Regimental Worlds

Interpreting the Experience of British Soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID23186118
AuthorsJohn E Cookson
Year2009
Pages23-42
Publication date2009-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueSoldiers, Citizens and Civilians (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9780230583290_2
OpenAlexW2482377261
ISBN9780230583290
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited2

The 'army and society history' of the Napoleonic period has been predictably rooted in nation-making; for the fascination of these wars for historians has always been the extent to which they were 'wars of the nations' opening the way towards a modern age of state authority yet widely conceded citizenship. In British work on 'forging the nation', Linda Colley's Britons (1992) remains seminal. It depicted the long war against France and Napoleon as climactic, the British becoming totally confident of their national identity against the French 'other' and their armed nation compelling progress towards the broader political nation that soon afterwards came into being.1 The emergence of a patriotism that over-arched ethnicity, sub-British nationality, religion, class and party was implicit in her narrative. This 'British' patriotism welled up most spectacularly when participation in national defence was required and in the moment of final victory.KeywordsEighteenth CenturyMoral EconomyImperial EagleMilitary AuthorityBritish ArmyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Citizenship · Economic history · Ethnic group · Immigration · National identity · Nationality · Patriotism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Victory · European Political History Analysis · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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