Book contents
- The Shaping of French National Identity
- New Studies in European History
- The Shaping of French National Identity
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Sources
- Introduction
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- Chapter 7 Classifying the Nation
- Chapter 8 A Bourgeois National Narrative
- Chapter 9 Debating the Nation’s History:
- Conclusion About Renan
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 9 - Debating the Nation’s History:
Restoring to the Bourgeoisie its Lost Past
from Part III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2020
- The Shaping of French National Identity
- New Studies in European History
- The Shaping of French National Identity
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Sources
- Introduction
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- Chapter 7 Classifying the Nation
- Chapter 8 A Bourgeois National Narrative
- Chapter 9 Debating the Nation’s History:
- Conclusion About Renan
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The final chapter considers the impact of the writings of Thierry on the ongoing debate on the origins of France. In particular it analyses the way in which these are reinterpreted by François Guizot, François Mignet and other historians to reshape and give a new meaning to the complex of myths, memories, and symbols of the members of the Third Estate. Here, it is argued, are the roots of what will become the official narrative of the Third Republic, a narrative based on an ethic of work and sacrifice that will contribute to the ‘triumph’ of the Gauls. The chapter shows, in particular, that the narrative to which these authors contributed was set within the boundaries of an ethnic paradigm shaped through centuries of legal and political divisions.
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- The Shaping of French National IdentityNarrating the Nation's Past, 1715–1830, pp. 322 - 358Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020