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Elite formation in late nineteenth century: France compared to Britain and Germany
Elitenbildung im späten 19. Jahrhundert: Vergleich zwischen Frankreich, Großbritannien und Deutschland
[journal article]
Abstract 'In a famous and controversial book, Arno J. Mayer has defined European society at the end of 19th century as a persistent Ancien Regime. To defend his thesis, he invoked in particular the recruitment and formation of dominant elites mainly in Britain, Germany, the Dual Monarchy, Russia and more ske... view more
'In a famous and controversial book, Arno J. Mayer has defined European society at the end of 19th century as a persistent Ancien Regime. To defend his thesis, he invoked in particular the recruitment and formation of dominant elites mainly in Britain, Germany, the Dual Monarchy, Russia and more sketchily in Italy, Spain and even France. As the author has shown in two of his books (Les élites de la République and La crise des sociétés impériales), this thesis already controversial in the first quoted countries is not at all relevant for France. This does not mean that France was, as pretended its republican governing elites, a democratic and meritocratic nation, but that it is impossible to analyse elites in France with so broad and unprecise concepts as aristocracy, bourgeoisie and so on. The aim of this paper is to propose a new perspective with new social concepts and to compare them with results of the study of elites in the two other imperial societies, UK and Germany. We shall begin with France and then turn to these countries to show some similarities and differences forgotten by current historiography.' (author's abstract)|... view less
Keywords
education; parliament; upper class; political elite; middle class; achievement orientation; international comparison; France; elite; bourgeoisie; German Empire; politician; Great Britain; occupation; social change; recruitment; nineteenth century
Classification
General History
Method
empirical; historical; quantitative empirical
Document language
English
Publication Year
2008
Page/Pages
p. 249-261
Journal
Historical Social Research, 33 (2008) 2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.33.2008.2.249-261
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed