The Napoleonic Wars have an important place in the history of Europe, leaving their mark on European and world societies in a variety of ways. In many European countries they provided the stimulus for radical social and political change - particularly in Spain, Germany, and Italy - and are frequently viewed in these places as the starting point of their modern histories. In this Very Short Introduction, Mike Rapport provides a brief outline of the wars, introducing the tactics, strategies, and weaponry of the time. Presented in three parts, he considers the origins and course of the wars, the ways and means in which it was fought, and the social and political legacy it has left to the world today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book explores the evolution of British identity and participatory politics in the 1790s. Wil Verhoeven argues that in the course of the French Revolution debate in Britain, the idea of 'America' came to represent for the British people the choice between two diametrically opposed models of social justice and political participation. Yet the American Revolution controversy in the 1790s was by no means an isolated phenomenon. The controversy began with the American crisis debate of the 1760s and 1770s, which overlapped with a wider Enlightenment debate about transatlantic utopianism. All of these debates were based in the material world on the availability of vast quantities of cheap American land. Verhoeven investigates the relation that existed throughout the eighteenth century between American soil and the discourse of transatlantic utopianism: between America as a physical, geographical space, and 'America' as a utopian/dystopian idea-image.

First Published in 1965. This is a general account of the influence on English history of the period of the French Revolution. This volume seeks to fill that gap and to sketch an outline of the workings in force that penetrated English life, directly and by reaction, far into the nineteenth century. The general thread of politics, theory, and literature are traced, and concrete illustration is also supplied from the experiences of individuals, poets, politicians, and working men. Some unused material remains in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and in the Privy Council records ; and this has been drawn upon. Printed biographies, pamphlets, and newspapers supply the bulk of the evidence.

This study challenges the conventional polarities used to describe British politics of the 1790s; Pitt versus Fox, Burke versus Paine, Church versus Dissent, ruling class versus working class, Jacobin versus anti-Jacobin. Such polarities were sedulously promoted by Pitt's wartime government, which applied 'Jacobin' shamelessly to all its critics and opponents, and thus foreshadowed the McCarthyite tactic of guilt by association. The author seeks to make the less strident but more persuasive contemporary voices again audible. He takes seriously those who questioned the necessity for Burke's crusade to destroy the French republic, and who deplored Britain's alliance with the partitioners of Poland.

"English Historical Documents is the most comprehensive, annotated collection of documents on British (not in reality just English) history ever compiled. Conceived during the Second World War with a view to ensuring the most important historical documents remained available and accessible in perpetuity, the first volume came out in 1953, and the most recent volume almost sixty years later. The print series, edited by David C. Douglas, is a magisterial survey of British history, covering the years 500 to 1914 and including around 5,500 primary sources, all selected by leading historians Editors. It has over the years become an indispensable resource for generations of students, researchers and lecturers. EHD is now available in its entirety online. Bringing EHD into the digital age has been a long and complex process. To provide you with first-rate, intelligent searchability, Routledge have teamed up with the Institute of Historical Research (one of the research institutes that make up the School of Advanced Study, University of London http://www.history.ac.uk) to produce EHD Online. The IHR's team of experts have fully indexed the documents, using an exhaustive historical thesaurus developed by the Royal Historical Society for its Bibliography of British and Irish History. The sources include treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings, military dispatches, orders, acts, sermons, newspaper articles, pamphlets, personal and official letters, diaries and more. Each section of documents and many of the documents themselves are accompanied by editorial commentary. The sources cover a wide spectrum of topics, from political and constitutional issues to social, economic, religious as well as cultural history."--[Résumé de l'éditeur].