Articles

Each “Bullet Point” will confront a question related to the First Empire. My remarks are designed to form the basis for debate and, I hope, research. (Thierry Lentz, March 2020, translation RY with PH)

Photography, from its invention at the end of the 1830s to its development and rapid democratisation over the following 15 years, changed our society forever. A simple glance at the science, art and law articles in the French papers of the 1850s and 60s says it all. Throughout the 1850s and 60s, while astronomers were […]

Each “Bullet Point” will confront a question related to the First Empire. My remarks are designed to form the basis for debate and, I hope, research. (Thierry Lentz, Feb 2020, translation JR with PH)

It’s staggering to think that, as we speak, Napoleon is tweeting about his latest victories and commenting on world affairs. And all in several languages, of course! These days, just as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter make it possible to follow, minute-by-minute, the day-to-day lives of…

Each “Bullet Point” will confront a question related to the First Empire. My remarks are designed to form the basis for debate and, I hope, research. (Thierry Lentz, January 2020, translation PH)

The Crimean War, which lasted from 1853 to 1856, marked the return of France to the military and diplomatic forefront of Europe after a long period of absence post-1815 – the Spanish campaign and the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s excepted. The Congress of Paris, which brought the Crimean War to a close and which […]

Each “Bullet Point” will confront a question related to the First Empire. My remarks are designed to form the basis for debate and, I hope, research. (Thierry Lentz, December 2019, translation PH)

In need of ideas for Napoleonic literary treats for your end-of-year festivities? Here’s a selection of this year’s editorial harvest and we can promise that our previous years’ crops are still not past their sell-by dates.. so check them out too! Christmas Selection 2018, Summer Reading…

I doubt that anybody is still unaware of the discovery, made earlier this year by a team of Franco-Russian archaeologists, of the (initially “presumed”) remains of General Gudin, commander of the 3rd Division of the 1st Corps of the Grande Armée (Marshal Davout), who was…

The Gazétier révolutionnaire, a digital database of literally hundreds (possibly thousands) of newspapers from the Revolutionary period and the Newspaper Archive are extraordinary tools. From the comfort of your desk, you can read the news of the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire as it filtered out…