Inside Napoleonic France: State and Society in Rouen, 1800-1815

This text is a local history of Napoleonic France, focusing on Rouen. Relying on French archival sources, Gavin Daly sets out to investigate the nature of the Napoleonic state and its short and longer-term impact upon local society. Specifically, it examines the question of state power and its implementation and reception at a local level, the relationship between central government and the regions, the social and economic impact of war and how the the Napoleonic regime addressed Rouen’s revolutionary past. Having studied these issues, Daly argues that despite an unprecedented degree of social control, the Napoleonic state was not all-powerful, and that the central government’s power was tempered by local considerations. It is this interaction between the representatives of central government and the regional elites which provides the focus of the book.