Intellectual Founders Of The Republic: Five Studies In Nineteenth-century French Republican Political Thought

INTELLECTUAL FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC Intellectual Founders of the Republic Five Studies in Nineteenth-Century French Republican Political Thought Sudhir Hazareesingh 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Sudhir Hazareesingh 2001 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hazareesingh, Sudhir. Intellectual founders of the Republic: five studies in nineteenth-century French republican political thought / Sudhir Hazareesingh. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. French—Politics and government—1870–1940. 2. Republicanism—France—History—19th century. 3. Intellectuals—France—Political activity. I. Title. JN2562.H39 2001 321.8
6
09034—dc21 2001036397 ISBN 0–19–924794 –3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd Printed in Great Britain T. J. International Ltd Padstow, Cornwall For Karma A true republican spirit PREFACE T HIS book got off to an unpromising start. When, having drafted what I thought was an alluring proposal, I approached a major publishing house to add this project to its forthcoming titles, I was told that the series in which I had hoped to include the book was being wound up. When an Oxford colleague—a historian—asked me about my next project after From Subject to Citizen, I replied that I was hoping to revisit the intellectual origins of the Third Republic. ‘Vaste programme’ he retorted sarcastically. Another Oxonian friend—a political scientist this time—after being informed of my cast of characters, tartly declared that the book would be an exercise in ‘self-indulgence’. Most of my colleagues, both in the Anglo-American world and in France, freely confessed that the names of Barni, Dupont-White, Pelletan, and Vacherot meant nothing to them. As for Littré, everyone knew his Dictionary, but little else. When I mentioned to one of my French colleagues that I was reading Littré’s voluminous political writings, he looked startled: ‘il est vraiment très ennuyeux, tu ne trouves pas?’ Such was my challenge: to write about the founding of the Third Republic in France b