The men who fought in Napoleon’s Grande Armée built a new empire that changed the world. Remarkably, the same men raised arms during the French Revolution for liberté, égalité, and fraternité. In just over a decade, these freedom fighters, who had once struggled to overthrow tyrants, rallied to the side of a man who wanted to dominate Europe. What was behind this drastic change of heart? In this ground-breaking study, Michael J. Hughes shows how Napoleonic military culture shaped the motivation of Napoleon’s soldiers. Relying on extensive archival research and blending cultural and military history, Hughes demonstrates that the Napoleonic regime incorporated elements from both the Old Regime and French Revolutionary military culture to craft a new military culture, characterized by loyalty to both Napoleon and the preservation of French hegemony in Europe. Underscoring this new, hybrid military culture were five sources of motivation: honor, patriotism, a martial and virile masculinity, devotion to Napoleon, and coercion. Forging Napoleon's Grande Armée vividly illustrates how this many-pronged culture gave Napoleon’s soldiers reasons to fight.

A History of Germany, 1800 to the Present is a commanding survey of modern German history that guides you from the turn of the 19th century right the way through to Germany's continuing world-power status today. Covering the revolutions of 1848-49, Bismarck, the World Wars, the Cold War and the progress of a reunified Germany, the 5th edition of this classic textbook provides an authoritative exploration of the country across the whole period like no other. This edition includes: * A new first chapter covering 1800-1815 * A greatly expanded chapter on the re-unification in 1989-90 * An absorbing final chapter on the political, economic, and social developments in the 'new' Federal Republic from 1990 to the present, including a comprehensive analysis of the financial crisis of 2008-2010 * Additional content throughout on: the political activism and engagement of women from 1848-49 to the present; the significance of German colonialism from 1884 to 1919; the origins of WWI; the Third Reich; and the GDR * Biographical textbox vignettes of key actors * For the first time, 40 images and 9 maps Rich with insights into the key historiographical debates, this book offers a thorough introduction to Germany's complex modern history.

This book examines Prussia's response to Napoleon and Napoleonic expansionism in the years before the crushing defeats of Auerstadt and Jena, a period of German history as untypical as it was dramatic. Between the years 1797 and 1806 the main fear of Prussian statesmen was French power, rather than revolution from below. This threat spawned a foreign-policy debate characterised by geopolitical thinking: the belief that Prussian policy was conditioned by her unique geographic situation at the heart of Europe. The book breaks new ground both methodologically and empirically. By combining high-political and geopolitical analysis, it is able to present a more comprehensive and nuanced picture than earlier interpretations. The book also draws on a very wide range of sources, official and unofficial, many previously unused.