Synopses & Reviews
The French army experienced rapid and dramatic change from the 1750s to 1789—and it took the rest of the country with it. Wracked from defeat in the Seven Years' War, where Amerindian warriors and rugged Canadian militiamen had shown the French army its weaknesses, French officers and philosophers set to work imagining and forging a new kind of army in France: a citizen army, the likes of which had not been seen since the glory days of ancient Greece and Rome. These writers found encouragement for their ideas in the home-grown patriots of the American Revolution and resistance from those who relied on tradition and well-ingrained privilege. By 1789, French officers would declare their citizen army realized, but in the process they would spark a Revolution they could not control.
Synopsis
Showcasing French participation in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, this book shows the French army at the heart of revolutionary, social, and cultural change. Osman argues that efforts to transform the French army into a citizen army before 1789 prompted and helped shape the French Revolution.
About the Author
Julia Osman is an Assistant Professor of French and military history at Mississippi State University, USA.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Key
1. The King's Army
2. Defeat in New France
3. Soldiers into Citizens
4. A Citizen Army in America
5. Aristocratic Rupture
6. A Dream Deferred
Conclusion: Guidons Burning
Notes
Bibliography