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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

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 06:23 authored by Iain McDanielIain McDaniel
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 Review

ISSN

1749-6977

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Volume

28

Page range

317-338

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Intellectual History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-05-23

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-03-01

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-05-23

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