The Napoleonic Quarterly

First found Napoleonic Quarterly then the Napoleonist podcasts but been hooked. The Quarterly has gotten off the main path lately but while interesting do wait for later podcasts in my main interests. They will get there eventually.

also here a new podcast

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Professor Rafe Blaufarb, Director and Ben Weider Eminent Scholar in Napoleonic Studies at the Florida State University Department of History, discusses the making of the French military machine and the role of Napoleon Bonaparte in shaping an irresistible fighting force. 

It is a bit depressing to see that perspectives are shaped by English or English translations of works like Marbot - Alexander Stevenson.

Also - the topic, the French military machine was hardly touched, one of the poorer parts of this otherwise highly educative series.

A very interesting interview with Paul Demet

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Military historian Paul Demet discusses his fascination with the Wars of the French Revolution, his experiences researching them and why we should all care a little bit more about the 1790s. His book We Are Accustomed to Do Our Duty : German Auxiliaries with the British Army 1793-9 is published by Helion Books.

I am not entirely in agreement about the lack of training of French units, as for example seeing how well drilled Schauenbourgs division was. The French success was only possibly by the division of the Allies - what contrast to 1813. But then of course there was no focus on destroying Nabulieone then or the history of blood letting of 1805 - 1812.

And of course I cannot agree that the Prussians just relied in 1806 still on Frederick. According to recent historians the Prussian army of 1806 was so good as the Austrian of 1809 and the Peninsular Army of 1810 - not necessarily by the leadership but due to training and tactical inovations.

There they did very well against the French Revolutionary forces from 1792 - 1795 - proves in my opinion that they did change quite a lot in comparison to the 7YW.

Otherwise I am of course a committed fan of Paul and looking forward to his new book - I do hope that he will tackle the 1796 campaign in Germany, the most overlooked campaign at all. Nabulieones success in Italy can only be seen in partnership to the massive thrust of the French Republic by two armies and such excellent generals as Jourdan and Moreau, epic battles as well, like Würzburg. How Erzherzog Karl could defend Germany so successfully in 1796 is still a wonder for myself.

Season 2 is here, see:

https://anchor.fm/alexander-stevenson/episodes/Season-2-trailer-1794-5-e123soc

Alex has informed me that episode 9 is due to go out on 4 June - something to look forward to

Hi H-K

I think he is taking a short break and will be back in June - I'll post when I get more details - I agree that it is well worth following

Cheers

Paul

Did this project fail? Last podcast at 2nd of April, would be a shame - there those podcast were very interesting.

Episode 3 is out, it is fantastic.

Episode 2 - April, May and June 1792 is now available - see https://anchor.fm/alexander-stevenson/episodes/Episode-02-Q2-1792---War-eoncov

If you haven't listened yet, I recommend this excellent series

Thanks for sharing this Paul - it seems like an excellent series, and I'm greatly looking forward to hearing more.

As someone famous once said (I forget who): 'I could really do without this kind of competition!' 🤣