Books by Douglas Porch

This book, first published in 1974, analyses the problems and mechanics of the Revolutionary movement in the army during and after the French Revolution. It charts the transition of the French army from the Revolutionary force of 1815 to the counter-revolutionary army of June 1848.

This book, first published in 1977, traces the origins of the left-wing Portuguese army rebellion of 1974 that overthrew the 50-year-old authoritarian regime to the traditional political independence of the armed forces, their increasingly strained relations with the regime, and finally to the unpopular colonial wars.

Dr Porch's book challenges many standard assumptions about the place of the army in French political life between 1871 and 1914. He examines the impact of the Dreyfus affair on the crucial tactical and armaments debates of the immediate pre-war years, leading to the army's near disastrous failure in the Great War.