Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society During the Revolution and Empire (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780195059373)

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.

Author: Alan Forrest
ISBN-10: 0195059379
ISBN-13: 9780195059373
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 11/23/1989
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.30w x 0.99d