Addinall, Nigel
Dr. Nigel Addinall teaches in the French Department at the University of Wales, Swansea. He received his doctorate from the University of Reading and Licence ès Lettres from the University of Bordeaux while teaching there.
2004 0-7734-6529-4The subject of this book is the development of political ideas in France, examining the justification of Absolute Monarchy in the Seventeenth century, its rebuttal by the Eighteenth century “philosophes” in the name of the freedom of the individual, the reaction in turn by the nineteenth century “liberals” against their ideas which they considered led not to freedom but to oppression, the development in turn of socialism which perceived “liberalism” as promoting the freedom only of the rich and powerful few and finally a return to Monarchist ideas in the early Twentieth century as the only solution to the problems caused by the so-called sovereignty of the people. The Conclusion illustrates how many of these ideas are still echoed by French politicians in the present era of the Fifth Republic.
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