Revisiting Prussia's Wars Against Napoleon: History, Culture and Memory | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Monographs

Revisiting Prussia’s Wars Against Napoleon: History, Culture and Memory

By Karen Hagemann (NHC Fellow, 2011–12)

Collective Memory; Napoleonic Wars; Kingdom of Prussia; Cultural History; German Campaign of 1813; Military History; Historiography

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015

From the publisher’s description:

In 2013, Germany celebrated the bicentennial of the so-called Wars of Liberation (1813–15). These wars were the culmination of the Prussian struggle against Napoleon between 1806 and 1815, which occupied a key position in German national historiography and memory. Although these conflicts have been analyzed in thousands of books and articles, much of the focus has been on the military campaigns and alliances. Karen Hagemann argues that we cannot achieve a comprehensive understanding of these wars and their importance in collective memory without recognizing how the interaction of politics, culture, and gender influenced these historical events and continue to shape later recollections of them. She thus explores the highly contested discourses and symbolic practices by which individuals and groups interpreted these wars and made political claims, beginning with the period itself and ending with the centenary in 1913.

Subjects
History / Gender and Sexuality / Political Science / Collective Memory / Napoleonic Wars / Kingdom of Prussia / Cultural History / German Campaign of 1813 / Military History / Historiography /

Hagemann, Karen (NHC Fellow, 2011–12). Revisiting Prussia's Wars Against Napoleon: History, Culture and Memory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.