Barrès And The Nationalism In The Third Republic Of France

Nationalism was one of the most important topics in the 19^th and 20^th century, even in today's world. During the whole process of the development of nationalism, the one most concerned is the extreme-nationalism which was born at the last decadesof 19^th century and had caused two great wars later on.This type of nationalism was developed in France after the Franco-German war of 1870, it abandoned the enlightened elements of the humanist nationalism, and characterized by militarism, monarchism, clericalism and racialism. The change happened to nationalism at this time had a profound background: All social groups, especially the middle classes and the petty bourgeoisies were shocked by the modernization, they felt so insecure that they had to appeal to a strong nationalist country. Meanwhile, the xenophobic atmosphere in the political field had also helpedto conceive their thoughts.In order to understand the social realities of that time better, I choose Maurice Barrès, who was the most distinguished nationalist in the third republic of France, and who was also belong to the middle class. By introducing of his ideas, we can comprehend the extreme-nationalism through the eyes of a modernization "victim".This thesis has three parts. The first part is a general expatiation about the nationalism in France, and it has two aspects: first one is a discussion on the definition of "nation" and "nationalism"; the second one is an introduction of the development of French nationalism from the great revolution to the early time of the third republic.The second part is mainly about Barrès' nationalism, it will be expatiated from five different aspects: traditionalism, irrationalism, autocratic democratism, economic protectionism and anti-Semitism.The third part is an analysis about the causation of Barrès' nationalism.