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Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich is Professor of European History at the University of Sydney, author of Vestiges of the Colonial Empire in France: Monuments, Museums and Colonial Memories (2005), and editor of The Age of Empires (2007). His latest book, Gay Life Stories (2012), was reviewed by Brian McFarlane in the June 2012 issue of ABR.

 

Robert Aldrich reviews 'Liberty or Death: The French Revolution' by Peter McPhee

September 2016, no. 384 23 August 2016
The French Revolution never ceases to fascinate. Marie-Antoinette and Robespierre, the storming of the Bastille and the 'Marseillaise', the Terror and its guillotine: such is the stuff of historical works, novels, films, and exhibitions. The Revolution remains with us today, and not only in the slogan 'liberty, equality and fraternity'. Subjects of the king became citizens of the nation in 1789, t ... (read more)

Robert Aldrich reviews 'Napoleon: Revolution to Empire' edited by Ted Gott

July–August 2012, no. 343 10 July 2012
Napoleon came to power as First Consul in 1799 after a coup d’état, having recently returned from invading Egypt, his defeat there by the British spin-doctored into a victory back in Paris. Five years later he had himself made emperor, crowning himself in Notre Dame surrounded with panoply reminiscent of the ancien régime and inspired by fantasies of Roman Antiquity. Bonaparte’s armies occup ... (read more)

Robert Aldrich reviews 'Art and Homosexuality: A History of Ideas' by Christopher Reed

February 2012, no. 338 20 January 2012
‘One would have to be extremely naïve not to know immediately upon entering his room what was what when one saw the decoration with its reproduction Greek statues of hermaphrodites, and its strange collection of pictures, each boasting a posterior, mixed with pictures of pretty young men from the local garrison which the talented dilettante has made himself and continues to make.’ ... (read more)

Robert Aldrich reviews 'Arab France: Islam and the Making of Modern Europe, 1798–1831' by Ian Coller

April 2011, no. 330 24 March 2011
‘Arab France’ will immediately suggest to some readers debates about the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public schools and, more generally, about the place of North African migrants in contemporary French life, as well as the riots that erupted in 2005 in suburbs with substantial Arabic populations. To others, it may evoke memories of trips to Paris, of sipping mint tea at the elegant mosque ... (read more)