The Origins of the French Nationalist Movement, 1886-1914

French politics of the Third Republic rarely conformed to expectations. Among the tangled mass of alliances, cooperation, competition, and personal attachments that made up right-wing politics at the turn of the twentieth century, the Nationalists stood as the most elusive. A constantly metamorphosing band of malcontents, the supposedly conservative Nationalists proudly proclaimed themselves
socialists
and
revolutionaries.
This narrative history explores the emergence of the Nationalist right in France and explains why the movement united diverse political interests into a militant campaign to wrest control of France from the democratic republicans who were attempting to stabilize the country after a century of political volatility. Analysis of pamphlets, leaflets, speeches, posters, songs, and newspaper articles reveals that Nationalist agitation against the Third Republic posed a real and dangerous threat, a threat that dissipated only when their goals were adopted by more moderate competing groups.