Abstract

Recent German historiography of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods has tended to focus upon particular regions, conceding the different conditions and experiences of people from north to south and east to west. It has also generally focused upon limited conceptions of the period under French influence (Franzosenzeit), such as its impact upon jurisprudence or constitutionalism or religious emancipation or language and so on. And historians have often drawn distinctions between the different periods of the Franzosenzeit, noting that the experiences of initial conquest or occupation differed from subsequent years under French administration, which differed again from the period of liberation and Restoration in 1813–14. Leighton James’s book is therefore ambitious in every way. It attempts to summarize, in less than 200 pages, the entire span of the years between 1789 and 1815 across all of the German-speaking lands. James’s stated intent is a broadly conceived ‘everyday history’ (Alltagsgeschichte): the ‘war of the little man’ (p. 2) as recorded in diaries and memoirs and lesser-known cultural production. His archival selections indicate an emphasis on southern Germany. Of the nine major German archival collections he uses, seven are located in the south. That said, he has drawn extensively from primary and secondary literature from all regions and an impressive breadth of topics.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call