A State of Social Discourse

Besides being a unique compendium of fin-de-siècle French culture and civilization, Marc Angenot's 1889 raises important issues regarding the rationale and methodology of historical reconstruction. The choice of a single year rather than a larger period, the choice of an exhaustive study of discursive possibilities, the refusal of traditional hierarchies between genres, styles, and printed sources: these are ways to create an entirely new perspective on the nineteenth century as well as new tools for research, so many significant advances that also have some limitations.