Charles J. Esdaile has been a member of staff in the Department of History at the University of Liverpool, UK, since 1989. He was awarded a personal chair in 2004. His previous publications include Napoleon, France and Waterloo: The Eagle Rejected (2016); Burgos: Occupation, Siege, Aftermath, 1808-1814 (2014); Women in the Peninsular War (2014); Outpost of Empire: The French Occupation of Andalucía, 1810-1812 (2012); Napoleon's Wars: An International History of Napoleonic Europe (2007); and The Wars of Napoleon (1995).

Chapter 1: The origins of the French Revolutionary Wars; Chapter 2: The armies of the ancien régime; Chapter 3: From the Bastile to Valmy; Chapter 4: Saving the Revolution; Chapter 5: Exporting the Revolution; Chapter 6: Sympathy, admiration and collaboration; Chapter 7: Resistance and revolt (1): Frances; Chapter 8: Resistance and revolt (2): the French imperium; Chapter 9: The reaction of the ancien régime; Chapter 10: The wider world; Chapter 11: The road to 18 Brumaire; Chapter 12: The end of the French Revolutionary Wars