Synopsis
This innovative study of French political culture re-examines the origins of modern republicanism through the lives and political thought of five nineteenth-century intellectuals: Jules Barni, Charles Dupont-White, Emile Littré, Eugène Pelletan, and Etienne Vacherot. By their writings and their political practices at the local, national, international levels these thinkers made major contributions to the founding of the new republican order in France. Drawing on a range of archival and published sources, the book sheds new light on classical republican thinking on such key issues as the interpretation of the 1789 Revolution, the definition of citizenship, the meaning of patriotism, the relationship between central government and local democracy, the value of individual liberty, and the place of education and religion in publica and private life. These five studies also break new ground in the conceptualization of nineteenth-century French intellectual history. The writings of these thinkers demonstrate the ideological pluralism and diversity of moderate French republican thought during this period. Positivism appears as an important and influential doctrine, but its hegemonic aspirations were successfully resisted by the abiding incluences of Saint-Simonism, socialism, doctrinaire liberalism, and neo-Kantianism. It emerges that the ideological potency of republican doctrine lay in its complexity and sophistication, as reflected in its capacity to effect a synthesis among these different approaches. Through its analysis of the writings and political practices of these five thinkers Intellectual Founders of the Republic offers critical insights into the history of political thought as well as modern French republicanism. It underlines both the significance of contextuality in the interpretation of political discourse, and the continuing relevance of classical republicanism in making sense of contemporary moral and political dilemmas.
Review
The most fascinating aspect of this closely analysed volume, that will be a treasure trove for specialists, are the numerous illustrations of continuity in liberal thought throughout the nineteenth century. (English Historical Review)
Sudhir Hazareesingh is to be congratulated on expanding from his previous work on the under-studied Second Empire to the early years of the Third Republic, with a backward glance to the pre-1851 decades. He has added a distinctive interpretation of the French version of republicanism that is markedly different from its rival Anglo-American affiliation with liberalism. (History of Political Thought)
Wide-ranging and close scrutiny of the texts ... By his subtlety of analysis and sustained sensitivity to nuance and complexity, steering the reader circumspectly through the shoals of improvised theory and intransigent practice, we are treated to a closely documented scrutiny of a liberal republicanism groping its way towards a consensual Republic. (History of Political Thought)
Honest and erudite. (Political Studies)
Challenges many of the pieties of standard accounts of the evolution of the republican tradition ... important revisionist work. (James F. McMillan, Times Literary Supplement)
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