Evan Wilson on British veterans and the end of the Napoleonic Wars
Tuesday 9th January 2024
For the January 2024 instalment of the SAHR's series of monthly lectures, Dr Evan Wilson gave a talk on his recent book, The Horrible Peace: British Veterans and the End of the Napoleonic Wars.
The talk took place on Tuesday, January 9th 2024 at 7pm GMT (UK time). A recording is now available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MJj3mE_O594
Synopsis
Few battles in world history provide a cleaner dividing line than Waterloo: before, there was Napoleon after, there was the Pax Britannica. While Waterloo marked France’s defeat and Britain’s ascendance as an imperial power, the war was far from over for many soldiers and sailors, who were forced to contend with the lasting effects of battlefield trauma, the realities of an impossibly tight labour market, and growing social unrest. The Horrible Peace tells a story of distress and discontent, of victory complicated by volcanism, and of the challenges facing Britain at the beginning of its victorious century.
Examining the process of demobilization and its consequences for British society, The Horrible Peace draws on archival research and veterans’ memoirs to tell the story of this period through the experiences of veterans who struggled to reintegrate and soldiers and sailors who remained in service as Britain attempted to defend and expand the empire. Veterans were indeed central to Britain’s experience of peace, as they took to the streets to protest the government’s indifference to widespread unemployment and misery. The fighting did not stop at Waterloo.
Speaker biography
Evan Wilson is an associate professor in the Hattendorf Historical Center at the U.S. Naval War College where he specializes in the naval history of Britain and other countries from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author or editor of six books. Evan's latest book, The Horrible Peace: British Veterans and the End of the Napoleonic Wars, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in June 2023.