Napoleon and British Song, 1797-1822

Napoleon and British Song, 1797-1822 offers a radical reassessment of a definitive period in Britain's political and cultural history. In a time so often seen as crucial to the formation of a kingdom unified by opposition to the French, an examination of popular culture across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland reveals a very different story. By looking at some four hundred songs, many of which have been recorded for the first time to accompany this book, and by looking at their writers, printers, singers, and audiences, this work raises major questions: about our relationship as historians with song as a source  - song as performed in a time and place, not as read from the page  - and about the relationship of ordinary Britons with Napoleon, the war against him, and the idea of Britain itself.