author
Sir Archibald Alison
1792–1867
A Scottish lawyer-historian who turned the upheavals of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era into one of the 19th century's best-known historical works. His life joined public service, political conviction, and a remarkable appetite for big, sweeping history.
1 Audiobook
Travels in France during the years 1814-15 Comprising a residence at Paris, during the stay of the allied armies, and at Aix, at the period of the landing of Bonaparte, in two volumes.
by Sir Archibald Alison, Patrick Fraser Tytler
About the author
Born in Shropshire on 29 December 1792 and raised largely in Edinburgh, he trained in law and was called to the Scottish bar in 1814. He later became sheriff of Lanarkshire, a prominent legal post that placed him in the middle of some of the social and political tensions of industrial Scotland.
Alongside his legal career, he built a wide readership as a historian. He is best remembered for his multi-volume History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Restoration of the Bourbons, a large-scale narrative of revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe that reflected his strongly conservative outlook and made him one of the most widely read historical writers of his day.
He was created a baronet and remained an active public figure until late in life. Sir Archibald Alison died on 23 May 1867, leaving behind a body of work that offers modern readers both a vivid 19th-century account of Europe in turmoil and a clear window into the political ideas of his own age.