This volume explores how the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars
(1793-1815) were experienced, perceived and narrated by contemporaries
in Britain and Ireland. These conflicts have been described as the first
modern or 'total' war with far-reaching consequences for military and
civilian society and the development of modern identities. Yet in
contrast to the innovative body of scholarship on the First and Second
World Wars there has been little sustained analysis of the personal
experiences of men and women involved directly or indirectly in these
conflicts. Narratives of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars addresses
this historiographical gap using letters, diaries and personal
testimonies by soldiers, sailors and civilians to shed new light on the
social and cultural history of the period and the history of warfare
more broadly.