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French Empire

Andrew, C. M. France Overseas: The Great War and the Climax of French Imperial Expansion. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981. The latter period and end of the French colonial empire.

Ansprenger, Franz. The Dissolution of the Colonial Empires. London and New York: Routledge, 1989. Covers Britain and France.

Baumgart, W. Imperialism: The Idea and Reality in British and French Colonial Expansion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. A modern, comparative study, this synthesizes the different theories and approaches to European imperialism.

Bergeron, Louis. France under Napoleon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. Translated from L'Episode Napoleonien by R. R. Palmer. Concise survey concentrating on France itself under the expansionist regime.

Bruun, Geoffrey. Europe and the French Imperium, 1799-1814. New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1938. A standard classic providing a thorough, traditional, detailed discussion of the organization and government of the period.

Cohen, W. B. Rulers of Empire: The French colonial service in Africa. Stanford: California University Press, 1971.

Doyle, M. Empires. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987. An accessible comparative analysis of empires.

Fieldhouse, D. K. Economics and Empire 1830-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974. Regarded as the best survey of the European empires.

Geyl, Pieter. Napoleon, For and Against. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949. Translated by Oliver Renier.

Goubert, Pierre. The Ancien Régime: French Society 1600-1750. New York: Harper and Row, 1973. Translated from L'Ancien Régime by Steve Cox. Readable work on early modern France.

Hobsbawm, E. L. The Age of Empire, 1875-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987, repr 1995. Non-academic-style study of the 19th-century transformation of the world.

Hobson, J. A. Imperialism: A Study. London: Allen &Unwin, 1902. Various subsequent editions. The basic contemporary text.

Kennedy, P. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000. London: Fontana, 1988. An account of the power conflict between the great powers.

Lowe, John. The Great Powers, Imperialism and the German Problem, 1865-1925. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. Concentrates on the lead-up to World War I and the immediate aftermath.

McNeill, J. R. Atlantic Empires of France and Spain: Louisbourg and Havana 1700-1763. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Interesting comparative study of two colonial seaports (one French, one Spanish) to show how the different parent states managed their colonies.

Taylor, A. J. P. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954. Stimulating, exhaustive study of the “Balance of Power” from 1848 to the mid-20th century, setting France in a wide European context.