Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society During the Revolution and Empire

ISBN-13: 9780195059373 / Angielski / Twarda / 1989 / 304 str.

Alan I. Forrest

Opis

Between the outbreak of war with Austria in 1792 and Napoleon's final debacle in 1814, France remained almost continously at war, recruiting in the process some two to three million frenchmen--a level of recruitment unknown to previous generations and widely resented as an attack on the liberties of rural communities. Forrest challenges the notion of a nation heroically rushing to arms by examining the massive rates of desertion and avoidance of service as well as their consequences on French society--on military campaigns and the morale of armies, on political opinion at home, on the social fabric of local villages, and on the Napoleonic dream of bringing about a coherent and centralized state.

Recenzje

'fascinating and important book ... Forrest constructs an admirably large canvas, combining broad strokes with a pointillism that reflects his sensitivity to individual human beings in concrete social environments ... Forrest has achieved a commendably balanced and suggestive synthesis' Isser Woloch, Columbia University, Journal of Modern History, Volume 64, Number 2, June 1992

O autorze

Author of two books on the French Revolution