurveys the episode of Napoleon's final defeat at the battle of Waterloo.

When Napoleon's Grand Armee went to war against the might of the Habsburg empire in 1809, its forces included more than 100,000 allied German troops. From his earliest imperial campaigns, these troops provided played a key role as Napoleon swept from victory to victory and in 1809 their fighting abilities were crucial to the campaign. With Napoleon's French troops depleted and debilitated after the long struggle in the Spanish War, the German troops for the first time played a major combat role in the centre of the battle line. Aiming at a union of German states under French protection to replace the decrepit Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon sought to expand French influence in central Germany at the expense of the Austrian and Prussian monarchies, ensuring Frances own security. The campaign Napoleon waged in 1809 was his career watershed. He suffered his first reverse at Aspern. Victory was achieved at Wagram was not the knock-out blow he had envisaged. In this epic work, John Gill presents an unprecedented and comprehensive study of this year of glory for the German soldiers fighting for Napoleon, When combat opened they were in the thick of the action, fighting within French divisions and often without any French support at all. They demonstrated tremendous skill, courage and loyalty.

'One of the lancers rode by, and stabbed me in the back with his lance. I then turned, and lay with my face upward, and a foot soldier stabbed me with his sword as he walked by. Immediately after, another, with his firelock and bayonet, gave me a terrible plunge, and while doing it with all his might, exclaimed, "Sacre nom de Dieu!" ' The truly epic and brutal battle of Waterloo was a pivotal moment in history - a single day, one 24-hour period, defined the course of Europe's future. In March 1815, the Allies declared war on Napoleon in response to his escape from exile and the renewed threat to imperial European rule. Three months later, on 18 June 1815, having suffered considerable losses at Quatre-Bras, Wellington's army fell back on Waterloo, some ten miles south of Brussels. Halting on the ridge, they awaited Napoleon's army, blocking their entry to the capital. This would become the Allies' final stand, the infamous battle of Waterloo. In this intimate, hour-by-hour account, acclaimed military historian Robert Kershaw resurrects the human stories at the centre of the fighting, creating an authoritative single-volume biography of this landmark battle. Drawing on his profound insight and a field knowledge of military strategy, Kershaw takes the reader to where the impact of the orders was felt, straight into the heart of the battle, shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers on the mud-splattered ground. Masterfully weaving together painstakingly researched eyewitness accounts, diaries and letters - many never before seen or published - this gripping portrayal of Waterloo offers unparalleled authenticity. Extraordinary images of the men and women emerge in full colour; the voices of the sergeants, the exhausted foot-soldiers, the boy ensigns, the captains and the cavalry troopers, from both sides, rise from the page in vivid and telling detail, as the fate of Europe hangs by a thread.

Known collectively as the 'Great War', for over a decade the Napoleonic Wars engulfed not only a whole continent but also the overseas possessions of the leading European states. A war of unprecedented scale and intensity, it was in many ways a product of change that acted as a catalyst for upheaval and reform across much of Europe, with aspects of its legacy lingering to this very day. There is a mass of literature on Napoleon and his times, yet there are only a handful of scholarly works that seek to cover the Napoleonic Wars in their entirety, and fewer still that place the conflict in any broader framework. This study redresses the balance. Drawing on recent findings and applying a 'total' history approach, it explores the causes and effects of the conflict, and places it in the context of the evolution of modern warfare. It reappraises the most significant and controversial military ventures, including the war at sea and Napoleon's campaigns of 1805-9. The study gives an insight into the factors that shaped the war, setting the struggle in its wider economic, cultural, political and intellectual dimensions.

John Hatsell (1733-1820) held the office of Clerk of the House of Commons from 1768 to 1820. In his letters and Memorabilia entries - published here for the first time - Hatsell brought to bear his intimate familiarity with high politics during the reign of George III. Hatsell's expertise in financial policy inspired him to offer counsel to Pitt the Younger during Pitt's first premiership (1783-1801). Hatsell's other correspondents include Henry Addington (speaker 1789-1801 and prime minister 1801-1804), Charles Abbot (speaker 1802-1817), and William Eden (diplomat and President of the Board of Trade in the Ministry of All the Talents, 1806-1807). Hatsell centres his attention on the enduring constitutional significance of the changes he experienced in his public and private life. Hatsell's wry humour is often on display as he reveals the lighter side of social and political life in Great Britain.

The Mediterranean was one of Napoleon's greatest spheres of influence. With territory in Spain, Italy and, of course, France, Napoleon's regime dominated the Great Sea for much of the early nineteenth century. The 'Napoleonic Mediterranean' was composed of almost the entirety of the western, European lands bordering its northern shores, however tenuously many of those shores were held. The disastrous attempt to conquer Egypt in 1798-99, and the rapid loss of Malta to the British, sealed its eastward and southern limits. None of Napoleon's Mediterranean possessions were easily held; they were volatile societies which showed determined resistance to the new state forged by the French Revolution. In this book, acclaimed historian and biographer of Napoleon, Michael Broers looks at the similarities and differences between Napoleon's Mediterranean imperial possessions. He considers the process of political, military and legal administration as well as the challenges faced by Napoleon's Prefects in overcoming hostility in the local population. With chapters covering a range of imperial territories, this book is a unique and valuable addition to the historical literature on Napoleonic Europe and the process and practice of imperialism.

Thomas Jackson's autobiography provides a colourful account of his experiences as a militiaman, Coldstreamer, and Chelsea pensioner. Son of a Walsall bucklemaker, Jackson joined the Staffordshire Militia aged 17 and spent a decade on home service, much of it passed at Windsor Castle and Weymouth guarding King George III. As a sergeant in the Coldstream Guards, he served in Sir Thomas Graham's 1813-14 campaign in the Netherlands and was wounded and captured during the storming of Bergen-op-Zoom. Jackson provides a harrowing account of this failed assault, the ensuing amputation of his right leg, and his subsequent year-long convalescence. While many military memoirs end with news of peace or discharge, Jackson also chronicles his post-war life as a Chelsea pensioner and war amputee, describing his struggles raising a family amidst economic turmoil and cholera outbreaks. Jackson provides a fresh and often critical perspective on service in the ranks. Embittered by the loss of his leg, he laments the plight of army veterans, doomed by an ungrateful nation to lives of 'pinching poverty'. His memoir also does not shrink from graphically describing the horrors of combat. Indeed, Neil Ramsey, author of a recent comprehensive study of military memoirs, wrote that Jackson's story deserved 'far wider attention as one of the most harrowing accounts of war's miseries to be written in the nineteenth century'. Yet despite the clear merits of his testimony, Jackson's Narrative has never been reissued since its initial publication. Enhanced with additional research and commentary by historian Eamonn O'Keeffe, this new edition makes Jackson's lively and invaluable autobiography publicly available for the first time in 170 years.

This beautifully illustrated guide by master draughtsman and Napoleonic expert Carl Franklin draws together extensive research and previously unpublished information to provide a new insight into the field artillery and uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars. The evolution of this new form of artillery is shown in full detail for the first time, and its use is fully examined. Particular attention is given to the ammunition, drills, harness, supporting equipment and uniforms of the period, and each type of field artillery is fully illustrated. 'Fire,' Napoleon himself proclaimed, 'is everything; the rest does not matter.' British Napoleonic Field Artillery helps to test the veracity of that statement and is an essential reference for all those interested in Napoleonic history. C.E. Franklin was born in London in 1934. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1951, spending much of his later appointments as an engineer specialising in guided weapons. On leaving the service in 1984 he joined British Aerospace. He retired in 1990 and now spends most of his time in research and writing. He is the author of British Rockets of the Napoleonic and Colonial Wars 1805-1901 and British Napoleonic Uniforms: A Complete Illustrated Guide to Uniforms, Facings and Lace. He lives in Lea, Lincolnshire.

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.