Nationhood and Nationalism in France: From Boulangism to the Great War 1889-1918

The political scene in France was changed dramatically in the late 1880s by a radical brand of nationalism, which was to become a major influence on twentieth-century fascist and conservative movements. Nationhood and Nationalism in France brings together leading international scholars to explore the complex combined impact of nationhood and nationalism on French life. The rise of radical nationalism in France rejuvenated existing conservative anti-liberal politics with urban populism and fashionable intellectual ideas such as social darwinism and antisemitism. The essays in Nationhood and Nationalism in France concentrate on ideas, politics and policy, and develop the work done in the 1960s and 1970s by writers such as Girardet, Weber, and Sternhell. The contributors, many publishing for the first time in English, exemplify the wide spectrum of the often controverial work in this field.