Reimagining Politics After the Terror: The Republican Origins of French Liberalism

331 Pages·2008·43.084 MB·English

by  Andrew Jainchill

Pouncs
REIMAGINING AFTER THE TERROR

REIMAGINING PoLITics
AFTER THE TERROR
The Republican Origins of
French Liberalism
ANDREW JAINCHILL
CoRNELL UNIVERSITY PREss
ITHACA AND LoNDON
Copyright© 2008 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for hricf quotations in a review, this book, or
parts thereof, tnust not be reproduced in any form without permission in
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Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2008 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jainchill, Andrew). S.
Reimagining politics after the Terror: the republican origins of French
liberalism I Andrew jainchill.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-4669-6 (cloth: alk. paper)
I. France-History-First Republic, 1792-1804. 2. Political culture
France-History. .l. Liberalism-France-History. 4. Republicanism
France-History. I. Title.
DC192.)35 2008
944 .04-Jc22
2008016675
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Cloth printing 10 9 7 6 3
CoNTENTs
Acknowledgments Vll
Note on Translations and Abbreviations Xl
Introduction
1. The Constitution of the Year III 26
2. The Post-Terror Discourse of Moeurs 62
3. Liberal Republicanism during the Directory 108
4. A Republican Empire? Debate on Expansion, 1794-99 141
5. Liberal Authoritarianism and the Constitution of the Year VIII 197
6. Liberal Republicanism and Dissent against Bonaparte 243
Epilogue: The Fate of French Liberal Republicanism 287
Index 309

AcKNOWLEDGMENTs
This project began at the University of California, Berkeley, and it is a
pleasure to acknowledge the debts accumulated there. First and foremost,
I thank Carla Hesse and Martin Jay, model mentors and advisers through
out graduate school and since. I am particularly grateful for their intellec
tual rigor and demanding standards. I owe a special thanks to Carla, who
consistently pushed me to hone my arguments and refine my claims. I add
an extra thanks to Marty, whose astonishing breadth of knowledge and
eye for the big picture never ceases to astound. At Berkeley, David Bates,
Thomas Laqueur, Hanna Pitkin, Hans Sluga, and Jan de Vries, among
others, shaped my thinking in important ways. In addition, a tremendous
cohort of fellow students made my time in Berkeley intellectually stimu
lating and more than enjoyable. Thanks especially to Arianne Chernock,
Nick Daum, Aaron Freundschuh, Peter Gordon, Benjamin Lazier, Sam
uel Moyn, Manuel Rota, and Priya Satia. Finally, Berkeley's extraordinary
library system made it possible to begin research on a serious note.
vuz Acknowledgments
The experience of research and writing in Paris has been consistently
wonderful, and again it is a pleasure to thank the institutions and indi
viduals that made my trips there so rich. The Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Soeiales and Sciences Po were institutional homes while I was
still a graduate student. The Bibliotheque Nationale, the Archives Na
tionales, the Bibliothequc Historique de Ia Ville de Paris, the Archives des
Affaires Etrangeres, and the Archives de l'Institut National offered mag
nificent research collections. Patrice Gueniffey welcomed me into his semi
nar, Pierre Serna shared his thoughts on the Directory, and Anne Verjus
shared her notes on Pierre-Louis Roederer. Charly Coleman, Benjan"lin
Kafka, Emmanuel Saaclia, Dana Simmons, and Anoush Terjanian made
a fantastic discussion group, providing penetrating feedback on ideas and
chapters-and great food and wine-that thankfully did not end when
we all left Paris.
The Department of History at Queen's University has provided a colle
gial and stimulating environment for completing this project. The library
system and interlibrary loan office made it possible to finish.
A number of scholars have generously provided comments and sug
gestions over the years. Parts or all of the manuscript were read at vari
ous stages by Howard Brown, Dan Edelstein, Steven Englund, Patrice
Gueniffey, Dick Howard, Samuel Moyn, Helena Rosenblatt, Pierre Serna,
and K. Steven Vincent. Thomas Kaiser talked through questions of foreign
policy while we were both working in the Archives des Affaires Etrangeres
and James Livesey offered encouragement at an important stage. I owe a
special thanks to David Bell and Kent Wright for their extremely helpful
and insightful, initially anonymous, reviews of the manuscript for Cornell
University Press.
I have presented some of the ideas from the book in progress at the West
ern Society for French History (twice), the Liberalism's Return conference
at Columbia University, the Society for French Historical Studies, the To
ronto Area French History Group, the Queen's University History De
partment, and the Workshop on Pluralism in French History in Durham
(U.K.). T thank the audiences and fellow panel participants for valuable
feedback. An earlier version of chapter 1 was published in French I-hitorical
Studie.i, and I am grateful for permission to use the material here.
Research and writing during the various stages have been generously
supported by a number of institutions I am grateful for the opportunity to
Acknowledgments IX
thank: the University of California Predoctoral Humanities Fellowship,
the Berkeley History Department's Sidney Hellman Ehrman and Peder
Sather Fellowships, the Berkeley Graduate Division Humanities Research
Grant, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Dissertation Prospectus Fel
lowship, the Georges Lurcy Foundation Fellowship, the Institut Franc;:ais
de Washington's Gilbert Chinard Research Fellowship, the Cultural Ser
vices of the French Government's Chateaubriand Fellowship, the Societe
des Professeurs Franc;:ais et Francophones d'Amerique's Jeanne Marandon
Fellowship, the Society for French Historical Studies' John B. and Theta H.
Wolf Award, and Queen's University's Research Initiation Grant and Ad
visory Research Committee Grant. Without this material support, this book
would not have been written.
At Cornell University Press, a heartfelt thanks to John Ackerman, who
has been an enthusiastic editor from the beginning, and to Jamie Fuller
and Candace Akins.
Andrew Janiak has been an irreplaceable friend and inspiration for as
long as I can remember. Nicolas Constantinesco has been a similarly excep
tional friend, interlocutor, and compagnon de route.
I am grateful to my parents, sisters, and brothers for far too much to
articulate here.
Finally, I thank Rebecca Manley. Her love, friendship, support, and in
tellect have marked every word of this book and every moment of the life
I lived-from Berkeley to Paris to Kingston-while writing it. Our life to
gether has since been enriched immeasurably by our wonderful daughter,
Anna. This book is dedicated to Rebecca and Anna.