McDaniel, Constantin Frantz and Caesarism and Bonapartism 2017 Accepted Pre-Publication Version.pdf (503.19 kB)
Constantin Frantz and the intellectual history of Bonapartism and Caesarism: a reassessment
The conservative German publicist and political theorist, Constantin Frantz (1817-1891), occupies an ambiguous place in German intellectual history. Some, such as Friedrich Meinecke, located him within the rich intellectual tradition of German federalism, highlighting his hostility to the idea of the “nation-state” and the traditions of nationalism, Realpolitik and militarism. Others, by contrast, have situated him within a long genealogy of German fascism, identifying his remarkable 1852 work, Louis Napoleon, as a kind of precursor or antecedent of twentieth-century fascist ideology. This interpretation raises broader questions about the historiography on Bonapartism and Caesarism, which has often been motivated by an interest in the intellectual origins of modern fascism. The present article supplies a reinterpretation of Frantz’s thinking about Bonapartism (Napoleonismus) and Caesarism by focusing on a much broader range of his intellectual output and by tracking the development of his view of Bonapartism’s significance between 1851 and the early 1870s. The main outcome is not just to question Frantz’s place in the “prehistory” of fascism, but also to show how deeply nineteenth-century debates about Bonapartism were connected to concerns about liberalism, democracy, nationalism and imperialism.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Intellectual History ReviewISSN
1749-6977Publisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
28Page range
317-338Department affiliated with
- History Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Centre for Intellectual History Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2017-05-23First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-03-01First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2017-05-23Usage metrics
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