ABSTRACT
Georges Sorel, Charles Maurras, and Maurice Barres were writing in a country with a proud cultural heritage but one which was facing new, complex, and difficult internal and external problems that seemed insoluble. The three writers illustrated the difficulty of an institutional division: the neo-Marxist attacked rationalism and liberal humanism, the disciple of Comte challenged the economic implications of the master's thought, the supporter of exuberant individualism upheld tradition. Of the three writers it is Maurras who fits most easily into a recognizable pattern, Maurras was the classic 19th century, as distinct from the modern, counter-revolutionary. Maurras was provincial in the narrowest sense, concerned with the greatness of one civilization at one time and place. Maurras, for instance, urged that the Republic was incapable of centralizing power efficiently and also of decentralizing. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in this book.
