Martijn van der Burg - Napoleonic Governance in the Netherlands and Northwest Germany: Conquest, Incorporation, and Integration

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The research underlying this publication has been facilitated by the support from numerous institutions and individuals. At the start, the University of Amsterdams Department of History and European Studies kindly supported the development of an initial research proposal. Subsequently, the Open University of the Netherlands has generously made extra research time available, within the Waarde en waardering van cultuur and De veilige stad research programs. Over the years, many colleagues, too many to thank all of them here individually, gave valuable advice, read draft chapters, or otherwise had a positive effect on the research process. Without Annie Jourdans inspiration, Matthijs Loks impeccable sense of timing, Helmut Stubbe da Luzs hospitality, Pierre Karila-Cohens collegiality, and Bart Verheijens teamwork, the present publication would not have existed in its current form. Also, Joke Roelevink made many useful suggestions; her passing away is a great loss to historical scholarship. Furthermore, I owe thanks to Katherine Aaslestad, Michael Broers, and Johan Joor for their willingness to read the final manuscript. And it is with generous support from the Daendels Foundation, and from the Open Access Fund of the Open University of the Netherlands, that it was made possible to publish this work in open access. I am very grateful to abovementioned sponsors and colleagues, as well as friends and family alike.

Van der Burg presents an innovative trans-regional study of Napoleonic governance in the often-overlooked northern periphery of the Empire. This book carefully examines the Empires administrative structure in the north, focusing on the heterogeneous community of prefects and subprefects as tools of incorporation, binding the regions to the central state. His rich comparative analysis highlights the incomplete integration of the north and makes important contributions to our understanding of the Empire and its legacy of state building.

Katherine Aaslestad, West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA

Martijn van der Burg makes a vital contribution to the burgeoning scholarly literature on Napoleonic Europe in this well researched, carefully constructed volume. His analysis of this somewhat neglected, but important, part of Napoleons hegemony will become essential reading for all students and specialists of Napoleonic Europe. Van der Burg brings the riches of recent Dutch and German scholarship on the Napoleonic period, hitherto denied to an Anglophone readership, to say nothing of his own insight into Napoleonic rule in these complex regions. He delineates the course of Napoleonic rule here with clarity and acute attention to detail. This is a worthy addition to the Napoleonic renaissance in historiography.

Michael Broers, University of Oxford, UK

A thorough, transparent and important comparative study into the content, dynamics, limits and results of Napoleonic governance, and the role of the (sub)prefects here within, in the Netherlands and Northwest Germany. Original, well-written and a very welcome contribution to the historiography of these still understudied areas in the Napoleonic years, as well as to Napoleonic historiography in general.

Johan Joor, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands