De l’éclair révolutionnaire de 1830 à l’envie démocratique
From the Lightning Flash of 1830 to the Democratic Envy

Summary/Abstract: The July monarchy sees the emergence and assertion of a new class of men of letters: committed thinkers, instigators of a living history and founders of the authority of the people, who encourage us to see the great anonymous and social forces. They problematize the nation as a totality: subject to itself, and as a framework for the exercise of democracy, where the idea of freedom contributes to shaping the imaginary and nourishing passions, of which the strongest is envy. At the height of Romanticism, Jules Michelet, Alexis de Tocqueville, Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian are among those who examine the substitution of egalitarian institutions for the former power of the monarchy and nobles. In this respect, they question both consent and resistance to the centralized administration, which, whether already democratized or still relying on the noble caste, remains an agent of change to come.

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