Eleventh Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture in French History
The Society for the Study of French History
and
The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France
Present:
The Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture,
Monday 11th January 2021.
Napoleon as a European: A Certain Vision of France & Europe
Professor Michael Broers (University of Oxford)
No one left their mark on the public life of Europe more than Napoleon Bonaparte. His life was that of a comet, blazing across the sky and then burning out. His dynasty and the borders he drew vanished with him, but his hegemony, however brief, saw the creation of the institutions that still govern and guide the lives of most modern Europeans. His conquests saw a clear, almost inflexible template of law, civil administration, and higher education imposed on them that survived his fall, the industrial revolution, and two world wars. It was not an easy process nor, arguably, a natural one, but its longevity is all around us. It was the work of a whole generation of Frenchmen – and women – but guided and coordinated by Napoleon, his prejudices and principles present everywhere.
The 2021 Annual Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture will be the 11th in this series, organised by the Society for the Study of French History and the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France. It will be the first to be held online, due to the current situation around the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are delighted to welcome Professor Mike Broers (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford) to give a paper entitled ‘Napoleon as European: A Certain Idea of France and Europe’. Professor Broers is Professor of Western European History at Oxford University and the author of impressive and insightful scholarship on the Napoleonic era. Notably, The Napoleonic Empire in Italy, 1796-1814 was the winner of the Grand Prix Napoléon Prize, 2006, and both volumes of his biography, Napoleon, represent landmark treatments of this extraordinary life.
Recording:
Previous Lectures:
The First Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Julian Jackson (Queen Mary University of London), ‘The Century of Charles de Gaulle’ (November 2010).
[details and video/podcast of event]
The Second Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Richard Thomson (Edinburgh University), ‘New Wine in Old Bottles: Adapting and Abusing Tradition in French Visual Culture, 1880-1910’ (January 2012).
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The Third Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Ruth Harris, (New College, Oxford), ‘Rolland, Gandhi and Madeleine Slade: Spiritual Politics, France and the Wider World’ (January 2013).
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The Fourth Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Andrew Knapp, (University of Reading), ‘Bombing and Memory: Britain and France, 1940-1945’ (January 2014).
[details and podcast of event]
The Fifth Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor John Horne, (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Myth or Model? The French Revolution in the Great War’ (January 2015).
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The Sixth Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Siân Reynolds, (University of Stirling), ‘Children of the Revolutionaries’ (January 2016).
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The Seventh Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Colin Jones (Queen Mary), ‘Rethinking Robespierre and the French Revolutionary Terror’ (January 2017).
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The Eighth Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Malcolm Crook (Keele), ‘How the British and French Learned to Vote’ (January 2018).
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The Ninth Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Máire Cross (Newcastle University), ‘Too Hot to Handle? Flora Tristan (1803-1844) Campaigner for Gender Equlality’ (January 2019).
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The Tenth Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Debra Kelly (University of Westminster), ‘Free French Food: Dining Out With the Free French in Wartime London’ (January 2020).
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The Eleventh Douglas Johnson Annual Lecture:
Professor Michael Boers (University of Oxford), ‘Napoleon as a European: A Certain Vision of France & Europe’ (January 2021).
[details of event]
