Brian Joseph Martin - Napoleonic Friendship [2011][A]

Book Description
Publication Date: January 11, 2011
Following the French Revolution, radical military reforms created conditions for new physical and emotional intimacy between soldiers, establishing a model of fraternal affection that would persist from the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars through the Franco-Prussian War and World War I.
Based on extensive research in French and American archives, and enriched by his reading of Napoleonic military memoirs and French military fiction from Hugo and Balzac to Zola and Proust, Brian Joseph Martin's view encompasses a broad range of emotional and erotic relationships in French armies from 1789 to 1916. He argues that the French Revolution's emphasis on military fraternity evolved into an unprecedented sense of camaraderie among soldiers in the armies of Napoleon. For many soldiers, the hardships of combat led to intimate friendships. For some, the homosociality of military life inspired mutual affection, lifelong commitment, and homoerotic desire.

Reviews
"[Napoleonic Friendship] is a work of solid historiography and level-headed literary analysis."—The Gay & Lesbian Review

"[A] solid contribution to military and literary history. . . . At a time when Americans are changing their attitudes and policies toward gays openly serving in the military, this book offers a valuable overview of the French system, which has been less punitive to gays than our own." —Nineteenth-Century French Studies

"Brian Joseph Martin's Napoleonic Friendship is a provocative book. Original and challenging, if not convincing on all points, it forces readers to take a new look at the very male world of life in the Napoleonic armies and, for its veterans, life after their military service. Though historically grounded in the world that emerged from the French Revolution, it has implications for both the historical study of other militaries and political debates today."—H-WAR

"Much of Martin's analysis, and especially his deconstruction of tender relations between men, which challenge traditional notions about male homoerotic relations, especially in a military setting as essentially sexual rather than affectionate, is fascinating."—The Historian

"This book suggests a revolution in how we frame our discussion of intimacy. The field of queer studies has often stressed that, historically, men were more likely to realize their same-sex longings than women, but did so through anonymous casual encounters, often at the expense of actual intimacy and enduring relationships. Martin turns that paradigm on its head, and argues that men did indeed find enduring forms of intimacy through the shared trial and experiences of membership in the military. He brings to the surface a narrative that has just been waiting to be given voice." (Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A & M University)

About the Author
BRIAN JOSEPH MARTIN is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature, and Chair of the Department of Romance Languages at Williams College.