Browsing by Supervisor "Alexander, R. S."
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Item The art of secrecy and subversion : the Cagoule and French politics in the 1930s(2008-04-10T06:05:47Z) Deacon, Valerie Anne; Alexander, R. S.; Biddiscombe, Alexander PerryItem Between Past and Future: Charles de Gaulle's Geopolitical Foresight and Its Implications for Modern Diplomacy(2023-09-27) Fang, Francis; Alexander, R. S.Charles de Gaulle's foreign policy, intricately woven with the concepts of national sovereignty, European unity, and balance of power, stands as a seminal study in the realm of international relations. This thesis delves into de Gaulle's geopolitical vision, where he sought European cooperation as a counterweight to superpower dominance, criticized U.S. military interventions such as the war in Vietnam, and aspired for an East-West détente to promote international peace. With the 21st-century’s shifting geopolitical dynamics, this research draws parallels between his political realism and current global affairs, underscoring the enduring relevance of his vision. In an era marked by rising multipolarity, the reassertion of nation-states, and collective global challenges, de Gaulle's legacy sheds light on how to foster prudent strategic thinking as the world navigates through uncertain times. Through a detailed exploration of his diplomacy and its resonance in today's global landscape, this thesis aims to provide a rich understanding of the intersections between past foreign policy strategies and contemporary geopolitical trends.Item Contested classrooms: cultural control and resistance in Alsace and Algeria, 1918-1940(2010-02-16T20:31:09Z) Magrath, Bronwen Alexandra; Alexander, R. S.France's Third Republic, which was in place from 1871 to 1940, saw the establishment of the nation's first state-run primary school system. This school system was far from politically neutral: it was designed to strengthen the Republic by wresting control of education away from religious orders and by encouraging the use of a universalized French language. The implementation of French education encountered significant resistance in rural provinces and overseas colonies, where linguistic and religious traditions clashed with the secularizing and universalizing tendencies of Republican France. This thesis explores how education was imposed and resisted through a case-study analysis of French schooling in Alsace and Algeria between 1918 and 1940. The experience in colony and metropole are examined on the same plane, in order to see how France sought to control the cultural identity of its citizens and subjects and how local populations in both locations resisted this imposition.Item Franco-British Diplomatic Relations Transformed?: The Socio-Political Impact of the Émigrés’ Presence in Britain(2013-08-19) Guenette, Salam; Alexander, R. S.Throughout early-modern history, France and Britain had been enemies on opposite sides of the so-called Second Hundred Years’ War. Nevertheless, during the Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), Britain became a haven for almost 40,000 French emigrants, and by 1814 France’s restored monarchy no longer viewed Britain as the enemy. The émigrés’ experience in Britain, its impact on long-term diplomatic ties between the two countries, and its wider repercussions for European history is the focus of my research. Did émigré diplomats knowingly follow a policy intended to foster a lasting alliance with Britain? Scholars who view the émigrés as politically impotent ignore the powerful impact French presence had on Britain’s elite. Even as early as 1793, the émigrés’ plight was an asset used by the British government in its negotiations with other European powers. My thesis will answer the aforementioned question by exploring a neglected aspect of the French experience in Great Britain: the émigrés’ social and political interactions with the British public and government and how this may have affected Franco-British diplomacy during the nineteenth century.Item Not a 'women's issue': divorce and the family as a political battleground for secularizers and Catholics from 1792 to 1816(1999) Hartley, Samantha Audrey; Alexander, R. S.This thesis explores the political ramifications of divorce legislation and its relevance to France's progressive secularization in the nineteenth century, using legislative debates, newspapers, memoirs, and pamphlet literature. In looking at arguments for and against divorce a pattern is evident, tying divorce symbolically to the social and political changes produced by the Revolution. This pattern is illustrated by a chronological examination of France's political history beginning with the introduction of Enlightenment ideas of contract theory, individual liberty, and personal happiness. These arguments pitted Republican ideals against Catholic tradition -- divorce and contractual marriage represented the secularism of the Revolution, and therefore divorce was restricted under conservative regimes such as the Consulate, Empire, and Third Republic and abolished under the Ultraroyalist chombre introuvable. The pattern of republican and liberal support of divorce, overcome by periods of social conservatism, continued w1til divorce's reintroduction under the Third Republic in 1884.Item Patriotism, internationalism, and anarchy: the anarchist response to the Boulanger Affair(2018-12-24) Cameron, Max; Alexander, R. S.In the late 1880s, the Boulanger Affair threatened to bring down the French Third Republic. The Boulangist movement, centered around General Georges Ernest Boulanger, capitalized on ultra-nationalist fervour for revenge against Germany, as well as widespread dissatisfaction with the current government among the French populace, to create a powerful mass-movement which had the potential to bring down the Third Republic. The reaction to this movement on the French Left varied. Some groups saw value in the continuation of the Third Republic and chose to ally with moderates to try and defeat Boulanger electorally. Others saw revolutionary potential in the Boulangist movement and chose to join his ranks. Much like the French left in general, reaction within the anarchist movement was not unified either. A majority of anarchists opposed the Boulangist movement through direct action but made the decision to abstain from electoral politics. Opposing this position were a minority of anarchists, who eschewed the anti-political stance and chose to oppose Boulanger at the ballot box, as they saw value in the continuation of the Third Republic. Additionally, the rise in patriotic fervour during the crisis influenced anarchist rhetoric and highlighted tensions between patriotism and internationalism in French anarchist theory.Item Redefining the Monarchiens: the failure of moderation in the French Revolution(2010-08-24T22:59:48Z) Robitaille, Mathieu; Alexander, R. S.The French Revolution continues to fascinate historians. The political culture which it is said to have spawned has recently become a particularly salient feature in its recent historiography. Many have argued that the discrepancy between the hopes that the Revolution initially generated and the destruction, war, and terror that followed was the inevitable result of this culture. Within this framework, the defeat of the constitutional proposals of the group of moderate politicians known as the Monarchiens has been portrayed as the Revolution’s missed opportunity to avoid the violence of the Terror. Their most important proposals were for a bicameral legislature and strong royal authority. My thesis questions assumptions about the ideological coherence of the five most influential proponents of this model and the inevitability of their defeat. To do this, I will analyze the pre-revolutionary political careers of these men up to the defeat of their proposals in the summer of 1789, and demonstrate that their political proposals were contingent on the political context, often changing drastically to fit the demands of circumstance.Item Romancing the nation: the reconciliation of the individual and the collective in romantic nationalism(2009-07-28T17:38:33Z) Della Zazzera, Elizabeth; Alexander, R. S.The connection between Romanticism and nationalism, like most aspects of Romanticism, is complex and manifests in diverse ways. This project seeks to examine how Romanticism in Scotland, France and Germany could emphasize individualism and nationalism simultaneously, and seeks to elucidate the ways both these concepts were understood by Romantic scholars. It argues that although the connection between Romanticism and nationalism was not necessary, Romantic sensibilities were often compatible with nationalist theory. Romanticism can thus be said to have laid the theoretical groundwork for the possibility of nationalism, by emphasizing history, imagination and the importance of the collective. However, in all those things the Romantics also focused on the importance of individuals: lauding historical heroes, the imaginative genius of the scholar, and the fulfilment of the individual through belonging to a community. It further argues that the Romantics were influenced by the Enlightenment scholars’ emphasis on the individual, but sought to move away from individualism as a universal principle toward an understanding of individualism that balanced uniqueness and belonging to a particular community. Moreover, it contends that Romantic nationalism can be distinguished from later nineteenth century integral nationalism, by its relative emphasis on the individual, diversity and cosmopolitanism, but that it contained within it elements of, and therefore perhaps the seeds for, more virulent nationalism.Item The idealised revolutionary: contemporary French politics and the symbolic importance of Maximilien Robespierre(1999) Kernaghan, Stuart John Simpson; Alexander, R. S.This thesis is an examination of the connection between images of Maximilien Robespierre and French politics that has existed for over two centuries. It will argue that Revolutionary historiography has been influenced by political trends and events in France since the Revolution of 1789. Furthermore, it will argue that during this period, contemporary French politics shaped historical representations of Robespierre. An examination of representative literature from the entire period demonstrates that the majority of Revolutionary historians have exploited Robespierre's inherent symbolic importance to construct images that would fulfil specific political or philosophical objectives. Consequently, Robespierre became a highly idealised individual whose figurative, or tropological, importance appeared to overshadow his literal importance in many instances. Finally, this thesis will suggest that as a result of these images of Robespierre, other revolutionary figures, notably his colleague Saint-Just, have been obscured.Item The purge of the Girondins: the use and abuse of violence from the September massacres to the assassination of Marat(2002) Dodds, Dawn Marija; Alexander, R. S.Looking at the work of Jean Paul Marat and Maximilien Robespierre from the September massacres of 1792 to the assassination of Marat 13 July 1793, this thesis examines the implications of putting violence at the center of analysis of the French Revolution. By focussing on the tension between violence as a force which the masses used to express themselves, while at the same time one which revolutionary leaders manipulated towards their ultimately partisan ends, this thesis demonstrates the extent to which historians have tended to treat violence as a spontaneous response to certain circumstances rather than the product of deliberate political calculation. In particular, this thesis argues that radical leaders manipulated the use of violence as a means of overcoming the barriers between the official political sphere of revolutionary institutions, and the unofficial sphere of popular street politics.Item Traitors, Harlots and Monsters: The Anti-Aristocratic Caricatures of the French Revolution(2015-09-03) Chapco, Stephen A. W.; Walshaw, Jill Maciak; Alexander, R. S.The opening of the Estates General in 1789 came at a time of momentous national crisis. France’s separate Three Estates were summoned to meet and collectively decide about how best to remedy France’s many ills. However, the initial collegial spirit between the privileged First and Second Estates and the assertive Third Estate quickly evaporated. Antipathy towards certain nobles, particularly those perceived as corrupt and debauched, quickly crystalized in 1789 into hostile attacks on the entire Second Estate, who were all labeled dangerous “aristocrats”. The rapid disempowerment of one of Europe’s strongest élites is difficult to interpret without discussing the important role of widely produced anti-noble caricatures that targeted France’s nobility. Anti-noble caricatures, ranging from the malicious to the comical, were an essential component in the rapid sidelining and demonization of the nobility. From approximately 1789-1793 anti-noble caricatures constantly degraded and demonized their targets, in unrelenting and accessible imagery, marking them out as traitorous enemies. Caricatures not only helped convince the public that nobles were not only inhuman, but so dangerous in fact, that persecution and violence became options in order to purge France of its alleged aristocratic fifth columnists.