This book offers a new perspective on the cultural politics of the Napoleonic Empire by
exploring the issue of language within four pivotal institutions - the school the army the
courtroom and the church. Based on wide-ranging research in archival and published sources
Stewart McCain demonstrates that the Napoleonic State was in reality fractured by disagreements
over how best to govern a population characterized by enormous linguistic diversity. Napoleonic
officials were not simply cultural imperialists many acted as culture-brokers emphasizing
their familiarity with the local language to secure employment with the state and pointing to
linguistic and cultural particularism to justify departures from which what others might have
considered desirable practice by the regime. This book will be of interest to scholars of the
Napoleonic Empire and of European state-building and nationalisms.
