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Zusatztext J.E. Cookson's masterly account of the problems confronting and the solutions adopted by Pitt and his subordinates and successors in the protracted crisis of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars reveals many surprises. The book is valuable as an addenda and corrective to much of the new work being done in eighteenth and early nineteenth centuery British history. But it is more than that. Cookson ranges widely over social, economic, cultural and political issues. Unexpectedly, Cookson's look at the three kindoms at war provides us with a window into the souls of nations. Klappentext This book deals with the impact of war on the British Isles, examining the armed response to the French strategic encirclement of Britain and Ireland during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Dr Cookson provides the first comprehensive survey of the mobilization of armed force for the regular army, militia, and volunteers, in England, Scotland, and Ireland. He shows the effect on Scottish and Irish identities, and how in England mobilization often owed more to working-class pragmatism and the `town-making' interests of urban rulers than to national defence patriotism. Zusammenfassung This book deals with the impact of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars on the British Isles. Previous work has concentrated on the ideological formations associated with the French conflict, especially anti-revolutionary loyalism and ideas of Britishness. Here, Dr Cookson provides a new perspective on the social response to the demands of war, through a detailed examination of the mobilization of armed force for the regular army, militia, and volunteers in response to the French encirclement of Britain and Ireland. Dr Cookson's study sheds interesting light on the nature of the British state and the extent of its dependence on society's self-organizing powers. He uses the evidence on mobilization to show the differences in the nature of state and society in various parts of the British Isles, and examines the impact on Scottish and Irish identities within the unions. In England, he shows how mobilization often owed more to working-class pragmatism and the `town-making' interests of urban rulers than to national defence patriotism. The result is a fascinating `war and society' study which is also a significant contribution to urban history....
