Between 1792 and 1814 London was home to a flourishing French émigré newspaper and periodical press that served both an exile audience and a Europe-wide French-speaking elite. The experienced journalists who had fled the revolution and staffed the press are revealed as professional activists engaged in an international ideological struggle; their successful counter-revolutionary propaganda affected French foreign policy, while their relationship with their British government patrons remained remarkably independent. The evolving counter-revolutionary ideology of the émigré press was highly influential in driving events in Europe, both clandestinely and more openly; only with the accession of Bonaparte in 1799, and the return of many of the exiles to France, did émigré propaganda crystallise into a reactionary anti-Bonaparte press and an ideological framework for Bourbonism. SIMON BURROWS is a lecturer in the School of History at the University of Leeds.
Reviews
Meticulous, deeply researched work fills an important gap in the literature on politics and emigration during the French Revolution... a significan contribution to scholarship on journalism in the age of the French Revolution. HISTORY Of considerable interest for those with strong interests in the French Revolution and French journalism. CHOICE Important work, scholarly and well-written... also an important addition to a valuable series. ALBION
