Napoleon and the Invasion of Britain

Chronicling the real fear of a Napoleonic invasion of Britain from 1798 to 1805, this book reconstructs Britain's political, social and military response, and tells the story of the forces dividing the nation in the 1790s, and the debates underlying the patriotism of 1803, through a rich collection of satirical cartoons, medals, pamphlets and broadsides. Cartoons and pamphlets produced during the two invasion scares show the transformation of British politics during the wars against Revolutionary France. In 1798, Britain was racked by internal divisions, fiscal crisis, and social unrest, factors that the French invaders hoped to capitalize on, turning the invasion into a war of liberation. Five years later, the renewal of the invasion threat in 1803 led to an unprecedented mobilization of the British population – nearly half a million men volunteered to defend the country against invasion – and an outpouring of patriotic literature and images. This fully-illustrated catalogue contains an extensive introduction as well as several additional essays.