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Events

Upcoming events

Stenton Lecture Thursday 17 November 2016, 6.30 pm. Henley Business School G11

Professor Patrick K. O'Brien. LSE and Saint-Antony's College Oxford.

Title: Britain's Wars with France, 1793-1815 and their Contribution to the Consolidation of its Industrial Revolution.

Attendance to the Stenton lecture is free, but registration is necessary.

In 2015, Britain celebrated the 200th anniversary of its decisive victory over Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. When historians consider the costs incurred to wage 22 years of warfare they find little to celebrate and much to deplore about the burdens these wars placed upon society. My lecture will argue that this post hoc, liberal and negative appraisal of these final wars against the "old enemy" is entirely misplaced. Economic progress was if anything strengthened and consolidated by the engagement in warfare. Britain's famous and precocious transition to become the world's first industrial nation was promoted by the French Revolution.

The Stenton lecture will be preceded by a workshop on 'War and the economy in the long 18th century', 2.00.-4.00 pm with the following speakers Dr Helen Paul (University of Southampton), Dr Richard Blakemore (University of Reading), Professor Patrik Winton (University of Uppsala), Professor Sylvia Marzagalli (Institut Universitaire de France). To register and for details, contact j.m.felix@reading.ac.uk

Past events

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