Encyclopedia of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

The Encyclopedia of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History, is a three volume set that covers the French Revolution and the rise and rule of Napoleon from 1792 to 1815.  This encyclopedia was published by ABC-CLIO, a publisher that focuses on history reference works for academic audiences, in 2006.  The encyclopedia is intended for students and general readers, and serves as a good resource for anyone looking for an extraordinarily broad resource on the French Revolution, or on continental Europe during this time period. This resource would serve as a great starting point for any student or reader who is only just getting familiar with this time period and needs a very broad and general overview.  It will not go into a great deal of detail, however, it will show very loosely how different events and persons are connected, and serve as a guide to the general layout of the French Revolution and its aftermath.

The description offered by a bookseller (http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-French-Revolutionary-Napoleonic-Wars/dp/1851096469) boasts that the encyclopedia contains insights from international experts, and so, offers readers diverse perspectives from authoritative sources.  The reviewer goes on to claim that the encyclopedia offers insight into the "full continent-wide impact of France's revolution from aristocracy, to democracy, to military autocracy."  Given the scope of the subjects covered in this three volume set (1,213 pages), a reader should remain a bit skeptical as to the depth in which these issues are treated.

This reference work features 900 entries, which are alphabetically arranged, a number of maps documenting the expansions and contractions of the Napoleonic empire, as well as battles, a chronology of important dates, a glossary of military and naval terminology, a collection of a few brief essays, and a small collection of primary resources.  The entries are on battles, commanders, weaponry, treatises, and other key figures and events.  Each of the entries contains see also references to guide the reader to related events, battles, commanders, and related issues, as well as a small bibliography, or list of further readings (typically about five sources per entry). The dates of resources cited appear to mostly be recent publications, with a majority of them being published since the 1970s and many in the 2000s, however, they do extend back as far as the 1800s as well.  The average entry length appeared to be around two columns (about a page and half), although some entries run for a couple pages.

The primary sources featured in the third volume could be an interesting value to students, although most of them are probably available on the Internet or other databases. These documents include:

• William Pitt's speech to the House of Commons, Feb 1793
• Treaty of Amiens
• First Treaty of Paris, May 30, 1814
• Second Treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815
• Declaration of the Powers against Napoleon March 13, 1815

The encyclopedia includes a short biography of the editor, Gregory Fremont-Barnes.  Fremont-Barnes received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in modern history, he spent eight years lecturing on American and European history in Japan, and he has published a number of books on American and European history, as well as editing a five volume history of the American Revolutionary War.