"Nationalizing France’s Army: Foreign, Black, and Jewish" Topic

… Troops in the French Military, 1715-1831

"In Nationalizing France's Army, a painstakingly researched , clearly-written monograph, Christopher J.
Tozzi traces the transformation of the French army during the Revolutionary era from a monarchical to national institution: one where service was the duty and the privilege of members of the nation, and where cultural, linguistic, or religious differences were eliminated in order to create national unity among the ranks. Tozzi argues that from the outset of the Revolution, the revolutionaries presented a particularly xenophobic, nationalist discourse that gradually led to the exclusion of foreigners from France's army. By uncovering the process of nationalizing the army, Tozzi sheds new light on the rise
of French nationalism, the difficulties French Revolutionaries faced in their attempts to forge a national
community, the history of minorities in the Revolution, and the tensions between revolutionary ideology and the practical necessities of the revolutionary state in a period of upheaval. As such, this monograph is a rich and welcome addition to the historiography on the Revolutionary era and the making of modern France…."
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