Abstract
Enlightenment reformers in France had very different visions about whether military men should marry. In one view, acting as a good soldier and citizen drew on new models of masculine virility, and required separating oneself entirely from the restraints of domestic life. Conversely, being a soldier-citizen could mean building on changing ideas of domestic virtue and respectability, combining a patriotic obligation to fight with responsibility to family. The marital status of soldiers provided a potent flash point for negotiating these tensions, while also engaging with pragmatic questions of providing for dependents, promoting military efficiency, and reinforcing population and state power.
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