Edited by Alan Forrest and Peter H. Wilson. The year 2006 marked the bicentenary of two seminal events in German and French history: the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire that had encompassed much of Europe for over a millennium, and its replacement by a new, French-sponsored political order. The juxtaposition of the two empires in 1806 offers an ideal opportunity for a comparative approach to the transition towards modernity and the role of France and Germany in the construction of Europe. The rapidity of these changes suggests a major turning point, to some even the birth of modernity itself, as Napoleon, the inheritor of the dynamic, rationalising traditions of the French Revolution, triumphed over a socio-political order that had its roots in the early middle ages and claimed direct descent from the ancient Roman Empire. This volume indicates that the contrast is considerably more complex than is commonly assumed, and offers the first comparative treatment of the key themes of Empire, monarchy, political cultures, feudalism, war and military institutions, nationalism and identity, and everyday experience. 'This collection does a fine job of conveying recent scholarly trends on Napoleonic France and the Napoleonic Empire as well as on the late Holy Roman Empire and its immediate successor states in German-speaking lands. Far more than just surveying or synthesizing, however, these essays mark important and original contributions to understanding the conception, practice and experience of empire in their respective areas. In both respects this volume should prove of interest to students of any and all of these fields, and should help stimulate future comparative studies across the Franco-German divide.' - Brian E. Vick, University of Colorado at Boulder 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 Destruct