In the wake of defeat and under the shadow of German military might, the Third Republic remade France's militarized environments. The Third Republic's attempt to rejuvenate France and rebuild its army reverberated environmentally through the creation of new militarized environments. Although most scholarly attention has focused on the creation of urban militarized environments, this chapter argues that rural sites were integral to the efforts to remake army and nation. The chapter explores the army's mobilization of forests to strengthen France's eastern border and the harnessing of ever-larger expanses of the French countryside for its training purposes. As the army mobilized new sites for war preparation, thousands of new recruits came to live and work in the camps under universal conscription laws. The chapter also explores the testing and development of new military technologies and weapons.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the appropriation of science in French society and the development of an urban scientific culture. It looks at the audience, identified through advertisements and course descriptions, as well as the economics of courses. The book describes that organizations like the Musée de Monsieur drew in members with a variety of motivations. The spread of popular science in urban culture encouraged people to speak about science and participate in scientific debates, whether or not they really were qualified to do so. The book examines hot air and hydrogen balloons, first invented in France in 1783. The discovery of balloons spawned reams of poetry, plays, and scientific treatises, as well as much admiration.

This chapter investigates the characteristics of the thousands of infants who were abandoned at the London Foundling Hospital from 1741 to the end of the century. The analysis highlights the variety of backgrounds the foundlings came from: a diversity which was known to contemporaries, but which has been largely overlooked by historians. The chapter highlights the range of circumstances which led to the abandonment of an infant and suggests its implications for health. More detailed information on a sample of foundlings will permit of further investigation into their family situations. Using a combination of data from the General Register and the billets and their attached notes from parents and guardians, it is possible to ascertain age on entry and parish of origin for most children in the sample. The two topics on which the billets are most informative are the geographical origins of the foundlings and their legitimacy status.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, one of the spokespersons of the Zapatista movement, with his captivating communiqués, combining stories, poetry, philosophy, satire, romanticism and political analysis, sent to the world a strong message from the indigenous communities in insurrection. The unknown Marcos, a masked Zapatista with a secret identity, gained prominence within the movement despite his efforts to remain an unknown member of the struggle. Besides his letters addressed to 'the peoples of the world', photograph of Marcos were published in the mainstream media and were circulated on the internet. Almost thirteen months after the beginning of the uprising in south-eastern Mexico, Zedillo's government began a new offensive against the Zapatistas, violating the terms of the ceasefire agreed between the rebels and the government of Carlos Salinas, and issued arrest warrants for Marcos. Marcos clearly points to Ernesto Che Guevara's legacy and the significance of his struggle for a contemporary revolutionary project.

William Willcox, who had provided so much forensic testimony in the Beatrice Annie Pace case, wrote a medical opinion for the court that depicted the novel as obscene and dangerous. Despite a conclusion to the Pace case that was, from the police perspective, distinctly unsatisfying, Chief Inspector George Cornish was officially 'highly commended' for 'ability in a difficult case of alleged murder'. After 1928, newspaper articles might list other cases in which Cornish was involved, but they tended to avoid mentioning his dogged efforts to convict Beatrice Pace. After the Pace trial, William Willcox remained active in the field of toxicology. By the end of the 1930s, Beatrice was living in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where she bought a semi-detached house in which she would spend the remainder of her life.