ABSTRACT
This chapter is a study of the major historiographical assessments of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte and the Second Empire. It begins with an analysis of the original “black legend,” first popularized by Victor Hugo, who viewed Louis-Napoleon as a retrograde step, a dictatorial anomaly in the course of historical progress. The study looks at the development of this “black legend” in nineteenth-century France, Britain, and Germany before seeking to understand subsequent revisionism that focused on the economic policy, personality, and ideology of Louis-Napoleon. It concludes with an overview of new scholarly interest in Louis-Napoleon and the Second Empire as a fundamental part of the histories of French imperialism and democratic practice.
