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Prosperity and Torment in France

Prosperity and Torment in France

The Paradox of the Democratic Age

by Chantal Delsol

Translated by Andrew Kelley

Foreword by Daniel J. Mahoney

Published by: University of Notre Dame Press

Series: Catholic Ideas for a Secular World

Imprint: University of Notre Dame Press

156 Pages, 140.00 × 216.00 × 13.00 mm

Hardcover
9780268209735
Published: August 2025

£23.99

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

A philosophical and historical analysis of the paradox of French democracy that illuminates the challenges of the current democratic age.

In Prosperity and Torment in France, philosopher Chantal Delsol provides an analysis of the current state of affairs in French politics, economics, and cultural life that reveals key lessons for modern democracies around the world. She examines the seeming paradox of France as a wealthy country that provides almost unrivaled social services to its citizens at no extra cost, but one whose citizens are unsatisfied with the current state of affairs. Delsol traces this current dilemma back several hundred years, and examines the principle of the common good and its inherent tension with concepts like democracy and egalitarianism that often emphasize individualism. Likewise, Delsol emphasizes this concept also stands in contrast to the centralization of power in Paris throughout its history. In the end, Delsol notes that these historical tensions set the stage for many of the current tensions in France: secularism versus religion, economic liberalism versus the welfare state, civil service versus the private sector, and material wealth versus status.

By examining the paradox of France, Delsol brings to the forefront the challenges democracies are facing around the globe and asks the broader question of how governments should best serve their people in our contemporary world.

Foreword

Translator's Note

Introduction. French Malaise

1. Identity, History

2. Republic vs. Democracy

3. Jacobinism and Bonapartism

4. A Distant and Maternal Government

5. Status and Positions

6. The Anthropology of Defiance: Envy, Equality, and Mistrust

7. Paris and the Provinces

8. Intellectuals

9. The Right and the Left

10. The People and the Elite

11. French Secularism

12. The Present State of Religion

13. The Sense of Identity and Immigration

14. Belonging to Europe

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Chantal Delsol is professor of philosophy at the University of Marne-la-Vallée and an elected member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (Institut de France). She is the author of numerous books, including La Fin de la Chrétienté (The end of Christianity).

Andrew Kelley is professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Bradley University. He writes on twentieth-century French philosophy and has translated books from French and German philosophers.

Daniel J. Mahoney is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and professor emeritus at Assumption University.

"Chantal Delsol's incisive book takes up a perennial theme in French political and social thought, but does so in a fresh way, philosophically informed and yet brimming over with interesting observations and sharp insights."—Wilfred M. McClay, author of The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America

"This compact book informs, provokes, and gives rise to the kind of deliberation that our civilization very much needs." —Daniel J. Mahoney, author of The Persistence of the Ideological Lie

"Chantal Delsol probes the paradoxes of today's France, sighing alike at its beauty and its dysfunctions, its achievements and its discontents. Only a patriot could have written this book, for only one who loves her country could desire to know it so thoroughly. American readers will profit from Delsol's reflections—and from her example." —John M. Owen IV, author of The Ecology of Nations