This volume provides a comprehensive view of the social, political and military aspects of the volunteer movement of the French Wars: the volunteer infantry, yeomanry cavalry and the armed associations in England, Scotland and Wales from 1794 to 1814 and in some cases beyond.

A fresh look at the crowd in relation to the urbanising process and the civic culture it inspired.

How was Great Britain made? And what does it mean to be British? This brilliant and seminal book examines how a more cohesive British nation was invented after 1707 and how this new national identity was nurtured through war, religion, trade, and empire. Lavishly illustrated and powerful, Britons remains a major contribution to our understanding of Britain’s past, and continues to influence ongoing controversies about this polity’s survival and future. This edition contains an extensive new preface by the author. “A sweeping survey, . . . evocatively illustrated and engagingly written.”—Harriet Ritvo, New York Times Book Review “Challenging, fascinating, enormously well informed.”—John Barrell, London Review of Books “Linda Colley writes with clarity and grace...Her stimulating book will be, and deserves to be influential”—E. P. Thompson, Dissent

Looking at the impact of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars on the British Isles, Cookson sheds light on the nature of the British state and the extent of its dependence on society's self-organising powers.