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History France

When the French Tried to be British

Party, Opposition, and the Quest for Civil Disagreement, 1814-1848

by (author) J.A.W. Gunn

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
May 2009
Category
France
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773535121
    Publish Date
    May 2009
    List Price
    $125.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773582248
    Publish Date
    May 2009
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

In When the French Tried to Be British, J.A.W. Gunn studies the French effort during 1814 to 1848 to adopt the set of common understandings that lent a comparative stability to British government. The institutions of a loyal opposition and disciplined political parties seemed to be implicit in the parliamentary model, but their acceptance foundered on French reluctance to accord legitimacy to political opponents. A sophisticated minority - including such major figures as Chateaubriand, Constant, Mme de Staël, and Guizot - recognized the need for something approaching the British political culture, but the wounds opened by the Revolution could not readily be healed. A more or less complete acceptance of the civil disagreement that was the spirit of the British model had to await the Fifth Republic.

About the author

J.A.W. Gunn is Sir Edward Peacock Professor Emeritus of Political Studies, Queen's University, and the author of Beyond Liberty and Property: The Process of Self-Recognition in Eighteenth-Century Political Thought.

J.A.W. Gunn's profile page

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