Napoleon III and the French Second Empire, Roger Price [black books to read .TXT] 📗

Napoleon III and the Second Empire

IN THE SAME SERIES

General Editors: Eric J. Evans and P. D. King

Lynn Abrams

Bismarck and the German Empire 1871–1918

David Arnold

The Age of Discovery 1400–1600

A. L. Beier

The Problem of the Poor in Tudor and Early Stuart England

Martin Blinkhorn

Democracy and Civil War in Spain 1931–1939

Robert M. Bliss

Restoration England 1660–1688

Stephen Constantine

Lloyd George

Stephen Constantine

Social Conditions in Britain 1918–1939

Susan Doran

Elizabeth I and Religion 1558–1603

Christopher Durston

James I

Eric J. Evans

The Great Reform Act of 1832

Eric J. Evans

Political Parties in Britain 1783–1867

Eric J. Evans

Sir Robert Peel

Dick Geary

Hitler and Nazism

John Gooch

The Unification of Italy

Alexander Grant

Henry VII

M. J. Heale

The American Revolution

Ruth Henig

The Origins of the First World War

Ruth Henig

The Origins of the Second World War 1933–1939

Ruth Henig

Versailles and After 1919–1933

P. D. King

Charlemagne

Stephen J. Lee

Peter the Great

Stephen J. Lee

The Thirty Years War

J. M. MacKenzie

The Partition of Africa 1880–1900

John W. Mason

The Cold War 1945–1991

Michael Mullett

Calvin

Michael Mullett

The Counter-Reformation

Michael Mullett

James II and English Politics 1678–1688

Michael Mullett

Luther

D. G. Newcombe

Henry VIII and the English Reformation

Robert Pearce

Attlee’s Labour Governments 1945–51

Gordon Phillips

The Rise of the Labour Party 1893–1931

John Plowright

Regency England

Hans A. Pohlsander

Constantine

J. H. Shennan

France Before the Revolution

J. H. Shennan

International Relations in Europe 1689–1789

J. H. Shennan

Louis XIV

Margaret Shennan

The Rise of Brandenburg–Prussia

David Shotter

Augustus Caesar

David Shotter

The Fall of the Roman Republic

David Shotter

Tiberius Caesar

Keith J. Stringer

The Reign of Stephen

John Thorley

Athenian Democracy

John K. Walton

Disraeli

John K. Walton

The Second Reform Act

Michael J. Winstanley

Gladstone and the Liberal Party

Michael J. Winstanley

Ireland and the Land Question 1800–1922

Alan Wood

The Origins of the Russian Revolution 1861–1917

Alan Wood

Stalin and Stalinism

Austin Woolrych

England Without a King 1649–1660

LANCASTER PAMPHLETS

Napoleon III and the

Second Empire

Roger Price

London and NewYork

First published 1997

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.

© 1997 Roger Price

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or

hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0–415–15433–2 (Print Edition)

ISBN 0-203-13424-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-17920-X (Glassbook Format)

In memory

of

Ralph Gibson

(1943–1995)

Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Chronology xv

1 Introduction 1

2 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte,

President of the Second Republic 12

3 The authoritarian Empire 25

4 Liberalisation 39

5 Defeat and collapse 59

6 Conclusion 64

Bibliography 67

ix

Preface

Ralph Gibson originally planned to write this book. Just before he died he was concerned that he would be unable to fulfil his commitment and gently reminded me that I had been preparing a book on the Second Empire for longer than either of us cared to remember. I hope that Ralph would have been happy with the result. It is written in memory of a very fine man, a considerable scholar and a very good friend.

Ralph arrived in this country from Adelaide as a young Rhodes Scholar in 1965.

He returned to take up an appointment at the University of Lancaster in 1969 and remained there as Lecturer and, subsequently, Reader in History and French

Studies until his untimely death in 1995. During this time he established an international reputation as a historian with such notable publications as A Social History of French Catholicism, 1789–1914 (Routledge 1989); Landownership and Power in Modern Europe (in collaboration with Martin Blinkhorn, Harper-Collins 1991); ‘The French nobility in the 19th century’ in J. Howorth and P. Cerny (eds) Elites in France (Pinter 1981); ‘Missions paroissiales et re-christianisation en Dordogne au 19e siècle’ ( Annales du Midi 1986); ‘Hellfire and damnation in nineteenth-century France’ ( Catholic History Review 1988); ‘De la prédication de la peur à la vision d’un Dieu d’amour’ in Le Jugement, le Ciel et l’Enfer dans l’histoire du christianisme (Presses universitaires d’Angers 1989); ‘Why Republicans and Catholics couldn’t stand each other in nineteenth-century France’

in F . Tallett and N. Atkin (eds) Religion, Society and Politics: France, 1789–1945

(Hambledon Press 1991); ‘Le Catholicisme et les femmes en France au 19e siècle’

( Revue d’Histoire de l’Eglise de France 1993); ‘The intensification of national xi

consciousness in modern Europe’ in C. Bjorn et al. (eds) Nations, Nationalism and Patriotism in the European Past (Copenhagen, Academic Press 1994); ‘Théologie et société en France au 19e siècle’ in J.-D. Durand (ed.) Histoire et théologie (Beauchesne 1994); and ‘Female religious orders in nineteenth-century France’ in F. Tallett and N. Atkin (eds) Catholicism in Britain and France (Hambledon Press 1996). The invitation to make a substantial contribution to G. Cholvy (ed.) Matériaux pour l’histoire religieuse du peuple français, 19e–20e siècles, Vol. III (Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques 1992) offered clear recognition by French historians of his status both as a regional historian of the Dordogne and as an expert on religious history. If he had lived longer, Ralph would have amply confirmed his growing reputation with the two other major books he was working on: studies of Women, Faith and Liberation: Female Religious Orders in nineteenth-century France and of Religion et Société: le diocèse de Périgueux au 19e siècle (a massively expanded version of his French doctorate).

Sadly, we shall be deprived of these, and of Ralph’s witty and informed

conversation and his unique sense of fun.

xii

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank, in particular, Francesca Gibson for her kind assistance.

Heather McCallum of Routledge and the series editors Eric Evans and David King were very encouraging and made helpful suggestions for revision of the