Publications

Abd el-Kader: Hero and Saint of Islam is a biography of the great Algerian hero and mystic Emir Abd el-Kader (c. 1807/8-1883). Such was the Emir's popularity that, in 1846, the town of Elkader, Iowa was named in his honor.Beginning with the childhood and youth of the Emir, the reader is carried along the course […]

Britain's defeat of Napoleon is one the great accomplishments in its history. And yet it was by no means certain that Britain itself would survive the revolutionary fervour of the age, let alone emerge victorious from such a vast conflict. From the late 1790s, the country was stricken by naval mutinies, rebellion in Ireland, and riots […]

 From the publishersAlexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand duke by Catherine the Great, he ascended to the throne in 1801 after the brutal assassination of his father. In this magisterial biography, Marie-Pierre Rey illuminates the complex forces that shaped Alexander's tumultuous reign and […]

Originally published in 1900, this book features excerpts from Alexander Cavalié Mercer's account of the battle of Waterloo. As an artillery officer at the sharp end, this is his eye-witness account of the events that lead to Napoleon's final defeat in June 1815. This is the contemporary view of how the events were conveyed to […]

February 1811. Marshal Victor had besieged the Spanish city of Cádiz for a year. Generals Manuel de Lapeña and Thomas Graham, at the head of Spanish and British troops, disembarked at Algeciras and at Tarifa and led their men towards Chiclana in order to attack the French lines from the rear. On 5 March, the […]

Countess de Beauharnais, Madame Bonaparte, Queen Hortense, Première Dame de France (First Lady of France) and finally Duchess of St. Leu are just some of the titles by which Queen Hortense was known in the course of her fateful life. They exemplify a biography that could not have been more poignant. To mark the 175th […]

Between 1831 and 1866, Théophile Gautier published two dozen tales which can be designated contes fantastiques or contes merveilleux. These works are examined in chronological sequence, in French, in order to follow the development of Gautier as a writer of fantastic stories. The analysis concentrates in particular on problems of genesis and intertextuality, and highlights […]

Castorland, “the land of beavers,” is a vast tract on the Black River between Lowville and Carthage in Lewis County, New York. Two hundred years ago, nobility and clergy retreating from the French Revolution founded settlements in this area. Drawing on the Castorland Journal, a day-to-day account kept by Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, Edith […]

In Progressive Enlightenment, Leslie Tomory examines the origins of the gaslight industry, from invention to consolidation as a large integrated urban network. Tomory argues that gas was the first integrated large-scale technological network, a designation usually given to the railways. He shows how the first gas network was constructed and stabilized through the introduction of […]

In The Weight of Vengeance, Bickham provides an account of America's forgotten war, underscoring its significance for both sides by placing it in global context. The Napoleonic Wars profoundly disrupted the global order, from India to Haiti to New Orleans. Spain's power slipped, allowing the United States to target the Floridas; the Haitian slave revolt […]