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
