Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Description
Periodically the French Ministry of Defence holds a conference at the Service Historique de la Defense in Vincennes, France. This Service has been going since the late 19th century, and research undertaken there - by people employed as soldiers or civilians or archivists, or by independent researchers using their collections - is considered integral to the French armed forces' understanding of their history and, by extension, current place in the world. Leading on from 19 years of researching in these archives I gave a paper on the grave financial consequences of geostrategic overextension in 18th-century France to a recent conference, held at the chateau of Vincennes in December 2011 on the theme of 20 years of research on early modern history in the Service. The conference was attended not only by scholars from around Europe, but also by the archivists, by senior French museum conservateurs, and by people connected directly with the French and other European military education and training establishments.