A study of major political thinkers in France from the seventeenth to the twentieth century Book

The subject of this book is the development of political ideas in France, examining the justification of Absolute Monarchy in the Seventeenth century, its rebuttal by the Eighteenth century philosophes in the name of the freedom of the individual, the reaction in turn by the nineteenth century liberals against their ideas which they considered led not to freedom but to oppression, the development in turn of socialism which perceived liberalism as promoting the freedom only of the rich and powerful few and finally a return to Monarchist ideas in the early Twentieth century as the only solution to the problems caused by the so-called sovereignty of the people. The Conclusion illustrates how many of these ideas are still echoed by French politicians in the present era of the Fifth Republic.