The French Revolution and the French Popular Classes

The French popular classes are the sort of revolutionary yeast, if you like, of radical change in the 19th century. Napoleon III and then the Third Republic reoccupy central Paris and make it fit for the bourgeoisie to live in. And as he's doing that, what he's doing is, I won't say it's gentrifying, because that's far too gentle and moderate to the term. He's basically modernizing it in the sort of epic apocal way, and driving out the popular classes from the center of Paris. By the 20th century, famously, people talk about in political terms, when everyone's got the vote, they sayParis is pretty conservative politically,