Citizen Soldiers and the Key to the Bastille [Paperback]

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.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 BibliographyOsman reexamines the role of the French army of the Old Regime in the outbreak of the French Revolution. & this work constitutes a great example of the benefits of combining cultural with military history. It definitely fulfils its promise to speak to the value of using cultural methodology for military history, as well as how military institutions are fruitful sites for cultural analysis. & it is also a valuable contribution to the renewed study of Atlantic world political culture. (Christine Haynes, Journal of Modern History, Vol. 88 (4), 2016)

Julia Osman is an Assistant Professor of French and military history at Mississippi State University, USA.