{"product_id":"9781508000136","title":"The Revolutionary in Napoleonic Era 1789-1815","description":"Pyrrhus Press specializes in bringing books long out of date back to life, allowing today’s readers access to yesterday’s treasures. \u003cbr\u003eThis is a history of the Napoleonic era that looks not just at the military history but also the political history from the French Revolution to the Bourbon Restoration in 1815. \u003cbr\u003eFrom the preface:\u003cbr\u003e“THE dramatic intensity of many phases of the French Revolution has, until recently, so absorbed the attention of students as to obscure its relation to the European Revolution. It is the chief aim of this little work to show this inter-dependence, and to explain the influence of French ideas and policy on Europe. Though this plan somewhat restricts the arena of personal achievement and romance, it will, I trust, ensure a corresponding gain in historical interest; for the European nations were then first brought into close contact, not merely by dynastic interests, but by their own conscious aspirations or antipathies. My object has been to exhibit the influences in France and Europe tending to overthrow the old systems of government and society, to trace, even amidst the apparent chaos of the French Revolution, the growth of forces which tended towards a strongly centralised government and autocracy, to describe Napoleon’s work of destruction and reconstruction, and finally to analyse the character of the new national impulses which overthrew his domination. Passing over unimportant details, I have everywhere endeavoured to concentrate attention on those events and crises which exercised most influence on the formation of the European system, and to show the connection, too often ignored, between the earlier and later phases of the French Revolution. To study the intricate strifes of French parties in 1789–1795, apart from the reorganisation effected by Bonaparte, appears to me as unprofitable as to master the enunciation and construction of a geometrical problem without proceeding to its solution.\u003cbr\u003eThe present time is singularly favourable to an attempt at reviewing the features of this momentous era. The researches of MM. Sorel, Aulard, Vandal and others have added largely to our knowledge of the epoch, especially that portion of it in which Napoleon is the principal figure. The general tendency of recent French enquiries has been to some extent to redress the balance in favour of the great conqueror. The historian must, however, duly discount the brilliant romancings of Marbot, the trustful confidences of Ménéval, and the quaint attempts of M. Lévy to depict his hero as a good-natured bourgeois in private life. Fortunately, the other side of the picture has been set forth in the sober and authentic narratives of Chaptal, Macdonald and Pasquier. Besides working through these and many other French Memoirs, I have endeavoured to enter into the general spirit of the age by studying the chief histories, memoirs and biographies relating to other European lands, especially Germany. The perusal of our Foreign Office records has also convinced me that much more may be urged in defence of British policy than has hitherto been conceded.”\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Pyrrhus Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47127350739184,"sku":"9781508000136","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781508000136_p0.jpg?v=1763720361","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781508000136","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}