This book, first published in 1974, analyses the problems and mechanics of the Revolutionary movement in the army during and after the French Revolution. It charts the transition of the French army from the Revolutionary force of 1815 to the counter-revolutionary army which in June 1848 led the suppression of the European Revolutionary movement. By defining the scope of political of political unrest in the army between 1815 and 1848 – its causes, patterns and remedies – the author demonstrates that republican political ideology had only a limited appeal for the military and served more as a rallying point for discontent with the conditions of service.
Douglas Porch is an American historian, academic and a Professor and former Chair of the Department of National Security Affairs for the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee in 1967 and a Ph. D. from Cambridge University in 1972. He has been a professor of strategy at the Naval War College, a guest lecturer at the Marine Corps University, a post-doctoral research fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and the Mark W. Clark Professor of History at The Citadel.