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The French Emigres in Europe and the Struggle Against Revolution, 1789-1814

(Edited by Kirsty Carpenter and Philip Mansel)
London, Macmillan Press, 264 pages, 1999, ISBN 0333744365
New York, St Martin’s Press, October 1999, 256 pages, ISBN 0312223811

Underlining the achievements rather than the failures of the French émigrés in Europe from 1789 to 1814, different specialist essays in this work describe their impact from London to Hungary, from Lisbon to Prussia, and confirm their critical importance in the politics, ideology and culture of their time. The French émigrés were more than refugees; they were active, and often remarkably successful, agents on the European struggle against the French Revolution.

As well as co-editing this book, Philip Mansel contributes the essay: ‘From Coblenz to Hartwell: the Émigré Government and the European Powers, 1791-1814’.

‘This collection of essays opens up a neglected aspect of the French Revolution: the experiences of those who fled abroad and their efforts to come to terms with the societies in which they found themselves. It throws a new light on the diversity and complexity of a subject that has too often been taken for granted.’ Norman Hampson (University of York)

Like political refugees throughout history, those who emigrated from Revolutionary France have received short shrift from historians of the period. Too often they have been presented as lifeless stereotypes, the stuff of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary legends, to be praised by royalists and reviled by radicals. This timely collection of essays discusses the émigrés as individuals and examines their diverse experiences across widely contrasting European societies. In the process it helps to show them as men and women forced by circumstances to make hard and painful choices.’ Alan Forrest (University of York)

Challenges stereotypes of the emigration and demonstrates the diversity of the emigres’ expereince and of their impact on Europe. William Cormack, International History Review 2000