This volume's juxtaposition of the empires of Germany and France in 1806, at the dissolution of The Holy Roman Empire, allows a comparison of their transition towards modernity, explored through the themes of Empire, monarchy, political cultures, feudalism, war and military institutions, nationalism and identity, and everyday experience.

Peter H. Wilson is GF Grant Professor of History at the University of Hull, UK. He co-edits theStudies in European History series, and specialises in early modern German History.

Maps Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction; Alan Forrest and P.H.Wilson The Meaning of Empire in Central Europe; P.H.Wilson The Political Culture of the Holy Roman Empire on the Eve of its Destruction; M.Rowe The Napoleonic Empire; M.Broers Political Culture of the Napoleonic Empire; W.Doyle A Matter of Survival: Bavaria Becomes a Kingdom; M.Kaiser Napoleon as Monarch: A Political Evolution; A.Forrest Napoleon and the Abolition of Feudalism; R.Blaufarb The Prussian Army in the Jena Campaign; C.Telp Napoleon's Second Sacre? Iéna and the Ceremonial Translation of Frederick the Great's Insignia in 1807; T.Biskup 'Desperation to the Utmost': The Defeat of 1806 and the French Occupation in Prussian Experience and Perception; K.Hagemann Legends of the Allied Invasions and Occupations of Eastern France, 1792-1815; D.Hopkin 'The Germans are Hydrophobes': Germany and the Germans in the Shaping of French Identity; M.Rapport The Response to Napoleon and German Nationalism; J.Breuilly Index