From Valmy to Waterloo - (War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850) by M Thoral (Paperback)

About the Book

The French declaration of war on Austria on 20 April 1792 committed the nation to more than twenty years of war. Faced with a coalition of European powers, the revolutionaries called upon the citizenry to form a truly national army. The result was an unprecedented tightening of the bond between war and nation. That the conflict would have consequences for the very foundations of French society was inevitable given its sheer scale, duration, and geographical extent (the whole of continental Europe and beyond in the campaigns in Saint-Domingue and Egypt); its far-reaching impact on civilian society and commerce; and its forcible involvement of hundreds of thousands of young Frenchmen. The theme of this book is the first-hand experience of French military and civilians during these conflicts, seen through their eyes and using their testimony, as well as an assessment of the place of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic conflicts in the evolution of the art of warfare, and the elements of modernity which made them the first example of 'total war'.

Book Synopsis

Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, this book investigates the everyday human experience of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars by French military and civilians, the impact of these wars on the French nation and society, and the rise of a new kind of war in the West at the turn of the nineteenth century.

About the Author

MARIE-CECILE THORAL is Senior Lecturer in Modern International and European History at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Previously she taught at Coventry University and held a post-doctoral Research Fellowship in Modern History at the University of York from 2006 to 2008, in the research project 'Nation, Borders, Identities: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in European Memories, ' funded by the AHRC.