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Civilizing and Its Discontents

J. P. DAUGHTON

in An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French Colonialism, 1880-1914

This chapter describes that the new hope brought by Paul Doumer's government to the region only reignited internecine fighting among Frenchmen of differing religious and political orientations. It ... More

This chapter describes that the new hope brought by Paul Doumer's government to the region only reignited internecine fighting among Frenchmen of differing religious and political orientations. It adds that at the center of these conflicts, again, were the Catholic missionaries. It also talks about the Dreyfus affair in the empire, exposing a deep rift in French society. It notes that catholic missionaries identified Freemasonry as posing the greatest threat to their work. It also tells that Freemasonry had a profound connection with republican politics throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. It clarifies that in most of their accounts, Freemasons wanted to show that missionary misdeeds stemmed from intolerance.Less

To Live Free, to Die a Slave: Foreigners in Ancien Régime France

Michael Rapport

in Nationality and Citizenship in Revolutionary France: The Treatment of Foreigners 1789-1799

The contrasting treatment of different types of foreigners in France before 1789 shows that they were encouraged to settle in France where they were deemed of utility to the state. Such uses could be ... More

The contrasting treatment of different types of foreigners in France before 1789 shows that they were encouraged to settle in France where they were deemed of utility to the state. Such uses could be obvious: foreign troops defended the kingdom; political refugees could be played as pawns in the game of European diplomacy; manufacturers, artisans, and merchants enriched the country. Less obvious was the reinforcement of the prestige of the monarchy, either through enhancing its Catholic image by tolerating foreign clergy, or by seeking a reflection of its glory through patronizing foreigners in the arts and sciences. Yet the state also had to balance its use of foreigners with other considerations, such as domestic stability and diplomacy. Open as the Ancien Régime was to the contributions of foreigners, it was also ready to dispense with them, or at least control their activities, when practical politics dictated. In other words, the treatment of foreigners under the Ancien Régime depended on their role in French society.Less

Foreigners, War, and the Republic

Michael Rapport

in Nationality and Citizenship in Revolutionary France: The Treatment of Foreigners 1789-1799

The period between the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the crisis of March 1793 was a transitional time for foreigners living in France. It was hoped that foreigners who shared the French ... More

The period between the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the crisis of March 1793 was a transitional time for foreigners living in France. It was hoped that foreigners who shared the French Revolution's aspirations would associate with the struggle. This attitude can be seen in the revolutionaries' approach to citizenship, naturalization, and the political rights of foreigners. Their underlying concern was not nationality alone, but an adherence to the principles of the Revolution, particularly after the overthrow of the monarchy. The revolutionaries abandoned the caution of the Constituent and loudly proclaimed their support for foreign patriots, as allies in the war against European ‘despotism’. As the overriding concerns of the revolutionaries no longer entailed the retention of peaceful diplomatic relations with other powers, so new factors emerged that dictated their policies towards foreigners. The political attitudes of foreigners and the role they played in French society became the most important determinants of their fate.Less

Vichy and the Jews

Julian Jackson

in France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944

This chapter looks at the experience of the Jews, examining how their fate was bound up in the interaction between the policies of the Germans, ... More

This chapter looks at the experience of the Jews, examining how their fate was bound up in the interaction between the policies of the Germans, the policies of the Vichy regime, and the responses of French civil society. During the first two years of Occupation, the prevailing sentiment towards the Jews ranged from indifference to hostility. The first Jewish Statute aroused little interest. People had more pressing concerns on their minds. The events of the summer of 1942 transformed French responses to the plight of the Jews. In Paris in July, and then in the South in August, people were shocked by the horrifying scenes of screaming children being arrested with their parents or being forcibly separated from them. By the end of the year, however, the outrage had died down. The open protests may not have lasted, but they gave way to active solidarity and the development of an infrastructure to aid the Jews.Less

Emulation: Class, Gender, and Context

Carol E. Harrison

in The Bourgeois Citizen in Nineteenth-Century France: Gender, Sociability, and the Uses of Emulation

This chapter describes emulation, situating it in terms of class, gender, and context. Emulation resonated widely in the nineteenth century, and it ... More

This chapter describes emulation, situating it in terms of class, gender, and context. Emulation resonated widely in the nineteenth century, and it referred to a relationship far more complex than that of model and copyist. When nineteenth-century bourgeois Frenchmen established a voluntary association or embarked on a worthy civic project, they inevitably spoke of their desire to ‘excite an honourable emulation’ or to ‘stimulate a noble emulation’. They rarely clarified exactly what was to be imitated or by whom. The meaning of emulation, which in the nineteenth century included a competitive ambiguity about who copied whom, has since been restricted to the description of a simple imitative relationship. Emulation is a lost cliché of nineteenth-century French society for whose members it was a convenient term around which a variety of virtues converged.Less

Itineraries, Narratives, and Identities

Christopher S. Thompson

in The Tour de France: A Cultural History

This chapter demonstrates how the ever-changing itinerary of la grande boucle has been exploited to generate diverse and often opposing views of French society, history, and identity. It evaluates ... More

This chapter demonstrates how the ever-changing itinerary of la grande boucle has been exploited to generate diverse and often opposing views of French society, history, and identity. It evaluates past bicycle races conducted in France and how they affected France's view towards the Tour de France. The chapter shows how the psychological impact of including the lost provinces in the Tour itinerary, from 1906 through 1910 L'Auto persuaded the German authorities to allow the race to pass through Alsace-Lorraine. It explains that L'Auto's use of the Tour's itinerary to honor the sacrifices of so many French soldiers reflected a broader commemorative movement.Less

Introduction: Revolution and the Republic *

Jeremy Jennings

in Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France since the Eighteenth Century

The Introduction outlines the main arguments of the book. This book aims to give an interesting interpretation of political thought in France from the eighteenth century to current times. In the ... More

The Introduction outlines the main arguments of the book. This book aims to give an interesting interpretation of political thought in France from the eighteenth century to current times. In the centre of this are the dramatic and violent events associated with the French Revolution of 1789 and the start of the First Republic in 1792. For the next two centuries writers in France tried to make sense of these events and subsequent events in French revolutionary history, producing an analysis of the nature of republican government and of the concepts of liberty, equality, and rights. This book hopes to show that these debates went further than the narrow discussions of representation and sovereignty. In fact they occupied a central place in discussions about religion, science, philosophy, commerce, and the writing of history. Indeed they also shaped arguments about the character of France and the French nation as well as polemics about the role of intellectuals in French society. Moreover, they carry on now to be of importance in France as the country looks towards the challenges posed by globalization, multiculturalism, and the reform of the welfare state.Less

One Family, Two Bestsellers, and the Legend’s Canonization

Francesca Trivellato

in The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society

This chapter studies Jacque Savary's Le parfait négociant, which was first printed in 1675 and was the manifesto of seventeenth-century French commercial society. A far more experienced and effective ... More

This chapter studies Jacque Savary's Le parfait négociant, which was first printed in 1675 and was the manifesto of seventeenth-century French commercial society. A far more experienced and effective writer than Cleirac, Savary shared with his predecessor a commitment to setting new legal and cultural standards for private trade and finance. He repeated the fictional account of Jews' invention of bills of exchange while also streamlining and purging the seven relevant pages of Us et coustumes de la mer of their overt anti-Jewish language. After Savary's death, two of his sons published a massive dictionary of commerce, the first of its genre, which proved to be another bestseller of the ars mercatoria and disseminated the legend even further. Taken together, the complete works of the Savarys constitute the most articulate explication of the norms and ethos that infused the practice and politics of commerce under the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV.Less

From Mendicants to Congregations

Joseph Bergin

in Church, Society, and Religious Change in France, 1580-1730

This chapter aims to identify who the religious orders were who continued to develop and contributed hugely to the needs—pastoral, educational, charitable, and many others—of French lay society, and ... More

This chapter aims to identify who the religious orders were who continued to develop and contributed hugely to the needs—pastoral, educational, charitable, and many others—of French lay society, and how or why they mattered. The sheer number of these orders and the extent of their differences from each other is perhaps the main reason why they have not been given their historiographical due. A diagrammatic presentation of the orders and their offshoots will serve as a point of departure, but beyond that some degree of selection is unavoidable, if only to avoid serving up an indigestible guidebook. For presentational purposes, the orders have been arranged under three headings in this chapter—old, new, and secular congregations—but these are by no means watertight categories, which in itself is testimony to the creativity of the orders in question.Less

The Early Years: Cycling in Search of an Identity, 1869–1891

in French Cycling: A Social and Cultural History

This chapter highlights the rise of leisure and sport as an expression of growing affluence and assertiveness in France during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This notion is premised on a ... More

This chapter highlights the rise of leisure and sport as an expression of growing affluence and assertiveness in France during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This notion is premised on a period of social, political and economic transformation which France underwent during the 1870s and 1880s. During this period, sporting activities were in many ways a marker and indicator of ongoing transformations. The chapter explains how cycling clubs became key in the rise of the sport in late nineteenth-century France. Moreover, it also conveys who or what cycling represented in society and culture. It also touches on the subject of racing by presenting the early cycling champions and heroes. Finally, it covers the role of cycling among women and vice versa. As a whole, this chapter tells the story of how cycling and French culture and society evolved side by side.Less