Roundtable: the Waterloo bicentenary in retrospect

The year 2015 saw the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. This decisive battle on 18 June 1815 brought to a close over two decades of conflict, and settled the political order of Europe for the following century. It has always had a huge historiographical status, but the year of bicentenary commemorations also brought the battle into the public domain as never before. Last year saw numerous exhibitions, academic conferences, newspaper articles and re-enactments – most prominently, the huge recreation of the battle in Belgium in the week of the bicentenary. Even so, Waterloo was arguably overshadowed by the ongoing centenary commemorations of the First World War. This panel will look back on this year of commemorative activity, in order to think about how this crucial moment at close of the long eighteenth century sits in the public consciousness today, and what this tells us about its ongoing significance.