This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which arose out of a symposium held at the British Academy in January 2006, on the weekend after the bicentenary of the state funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson at St Paul's Cathedral, and thus at the conclusion of a year which had seen hundreds of official, commercial, and popular events commemorating and celebrating the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. The book assembles the revised versions of the papers delivered at the symposium along with three specially commissioned essays. An overview of these...

This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which arose out of a symposium held at the British Academy in January 2006, on the weekend after the bicentenary of the state funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson at St Paul's Cathedral, and thus at the conclusion of a year which had seen hundreds of official, commercial, and popular events commemorating and celebrating the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. The book assembles the revised versions of the papers delivered at the symposium along with three specially commissioned essays. An overview of these essays is presented.