Publications

John Henry Vivian (1785-1855) was a leading British copper-master and one of the makers of modern Swansea. As a young man, in 1814-15 he made a tour of the Continent of Europe during which he met the deposed Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Vivian kept a journal of his travels, and this book publishes his account of […]

 From the publishers:During the French decade 1806-1815, Naples was once again in direct contact with European civilisation. King Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat here played an important role with their programmes of architectural and artistic commissions. Royal projects once again became key centres of artistic production: local architects, painters and sculptors collaborated directly with French, […]

  From the publishers:As well as the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Napoleonic residences on the island of Elba from 23 April to 21 October 2007, this book also includes eighteen essays on various aspects of the history and legend of Napoleon, by authors such as Roberta Martinelli, Ugo Barlozzetti, Massimo Bertolucci, Sandro Matteoni, Antonio Paolucci, Sandro […]

  From the publishers:“These last fifteen minutes are like nothing else in history,” wrote Victor Hugo. It is true that in little more than three months, there was a shake-up of regimes and dynasties the likes of which had not been seen before. Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan on 1 March 1815 and was in Paris by […]

Many “great captains” in military history were well served by distinguished lieutenants, and Lord Horatio Nelson was certainly one of them. Denis Orde, author of Nelson's Mediterranean Command, now turns to one of the quintessential British admiral's closest friends and contemporaries, Vice Admiral Cuthbert “Cuddy” Collingwood, for whom the book's title, In the Shadow of […]

An historian and former archivist who has translated two remarkable French memoirs of the Franco-Prussian War (The Reality of War, and The Shame of Defeat, 1870-1871: A French Army Surgeon in the Franco-Prussian War), Douglas Fermer's Sedan 1870 deals with an old battle which led to the collapse of an imperial dynasty and the appearance of a new power in European […]

When French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810, a dramatic dynastic venture commenced. In an age of revolutions, marked by political as well as cultural upheavals, the commoner from Pau was transformed into King Charles XIV John and the head of a new royal dynasty in Sweden and […]

This book looks at naval power as a key component policy and national life. It aims to analyse to what extent, and how, naval power shaped the development of Europe, both in war and peace. The book examines the contribution of sea power as an instrument of defence and conquest, its direct effects on the […]

This book is dedicated to cartography and the effects Napoleon's campaigns had on the representation of terrain. The reader is invted to consider Napoleon's particular style of cartography and its way of representing geographical features visually, as well as its establishment of the norms for modern cartography.

“Prefects, Council of State, Legion of Honour, Garde champêtres, Public Treasury, National Stud (Dépôt d'étalons), Palmes académiques (Academic palms), Grand Maréchal du Palais… Napoleon modernised some institutions and administrative structures and created other from scratch, changing the face of the country and paving the way for modern France.” Whilst there are many dictionaries on the […]