The Origins of the French Nationalist Movement, 1886–1914

   This narrative history explores the emergence of one of the most influential Nationalist movements of modern Europe. It explains how and why the movement united the far right with the far left in a militant campaign to wrest control of France from the moderate republicans who were attempting to stabilize the country after a century of political volatility. The agitation groups, propaganda machines, street-fighting gangs, and political hustlers, who made up the Nationalists, all campaigned for one end: to overthrow the Third Republic. The eruption of the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1899) provided the Nationalists with a convenient target for their assaults: the “Dreyfusard” defenders of a wrongly convicted Jewish army captain, Alfred Dreyfus. This work, based on original archival research in France, argues that the Nationalists posed a real and dangerous threat that dissipated only when their goals were adopted by more moderate competing groups.

Robert Lynn Fuller has taught history at colleges and universities in Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Robert Lynn Fuller
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 290
Bibliographic Info: 4 illustrations, tables, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6809-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9025-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
Introduction      5

1. The Early Third Republic Foundation of Belle Époque Nationalism, 1870–1888      13
2. The First Face of Nationalism: Boulangism      30
3. From Boulangists to Anti- Dreyfusards      47
4. The Dreyfus Affair and the Surge of Anti- Semitism      72
5. Seeking a Popular Mandate      91
6. France Divided: Dreyfusards and Anti- Dreyfusards      106
7. The Onslaught Against President Loubet      121
8. Confronting the Government of Republican Defense      140
9. Varieties of Prejudice      158
10. High Tide      179
11. The Ebb of Nationalism      196
12. Exhaustion and Mutation      217

Conclusion      239
Chapter Notes      249
Bibliography      269
Index      279

• “An engaging and highly accessible narrative…well written…valuable”—European History Quarterly
• “This interesting volume on turn of the nineteenth-century French politics examines the rise of nationalist movements, and explores the personalities, policies, and political solutions put forward by conservative activists during the Third Republic”—Reference & Research Book News