The French Idea of History"A fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat the champion of the hardest, narrowest, and most inflexible dogmatism part learned doctor, part inquisitor, part executioner." Thus did mile Faguet describe Joseph Marie de Maistre (17531821) in his 1899 history of nineteenth century thought. This view of the influential thinker as a reactionary has, with little variation, held sway ever since. In The French Idea of History, Carolina Armenteros recovers a very