Citizens, Soldiers and National Armies: Military Service in France and Germany, 1789-1830 (War, History and Politics)

This book examines the creation of ‘national armies’ through compulsory military service in France and Prussia during the French Revolution and the Prussian Reform Period. The French Revolution tried to establish military and political structures in which the armed forces and society would merge. In order to ensure that the army would never become a means of oppression against the people, the whole population should thus ‘be’ the army. Defeated by the enormous military potential that these new political settings had unchained in France, Prussia adapted the French innovations to its own needs, thus laying the basis for its contributions to the victories of the coalition troops in 1813-15. Conscription had implications that went beyond the purely military sphere and involved assumptions about the nature of the state and its relationship to its citizens. It was the material basis of Napoleon’s campaigns and of the German ‘wars of national liberation’ of 1813-15, before becoming a cornerstone of the Prussian Reforms and the creation of a civil society ‘from above’. Military service has therefore been one of the most essential and contradictory institutions of the modern nation-state. Citizens, Soldiers and National Armies will be of interest to historians of modern Europe, military historians and students of intellectual history in general. Introduction: Citizenship And Discipline -- First Part: The French Moment -- State-construction And Recruitment Policy In The Ancien Regime -- From Feudal Recruitment To Touting -- The Militia (and How To Escape From It) -- Soldiers And The State -- The Enlightenment And Military Service -- Virtue-politics -- Rousseau And The Military: A Philosophy Of Civic Practice -- Citizen-soldiers -- Popular Arming And Military Service In The French Revolution -- The Formation Of The National Guard -- The 1789-90 Debate On The Military Constitution -- Armed Forces And Levies Of Volunteers In 1791-3 -- Citizenship Or Discipline? -- Unifying The Public Force -- The Revolutionary State And The Nation In Arms -- Quatre-vingt-treize -- Death Is A Reminder Of Equality: The Self-creation Of The People -- Abstraction And Identification -- Military Experiences -- Constructing A Popular State -- Transition: Technologies Of The State From France To Prussia -- Second Part: The Prussian Moment -- Military, Society, And The State In Old Regime Prussia -- State-construction And Military Duties -- The Establishment Of The Canton System -- Social Implementation -- Criticism Of The Prussian Military System -- German Idealism And Military Service -- The Challenge Of Revolutionary War To German Culture -- Interpreting The Revolution: The Reform As Theory -- Kant's Heroic Humiliation -- Fichte's Inner Frontier -- Conscription In The Reformed Prussian State -- Empowering The Nation -- The Principles Of The Military Reform -- Creating A Body Politic -- Principles Of Stratification -- The Path To National War -- National War And Conscription -- Organizing An Insurrection -- Constitution And Terror -- Popular Arming -- Conscription -- Conclusion. Thomas Hippler. Translated From The French. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [218]-252) And Index. "Compulsory military service implies a contradiction: conceived as an element and a guarantee of the citizens' active participation in politics, it is at the same time an institution of social discipline that separates the citizens from the civil society. This tension between citizenship and discipline thus poses concretely the problem of political liberty. While being egalitarian in its principle, conscription concerns only the male parts of the population. The exclusion of women echoes their exclusion from political rights. Moreover, the universality of the obligation is in constant tension with particular class interests." "Rather than opposing a French model of republican conscription to a Prussian militarism, this book tries to show how Prussia has replied dialectically to the revolutionary institution of mass violence. The French Revolution and the Prussian Reforms are thus conceived of as two moments within a single process which is intrinsically transnational. The book seeks to confront the philosophical problem of political liberty - as it was formulated most prominently by Rousseau and Kant - to history and relies on official sources, philosophical texts, as well as ego-documents, which are subjective articulations of political modernity."--BOOK JACKET Social Sciences Book Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction: Citizenship and discipline 12 Part I: The French moment 22 1 State construction and recruitment policy in the ancien regime 24 2 The Enlightenment and military service 39 3 Popula arming and military service in the French Revolution 57 4 The revolutionary state and the 'nation in arms' 88 Transition: Technologies of the state from France to Prussia 121 Part II: The Prussian moment 126 5 The military, society, and the state in old regime Prussia 128 6 German idealism and military 151 7 Conscription in the reformed Prussian state 174 8 National war and conscription 201 Conclusion 224 Notes 229 Bibliography 242 Index 264