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August 21, 2009

International publication features work of ULM History Professor

The upcoming edition of First Empire: The International Magazine for the Napoleonic Enthusiast, Historian and Gamer will feature the writing and research of a University of Louisiana at Monroe professor of history.

Christopher Blackburn, Ph.D., wrote the article for First Empire, which is recognized as one of the premiere publications for both professional and amateur historians. It is published in the United Kingdom.

Blackburn’s article, “Napoleon & Poland,” expounds at length about how powerful Napoleonic armies brought about the decline and near disintegration of 19th-century Polish society.

His work demonstrates that as a result of prolonged military operations, the many towns and villages of the Duchy of Warsaw found that the hardships of warfare were not confined to the battlefield; rather, through conscription, taxes, disease and military foraging, warfare touched the everyday life of both rich and poor.

Blackburn’s exposition is based heavily on 18th and 19th-century records gathered during various research trips to the Polish archives of Warsaw, Krakow, and Lublin.

“First Empire remains popular and maintains a large international readership because its subscribers, whether professional historians or enthusiastic re-enactors, hold the common bond of being interested in the history of the Napoleonic Era,” he said.

“It’s a great place to publish because too often academic historians are writing only for other historians and not for the community that just love to explore our past,” Blackburn concluded.

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