War, Culture and Society,

Transcription

1 War, Culture and Society, Series Editors: Rafe Blaufarb (Tallahassee, USA), Alan Forrest (York, UK), and Karen Hagemann (Chapel Hill, USA) Editorial Board: Michael Broers (Oxford, UK), Christopher Bayly (Cambridge, UK), Richard Bessel (York, UK), Sarah Chambers (Minneapolis, USA), Laurent Dubois (Durham, USA), Etienne François (Berlin, Germany), Janet Hartley (London, UK), Wayne Lee (Chapel Hill, USA), Jane Rendall (York, UK), Reinhard Stauber (Klagenfurt, Austria) Titles include: Richard Bessel, Nicholas Guyatt and Jane Rendall (editors) WAR, EMPIRE AND SLAVERY, Alan Forrest and Peter H. Wilson (editors) THE BEE AND THE EAGLE Napoleonic France and the End of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806 Alan Forrest, Karen Hagemann and Jane Rendall (editors) SOLDIERS, CITIZENS AND CIVILIANS Experiences and Perceptions of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Karen Hagemann, Gisela Mettele and Jane Rendall (editors) GENDER, WAR AND POLITICS Transatlantic Perspectives, Marie-Cécile Thoral FROM VALMY TO WATERLOO France at War, Forthcoming: Michael Broers, Agustin Guimera and Peter Hick (editors) THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE AND THE NEW EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE Alan Forrest, Etienne François and Karen Hagemann (editors) WAR MEMORIES The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe Leighton S. James WITNESSING WAR Experience, Narrative and Identity in German Central Europe, Catriona Kennedy NARRATIVES OF WAR Military and Civilian Experience in Britain and Ireland,

2 Kevin Linch BRITAIN AND WELLINGTON S ARMY Recruitment, Society and Tradition, War, Culture and Society, Series Standing Order ISBN hardback paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

3 From Valmy to Waterloo France at War, Marie-Cécile Thoral Senior Lecturer, Modern European History, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Translation by Godfrey Rogers

4 Marie-Cécile Thoral 2011 Translation Godfrey Rogers 2011 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

5 Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 Battle Experience 13 I The changing face of battle 14 II Battle experience and individual identity 20 III Modern war: site of mass mortality 31 IV The enemy: perception, representation, and treatment 36 V Conclusion 44 2 The War at Sea 45 I The French Navy in the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars 47 II Dominance over the oceans, control of the trade routes: the war in the Mediterranean 60 III The return of the privateers 64 IV Conclusion 71 3 The Body in War 72 I From the body of the soldier to the body of the nation: war and the body politic 73 II The human experience of wounds and illness in war 80 III Healing mars: medical services and military medicine 89 IV Conclusion 97 4 Troop Morale and Military Unity 99 I Troop morale: the historical and theoretical debate 100 II The importance of the primary group and comradeship 102 III Political ideology, patriotism: the role of values in troop morale 107 IV The quality of leadership 111 V The role of religion 113 VI War as an individual experience: the role of self-concern in troop motivation 115 v

6 vi Contents VII External and material supports for troop morale: the example of alcohol 117 VIII Conclusion From Individual Experience to Collective Identities 121 I Local and national identity Regional and local identity National identity 126 II Cultural identity: membership of minority religions and secret fraternities 134 III Military identity 139 IV Conclusion War and the Economy 147 I Agriculture 148 II Commerce The Atlantic sector The Mediterranean sector Crisis and reorganization of maritime commerce 163 III Industry 169 IV Conclusion Civilians in the War 175 I News of the war 177 II War and the daily existence of the French people War at the centre of the public sphere The difficulties of everyday life: hardship, scarcity, and inflation Mobilization and the war effort 192 III The war comes to France 198 IV Conclusion 207 Conclusion 209 Notes 218 Select Bibliography 241 Index 251

7 Acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude and thanks to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which funded the research project Nation, Borders, Identities: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in European Memories, in which I worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of York from 2006 to Their funding allowed me to carry out the research necessary to write this book. I also benefited hugely from working with the members of this international project, in Berlin (Karen Hagemann, Etienne François, Ruth Leiserowitz, Kirstin Buchinger-Schäfer, Wolfgang Koller, Lars Peters, and Maria Schultz), and in York where I could enjoy long and fruitful exchanges with Alan Forrest, Jane Rendall, Richard Bessel, Catriona Kennedy, and Leighton James. I am also indebted to Michael Broers and Alan Forrest, who kindly accepted to read the whole manuscript through several times. Their precious comments and ideas are greatly appreciated. Many thanks to both of them. At Palgrave, special thanks to Michael Strang and his assistant, Ruth Ireland, for their kind, competent, and efficient collaboration. Many thanks as well to the Musée du Louvre and the Réunion des Musées Nationaux for allowing me to use the picture of Napoleon on the battlefield of Eylau by Antoine-Jean Gros for the cover jacket, to Godfrey Rogers for the impeccable translation of the manuscript, and, lastly, to all the members of the Department of History, International Relations and Politics at Coventry University where I enjoyed working in a friendly and congenial atmosphere for 2 years, and to all my colleagues of the Department of History at Sheffield Hallam University. Outside of work, I wish to thank my dearest ones for their constant and invaluable support. vii