Napoleon's Legacy Problems of Government in Restoration Europe

by Laven, David; Riall, Lucy

• ISBN13: 9781859732496
• ISBN10: 1859732496
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

This ground-breaking, revisionist collection of essays, based on the most recent research, provides a long-needed reassessment of the legacy of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars upon the governments of Restoration Europe. Traditionally the Restoration has been regarded by historians as a period in which European governments returned to the reactionary policies which prevailed before the upheavals of 1789, and which involved an outright rejection of the reforms of the Napoleonic era. In this book, leading historians challenge this interpretation and emphasize the sometimes surprising loyalty shown to Napoleonic policies of modernization by Restoration governments. The problems of dealing with new ideologies, accommodating the interests of old elites, and keeping the benefits of recent reforms were broadly similar across Europe, and provide a connecting theme throughout the volume. However, the nature of governmental response was never uniform. The essays explore these varieties of response, both through detailed case studies and more general surveys, and address issues such as policing and censorship, revolutionary symbolism, elite formation and bureaucratic structures in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland, making a fascinating contribution to the study of the nature of political change in the modern period. 'A dazzling collection of articles by the sharpest young historians in the field [that] overturns much of the received wisdom about Europe after Napoleon' Tim Blanning, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
List of Maps	xiii
Restoration Government and the Legacy of Napoleon	1	(28)
David Laven
Lucy Riall
Part I. The Apparatus of State
`No, Minister': French Restoration Rejection of Authoritarianism	29	(20)
Robert Alexander
State and Society in Post-Napoleonic Italy	49	(16)
Marco Meriggi
Enlightened Absolutism versus Theocracy in the Spanish Restoration, 1814-50	65	(18)
Charles Esdaile
The Napoleonic Legacy and Problems of Restoration in Central Europe: The German Confederation	83	(14)
Michael John
Napoleon and Germany: A Legacy in Foreign Policy	97	(18)
Brendan Simms
Part II. The Legacy of Annexation
The Polish Kingdom (1815-1830): Continuity or Change?	115	(14)
Andrezj Nieuwazny
The Napoleonic Legacy in the Rhineland and the Politics of Reform in Restoration Prussia	129	(22)
Michael Rowe
The Restoration in Piedmont-Sardinia, 1814-1848: Variations on Reaction	151	(16)
Michael Broers
Part III. Political Opposition and `Social Control'
The Royaume du Midi of 1815	167	(16)
Brian Fitzpatrick
The `Impossible Restoration': The Left and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Legacies	183	(16)
Pamela Pilbeam
National Colours and National Identity in Early Nineteenth-Century Germany	199	(18)
Andreas Fahrmeir
The Napoleonic Moment in Prussian Church Policy	217	(20)
Christopher Clark
Cultures of Interdiction: The Politics of Censorship in Italy from Napoleon to the Restoration	237	(20)
John A. Davis
`The Best Way to Keep the Peace in a Country'. Napoleon's Gendarmes and Their Legacy	257	(18)
Clive Emsley
Index	275