Review of Theodore Zeldin's The Political System of Napoleon III. Theodore Zeldin. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1958.

The Political System of Napoleon III. Theodore Zeldin. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1958.         In Theodore Zeldin's The Political System of Napoleon III, the author asks two questions crucial in the search for an explanation of Napoleon III's perplexing Second Empire. The first question asks what was the real basis of Louis Napoleon power? And secondly, why did this authoritarian ruler allow his empire to evolve into a liberal empire? Historians have for a long time …

…will never happen. Therefore we are forced to accept the mystery. Attempts to rationalize and speculate it are fine, but it is of this reader's opinion that no one can claim they actually have resolved the issue. To this reader the biggest contribution the author has made to the study of the Second Empire was the uncovering of the family documents from Paris and the countryside. Surely more research as a result will come shedding