The French Republic: History, Values, Debates
Edward Ducler Berenson, Vincent Duclert, and Christophe Prochasson
Abstract
This book explores the history and meaning of the French Republic and the challenges it has faced. Founded in 1792, the French Republic has been defined and redefined by a succession of regimes and institutions, a multiplicity of symbols, and a plurality of meanings, ideas, and values. Although constantly in flux, the Republic has nonetheless produced a set of core ideals and practices fundamental to modern France's political culture and democratic life. Based on the influential Dictionnaire critique de la république, published in France in 2002, this book provides an encyclopedic survey of Fr ... More
This book explores the history and meaning of the French Republic and the challenges it has faced. Founded in 1792, the French Republic has been defined and redefined by a succession of regimes and institutions, a multiplicity of symbols, and a plurality of meanings, ideas, and values. Although constantly in flux, the Republic has nonetheless produced a set of core ideals and practices fundamental to modern France's political culture and democratic life. Based on the influential Dictionnaire critique de la république, published in France in 2002, this book provides an encyclopedic survey of French republicanism since the Enlightenment. Divided into three sections—Time and History, Principles and Values, and Dilemmas and Debates—the book begins by examining each of France's five Republics and its two authoritarian interludes, the Second Empire and Vichy. It offers thematic essays on such topics as Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; laicity; citizenship; the press; immigration; decolonization; anti-Semitism; gender; the family; cultural policy; and the Muslim headscarf debates. The book features updated translations of some of the most important essays from the French edition, as well as twenty-two newly commissioned English-language essays. Together they provide a state-of-the art appraisal of French republicanism and its role in shaping contemporary France's public and private life.
Keywords:
French Republic,
France,
French republicanism,
Second Empire,
Vichy,
liberty,
equality,
fraternity,
anti-Semitism,
gender
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780801449017 |
Published to Cornell Scholarship Online: August 2016 |
DOI:10.7591/cornell/9780801449017.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Edward Ducler Berenson, editor
Professor of History and French Studies, New York University
Vincent Duclert, editor
Christophe Prochasson, editor
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