A POLITICIAN WHO EMERGES IN 1830
[…] One could, I agree, work more quickly, but I have such respect for the mission of history that the fear of announcing a fact that is inaccurate fills me with a kind of confusion. Then I cannot rest till I have been able to prove the object of my doubt. I seek it wherever it may be, and do not stop until I have found it, or come to the certainty that it does not exist.
In that case [... ] I state my intimate conviction, but always with the extreme fear of error, for I find that when one has undertaken to tell the truth of great events, there is nothing worse [... ] than to disguise by weakness, to alter by passion, and to lie, consciously or not, to one's own time and to times to come."
But he also...
AND IS CENTRAL TO FRENCH POLITICS
UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1877
An appalling figure who
in some ways deserves respect
-- A balanced biography:
Thiers, bourgeois and revolutionary by Georges Valence
 |
Portrait of Adolphe Thiers by Nadar, between 1867-1877 / zoom |
An erudite, lively, honest historian,
his books on
John Law, the Revolution and Napoleon
are still read
"After 15 years of arduous work I have just finished
History of the Consulate and Empire"
[…] One could, I agree, work more quickly, but I have such respect for the mission of history that the fear of announcing a fact that is inaccurate fills me with a kind of confusion. Then I cannot rest till I have been able to prove the object of my doubt. I seek it wherever it may be, and do not stop until I have found it, or come to the certainty that it does not exist.
In that case [... ] I state my intimate conviction, but always with the extreme fear of error, for I find that when one has undertaken to tell the truth of great events, there is nothing worse [... ] than to disguise by weakness, to alter by passion, and to lie, consciously or not, to one's own time and to times to come."
He overcomes obstacles
that should have been crippling.
At a time when...
- Family origins are fundamental, his family is not only indigent, but dishonored: His father blackmails him and his brother is a known deserter and agent provocateur. He helps both.
- Physical presence and oratory are also essentiel but Theirs is so short that his legs barely encircle a horse, while at the Assembly his disagreeably high-pitched voice can hardly be heard.
- Urbanity is indispensable, he shows off his newly-acquired wealth like the parvenu he is.
Work, intelligence
and Marseilles blarney
explain his success
- He founds the first Opposition newspaper at the end of the 1820's, writes the call that launches the 1830 Revolution, persuades Louis-Philippe to accede to the throne and holds the highest positions during his reign.
- As head of the conservative opposition he is jailed after Napoleon III's coup of 1851, and for most of the Second Empire (1851-1870) is retired. He returns to politics as a deputy (in 1868) and is one of the few to oppose the Franco-Prussian war (in July 1870).
- That lucidity leads to his heading the Third Republic when the Empire implodes (in September 1870). He becomes its President, and holds that position until his death.
- Commands the brutal repression of a silk workers' revolt in Lyons, France's second largest city (in 1834)
"Let them fire the first shot. Then let them have it." Six hundred people are killed, almost all workers.
- Orders the crushing of the Parisian revolt that follows, so enthusiastically that he accompanies the troops himself
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- Tacitly encourages the massacre of Communards (in 1871)
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- Inspires this epitaph
"O death! Wait a minute more!"
Thiers leads or contributes to
all the massacres of his day except that
all the massacres of his day except that
when he is in prison.
End of this section.
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