The Modern Regime, Volume 2 — Reading Companion

From Church to School: A Two-Part Architecture

The volume is divided into two books: Book Fifth on the Church and Book Sixth on Public Instruction. Each book opens with a chapter outlining Napoleon's objectives and methods, then traces the evolution of these institutions through the 19th century. The preface indicates that Taine intended to study the Church, the School, and the Family, but only the first two are completed here. The structure thus presents a parallel analysis: first the moral institution (the Church), then the intellectual one (the school). Within each, Taine moves from Napoleon's original design to later developments, creating a before-and-after contrast. This two-part architecture allows readers to compare how different spheres of society were subjected to similar centralizing forces.

Recurring Images of Control and Resistance

Throughout the excerpts, Taine employs imagery of mechanical control: Napoleon's 'machinery,' 'stranglehold on science,' and 'educational monopoly.' These terms depict institutions as systems designed to produce obedience. The preface speaks of 'dissolving sentiments' and 'general cause' changing conditions, suggesting a deterministic view. Yet the text also records resistance: the anecdote of M. Levert, a prefect who 'waged the most desperate war' with a bishop, shows that control was contested. The annotator's notes, added later, extend this imagery to modern media, calling television 'that system which allows its producers to make all mankind believe.' This layering of commentary highlights how the struggle over influence persists.

Movement Between Scales: From Napoleon to Local Anecdotes

Taine's analysis shifts between broad historical forces and specific local incidents. The chapter outlines cover Napoleon's empire-wide policies, but the text includes a detailed account of a conflict in Poitiers between a prefect and a bishop, complete with personal consequences—the prefect's wife's feelings, a daughter's death. This movement from the macro to the micro gives concreteness to abstract arguments. Similarly, the preface moves from the program of the 'Origins of Contemporary France' to the personal role of Chevrillon in arranging Taine's manuscripts. The effect is a layered narrative where large-scale institutional analysis is grounded in human-scale stories.

The Annotator's Voice: A Second Layer of Commentary

Svend Rom's annotations, marked with his initials, add a modern perspective that sometimes challenges or extends Taine's observations. For instance, Rom notes the century of 'quarrelling, even war, between Rome and Paris' after Taine's time, and speculates on what Taine would have thought of television. These interventions create a dialogue between the 19th-century text and a late-20th-century reader. The annotations also update the historical record, as when Rom describes the 1905 separation of church and state. This editorial structure invites readers to consider how Taine's analysis holds up in light of subsequent events, and to reflect on the annotator's own biases.

Readers approaching this volume should attend to the interplay between Taine's systematic argument and the concrete examples that ground it. The annotations offer a useful counterpoint, but they also introduce a later historical perspective that may not align with Taine's own views. The unfinished state of the work—the missing section on the Family—leaves the reader to consider how the patterns observed here might extend to that sphere.

That rainy afternoon, Taine’s structural notes on Napoleon’s grip over schools felt like watching iron filings align under a magnet—so orderly, so chilling. I set the book down, and my hand drifted to a slimmer volume on the postwar South, Report on the Condition of the South — Reading Notes, which shared that same quiet tension between architecture and aftermath.