Imperial City: Rome, Romans and Napoleon, 1796-1815

Rather than a political treatment of the 'French period' (as the Romans calls it), this book goes from bottom to top, recounting what you might call “experience of life” during a nineteen-year period in the history of the city of Rome. As Susan Nicassio herself puts it, “[it] is a book about Rome and Romans rather than a book about Napoleon”, and it ranges from the religious elite to their civic counterparts, from the very poor to Napoleon himself, passing via the life, death, the universe and everything. The style is very chatty, and anyone with an interest in what everyday life was like in late-18th/early-19th-century Italy will find this book a treat. The plates includes woodcuts of family scenes, views of Rome, scenes from everyday life.

Susan Vandiver Nicassio is Associate Professor of History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.