19^th century

Rachel St. John explores the diverse range of nation-building projects that vied for legitimacy and land across the continent during the XIXe century, illuminating the diversity of North American political history and the contingency of national growth and definition.

With the accession of Napoléon III, French republicans encountered an undiscovered people: rural peasants. Because these country dwellers were satisfied with the Bonapartist regime, they constituted both a theoretical and a practical challenge for the republicans. How to explain that satisfaction with such a despotic regime and how to attract this people so indifferent to republican ideals: by catering to their interests, or by educating them in republican virtues?