The Language Question under Napoleon

Stewart McCain is Programme Director in History at St Mary's University, Twickenham, UK, and has previously taught European History at the Universities of Winchester, Aston and Oxford. Grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Royal Historical Society have supported his research, which has previously appeared in French History.

1. Introduction: Language, Empire and the New Regime.-  2. Language under the Administrative Gaze - State, Statistics and Social Knowledge under Napoleon.- 3. Language, Local Knowledge and the Napoleonic State.- 4. Language and Education under Napoleon.- 5. Cultures of Language and Military Service under Napoleon.- 6. Language, Law and the Legal Profession: Negotiating Cultural Identity in an Imperial Institution.- 7. Organised Religion, Language and the French State from the Old Regime to Napoleon.- 8. Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Index.

"Stewart McCain's richly researched and thought-provoking new book is the latest contribution to the scholarly conversation on the Revolutionary invention of French linguistic nationalism. ... The Language Question under Napoleon will be required reading for scholars interested in the intersection between language, nationalism, and state formation in France." (Paul Cohen, H-France Review, Vol. 19 (217), November, 2019)
"Drawing on impressively wide-ranging research in national and provincial archives, this book painstakingly reconstructs the contours of Napoleonic language policy as it evolved and was applied throughout the First Empire. ... McCain's study presents an admirably nuanced analysis, not just of the politics of language in Napoleonic France, but alsoof cultural imperialism in both theory and practice." (Joseph Clarke, French History, Vol. 32 (03), September, 2018)