The Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution is unique in the world of graduate history education. As part of the History Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida State University, it is the only graduate program in the United States devoted to the historical study of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. The Institute is concerned with all aspects of this period. Its students have conducted archival research in almost every country in Europe, as well as in North and South America. Their masters theses and doctoral dissertations have covered many different aspects of the cultural, social, political, gender, religious, diplomatic, and military history of the age. Since 1963 it has granted more than 75 Ph.D.s, making it the country's most productive graduate program in the field of Revolutionary and Napoleonic studies.
The Institute also has a commitment to the public advancement of Revolutionary and Napoleonic studies. It hosts an annual Weider History Conference bringing together early-career scholars from Europe and North America to present their cutting-edge research in the field of French Revolutionary historical study, organizes international conferences, publishes new research, sponsors a Distinguished Lecture Series at Florida State University, and is a founding member of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era. The Institute also offers its students and visiting researchers access to the French Revolution and Napoleon Collection at Florida State University's Strozier Library. With over 20,000 rare titles from the period, it is one of the finest research collections of its kind.