Republican socialism and revolution in France: La Republique of Eugène Bareste, 1848-1851

© 1999 Dr. Kathleen Edna MustafaThere is wide acknowledgment that the press was closely involved in the establishment of the French Second Republic, and that it remained a significant feature of the life of the Republic. La Republique, however, has not been analysed within the extensive historiography of the period. This thesis, then, is an analysis of a leading newspaper and its role in the Second Republic. La Republique was founded by Eugene Bareste amidst the turmoil of the February Revolution which resulted in the declaration of the French Second Republic. The newspaper appeared daily from 26 February 1848 until 2 December 1851 when it was closed down by the coup d'Etat of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Bareste was not an active member of the opposition press during the July Monarchy and, whilst several leading figures of that press became members of successive governments, Bareste did not and thereby avoided compromising his independence through being involved in the actions of any government. In fact, he refused the opportunity to stand as a candidate for the National Assembly in 1848 on the grounds that he wanted to stand apart in order to be free to pursue his self-imposed task of educating the people in the ways of 'republican socialism' and the need to develop institutions appropriate to the Republic. La Republique became the most widely read newspaper of the era with daily sales of more than 50,000 copies at its peak. At that time each copy of a newspaper was usually read by, or was read to, at least ten people and thus the paper could have been accessed by upwards of half a million readers. Due to a lack of archival material, there is no way of knowing precisely who these readers were but from the contents of the paper it appears they were the petite bourgeoisie, shopkeepers, teachers, artisans, workers in all industries, some agricultural producers and rentiers. La Republique enjoyed undoubted popularity but little other than its pages survive. It was edited by a man about whom we know little more than occasional details slipped into his writings. The thesis therefore seeks to recover a 'lost' newspaper of great importance which in its breadth and style can be seen to foreshadow the press of a later generation. As a newspaper of political opinion and information, La Republique embodied a number of common elements and strategies across its life which enabled it to survive in the face of severe repression enacted by a Presidential regime and an Assembly composed largely of notables who feared the power of the press. Bareste' s editorial skills and his business acumen were such that he kept his paper in circulation when others around him failed. His success was made possible because his republican socialism was in fact a broad church that had many distinctive nuances which corresponded to the mood of its wide readership. Thus the thesis also reveals the existence of a hitherto unacknowledged stratum of republican socialists to whom La Republique presented an acceptable alternative notion of society. This analysis marks off Bareste and his newspaper from orthodox historical interpretations and challenges elements of the historiography of the French Second Republic