![]() | The Cult of the Modern: Trans-Mediterranean France and the Construction of French Modernity Subjects: France -- Relations -- Algeria; Algeria -- Relations -- France; Algeria -- Colonization -- History -- 19th century; France -- Colonies -- Administration -- History -- 19th century; Social change -- France -- History -- 19th century; Nationalism -- France; The Cult of the Modern focuses on nineteenth-century France and Algeria and examines the role that ideas of modernity and modernization played in both national and colonial programs during the years of the Second Empire and the early Third Republic. Gavin Murray-Miller rethinks the subject by examining the idiomatic use of modernity in French cultural and political discourse. The Cult of the Modern argues that the modern French republic is a product of nineteenth-century colonialism rather than a creation of the Enlightenment or the French Revolution. This analysis contests the predominant Parisian and metropolitan contexts that have traditionally framed French modernity studies, noting the important role that colonial Algeria and the administration of Muslim subjects played in shaping understandings of modern identity and governance among nineteenth-century politicians and intellectuals. Gavin Murray-Miller is a lecturer of modern European history at Cardiff University. |
![hidden image for function call](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/1x1.png)