This book focuses on Louis Ignace Marthod, a colonel in Napoleon's Imperial Guard, and his extended family, and incorporates the spirit of the 'new' military history, which studies military service through the physical, social, and psychological experiences of individuals on the battlefield and the home front, rather than - or in conjunction with - strategic and operational aspects of armed conflicts. Unlike almost all other works in this vein of military historiography, this book places family relationships squarely in the center of war experience, tracing the reciprocal impacts of war and personal life. In doing so it asks what war came to mean for the broadened populations involved in it, both for the soldier on campaign and at home, and for their spousal relations and family life.

Carolyn Chappell Lougee is Frances and Charles Field Professor in History Emerita at Stanford University, USA.