Liberalism and Social Reform: Industrial Growth and Progressiste Politics in France, 1880-1914

This work examines the heroic spirit of French industrial capitalism prior to World War I, and the role certain industrialists played in ensuring the success and stability of the country’s economic and political order. It focuses in particular on the success of innovative manufacturers in France’s chief industrial centres, the Nord, Loire, and Lorraine, where failing industrialists were saved through the introduction of new manufacturing techniques. It was only when Socialists abandoned revolutionary aims that they were able to successfully compete against their progressiste rivals. Democratic politics forced the evolution of political life away from confrontation between capitalist and anti-capitalist parties.