From Valmy to Waterloo
Subtitle: France at war, 1792-1815
By: Marie-Cécile Thoral ; translation by Godfrey Rogers
Series: War, culture and society, 1750-1850
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Basingstoke; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
ISBN-13: 9780230252875; 9780230545335
Subjects: Social conditions; Social life and customs; History; Oorlogen
Description: 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'.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-250) and index.
Table of contents: title: Battle experience. The changing face of battle ; Battle experience and individual identity ; Modern war : site of mass morality ; The enemy : perception, representation, and treatment ; Conclusion; title: The war at sea. The French Navy in the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars ; Dominance over the oceans, control of the trade routes : the war in the Mediterranean ; The return of the privateers ; Conclusion; title: The body in war. From the body of the soldier to the body of the nation : war and the body politic ; The human experience of wounds and illness in war ; Healing mars : medical services and military medicine ; Conclusion; title: Troop morale and military unity. Troop morale : the historical and theoretical debate ; The importance of the primary group and comradeship ; Political ideology, patriotism : the role of values in troop morale ; The quality of leadership ; The role of religion ; War as an individual experience : the role of self-concern in troop motivation ; External and material supports for troop morale : the example of alcohol ; Conclusion; title: From individual experience to collective identities. Local and national identity ; Cultural identity : membership of minority religions and secret fraternities ; Military identity ; Conclusion; title: War and the economy. Agriculture ; Commerce ; Industry ; Conclusion; title: Civilians in the war. News of the war ; War and the daily existence of the French people ; The war comes to France ; Conclusion.