Popular Resistance in the French Wars [Hardcover]

In the Napoleonic period warfare ceased to be a matter for armies alone, but also became an affair of the people. So, at least, runs the usual claim. In Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Russia outraged peasants and townsfolk rose against the French armies and fell upon them without mercy. From these insurrections we get the modern word 'guerrilla', but did armed civilians really play an important a role in the struggle? In this collection of essays a group of specialists on the Napoleonic epoch tease out the question, and arrive at some startling conclusions.List of Figures Preface Notes on Contributors Popular Resistance in Napoleanic Europe: Issues and Perspectives; C.J.Esdaile The Ubiquitous Brigand: The Politics and Language of Repression; A.Forrest Guerrilla Warfare Avant la Lettre: Northern Italy, 1792-97; M.Boycott-Brown Resistance, Collaboration or Third Way? Responses to Napoleonic Rule in Germany; M.Rowe Popular Resistance in Catalonia: Somatens and Miquelets in Catalonia, 1808-14; A.M.Prada The Anatomy of a Research Project: The Sociology of the Guerrilla War in Spain, 1808-14; C.J.Esdaile & L.Hernadez-Enviz Regulating the Irregulars: Spanish Legislation on La Guerrilla During the Peninsular War; V.Scotti-Douglas The Pen and the Sword: Political Catechisms and Resistance to Napoleon; E.Delivr? The Patriotism of the Russian Army in the 'Patriotic' or 'Fatherland' War of 1812; J.Hartley Afterword: Patriots, Pirates and Land Pirates in Retrospect; C.J.Esdaile IndexMARTIN BOYCOTT-BROWN ResearcherEMILIE DELIVR? ResearcherALAN FORREST Department of History, University of York, UKJANET HARTLEY Department of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, UKLEONOR HERNADEZ-ENVIZ ResearcherANTONIO MOLINER PRADA Professor of History, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, SpainMICHAEL ROWE Lecturer, King's College London, UKVITTORIO SCOTTI-DOUGLAS Senior Fellow, University of Trieste, Spain