Although the Legitimists were highly visible participants in the intellectual, social, and political life of nineteenth-century France, they have received little scholarly attention. In Legitimism and the Reconstruction of French Society, 1852-1883, Steven D. Kale argues against dismissing the Legitimists as mere anachronisms and analyzes their efforts to define the conditions for a restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. More broadly, Kales study presents an intellectual and social history of the French Legitimist movement. Kale examines the social composition of the Legitimist party and outlines the qualities the Legitimists considered necessary for the creation of an appropriate ruling class for nineteenth-century France

This book explores mid-nineteenth-century French legitimism and the implications of popular support for a movement that has traditionally been portrayed as an aristocratic force intent on restoring the Old Regime. This type of monarchism has often been understood as a form of elitist patronage politics or, alternatively, identified with ultramontane Catholicism. Although historians have offered a more nuanced view in the last few decades, their work, nevertheless, has predominantly focused on legitimist leaders rather than their followers and their professed feelings of loyalty to monarchy and monarch. This book’s originality therefore is twofold: firstly as an analysis of popular rather than élite monarchism; and secondly, as a study which portrays this form of royalism as a political movement characteristic of a period which saw the emergence of mass politics, while parties were still non-existent. It not only discusses the social and cultural settings of (popular) monarchism, but also contributes to the history of political parties, citizenship and democracy.

Léon Harmel is a penetrating study of the French industrialist who from 1870 to 1914 advanced social Catholic and Christian democratic movements by improving factory conditions and empowering workers. Joan Coffey’s fascinating new book represents the first major study of Léon Harmel in English. Harmel’s model factory at Val-des-Bois demonstrated that mutual accord and respect were possible between labor and management. Harmel turned his profitable spinning mill into a Christian corporation. His ethical business practices captured the attention of Pope Leo XIII and inspired his encyclical Rerum Novarum. Harmel also encouraged his workers to make pilgrimages to Rome. The collaboration of Pope Leo XIII and Léon Harmel laid the foundation of enterprises that collectively became known as Christian democracy. Drawing on extensive archival sources, including the Vatican Archives, Joan Coffey’s work skillfully analyzes the personal relationship between Pope Leo XIII and Léon Harmel. Léon Harmel also offers a timely reminder of the power of personal ethics and provides a refreshing antidote to today’s business climate.

This book follows the story of the Second French Republic from its idealistic beginnings in February 1848 to its formal replacement in December 1852 by the Second Empire. Based on original archival research, The Second French Republic gives a detailed account of the internal tensions that irrevocably weakened France’s shortest republic. During this short period French political life was buffeted by strong and often contrary forces: universal manhood suffrage, fear of socialism, the President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, and the political ambitions of the military high command for the restoration of the monarchy.

The second volume shines a light on the cultural and social changes that took place during the epoch of European Restorations, when the death of the Napoleonic empire existed as a crucial moment for contemporaries. Expanding the transnational approach of Volume I, the chapters focus on the transmutation of ordinary experiences of war into folklore and popular culture, the emergence of grassroots radical politics and conspiracies on the Left and Right, and the relationship between literacy and religion, with new cases included from Spain, Norway and Russia. A wide-ranging and impressive work, this book completes a collection on the history of the European Restorations.

′Successfully challenges the notion that we live in a post-ideological age. John Schwarzmantel searchingly questions the thesis that only single issues and identities matter, providing a reliable compass to help students navigate through a world that has witnessed the death of Communism and the rise of neo-liberal hegemony′ - Jules Townshend, Professor of Political Theory, Manchester Metropolitan University This book challenges the idea of post-ideological consensus and offers a fresh perspective on the current state of political ideologies. With ′traditional′ political ideologies, such as liberalism, socialism, nationalism and conservatism, perceived to be in crisis, it assesses: - Their continued relevance in the context of globalisation and of scepticism towards ideological thinking - The challenges posed by ′new′ ideologies such as ecologism and feminism - The implications of new social movements and ideas of community and multiculturalism for the traditional Left-Right political framework. Ideology and Politics presents an accessible account of a new era of ideological politics, where the dominant neo-liberalism has spawned a diverse global range of ′ideologies of opposition′. It situates these radical frameworks of change and protest in relation to more traditional ′anti′ ideologies and seeks to re-establish the relevance of ideologies for political action in the contemporary world. This text will be core reading for students of politics at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate level.