France 1775?– 1860

Special Collections Gallery? Level 4? Hartley Library

12 October?– 11 December 2009

Events in France in the period 1775 to 1860? not least among them the fall of the Ancien Régime and the Revolution of 1789? the establishment of Napoleon’s empire and its demise in 1814–15, were of profound importance for shaping the modern world. Ideas of liberty, the rights of the individual, of equality and the power of the citizen remain immensely influential.

The immediate and prolonged consequence of the French Revolution was war. As we pass through the bicentenaries of the struggles which involved Britain and Ireland no less than other countries of Europe, this exhibition examines life inside France at the end of the Napoleonic period, the impact of revolution, French style, fashion and intellectual achievements? and how British people experienced France.