Konstantinos Chatzis, Nathalie Montel, and Antoine Picon
present a critical edition of Vues politiques et pratiques sur les travaux publics de France
(Political
and Practical Views on Public Works in France
), originally published in 1832 by engineers Gabriel Lamé, Benoît-Paul-Émile Clapeyron, and brothers Stéphane and Eugène Flachat.
Publisher's website: https://classiques-garnier.com/vues-politiques-et-pratiques-sur-les-travaux-publics-de-france.html
In 1832, four engineers published a book entitled Vues politiques et pratiques sur les travaux publics de France. Its authors, Gabriel Lamé (1795-1970), Émile Clapeyron (1799-1864), Stéphane Flachat (1800-1884), and Eugène Flachat (1802-1873), would go on to make their mark on the history of science and technology and achieve fame. While Lamé and Clapeyron contributed to mechanics and thermodynamics, Stéphane and Eugène Flachat participated in the railway revolution. Their co-authored work provides an overview of French transport infrastructure. Both a review and a program, it examines existing connections and proposes an overall plan for canals and railways to be built with a view to systematically linking technical excellence and economic profitability to the overall progress of society and its institutions, hence the combination of the words "political" and "practical" in the book's title.
Often cited by historians and geographers, the views of our four engineers are representative of a key moment in the development of transport infrastructure in France, at a time when an approach to infrastructure in terms of networks was taking shape and railways embodied the promise of a future of widespread mobility. At the same time, it is tempting to see in them the expression of underlying trends in "French-style development," such as a taste for ambitious plans sponsored by the state or the search for a balance between public intervention and private initiative that would give rise to what is known as the "mixed economy." Written by authors with links to Saint-Simonism, and at least one of whom, Stéphane Flachat, was heavily involved in this movement, which combined strongly utopian ideals with practical considerations on subjects ranging from public works to bank credit, one might wonder how much the book owes to Saint-Simonian doctrine and experience. By setting out to be both "political" and "practical," visionary and concrete, the book seems faithful to one of the most consistently reaffirmed ambitions of Saint-Simonism. At the same time, it contributes to raising with particular acuity the question of the relationship between utopia and technical and economic achievements.
Never republished, this key book has not been the subject of in-depth study either. However, the circumstances that led its authors to embark on this undertaking are just as revealing as the arguments they put forward and the projects they defend. The context in which they operate, the existing infrastructure to which they refer, and the foreign examples they use to support their proposals provide a better understanding of the genesis of a number of key French urban planning projects.
This critical edition aims to fill that gap. An extensive introduction first sheds light on the contrasting personalities and trajectories of the four authors of Vues politiques et pratiques, as well as their respective contributions to the work. Placing the latter in the context of the technical, economic, and political debates of the early years of the July Monarchy, marked by recurring tension between liberalism and authoritarianism, it reveals the very special position occupied by a book that seeks to reconcile private initiative with the coordinating role of the public works administration.
This critical edition then provides a series of insights into the text by Lamé, Clapeyron, and the Flachat brothers, offering details on the men and works mentioned, as well as the technical innovations and legal structures referred to, by means of notes designed to enlighten the reader without hindering their reading. A bibliography of the works cited in Vues politiques et pratiques sur les travaux publics de France, a set of maps showing the canals and railways that have been built or are planned, and finally a list of sources and references complete this edition.
Interpretations of Lamé, Clapeyron, and des Flachat's book generally oscillate between emphasizing the concrete nature of the proposals it contains, which are landmarks in the history of French transport infrastructure and territorial planning, and insisting that it is one of the emblematic works of Saint-Simonism. What is the truth? Should Vues politiques et pratiques really be considered a product of the Saint-Simonian movement? This critical edition has been produced with the aim of providing answers to these questions, or more precisely, of providing readers with all the information they need to form their own opinion. It is based on original research carried out in French and foreign archives, which sheds new light on a work that is both famous and little known.
Specialists in the history of science and technology will find many reasons to take an interest in this critical edition. It provides useful details on the careers of Lamé, Clapeyron, and the Flachat brothers, whose differences prove to be just as illuminating as their shared interests. While Lamé and Clapeyron came from the École Polytechnique, which trained state engineers—both were members of the Corps des Mines—the Flachat brothers embodied the rising figure of the civil engineer working in a primarily private setting. The Russian adventure of the former, who taught and built in Saint Petersburg from 1820 to 1831, had no equivalent among the latter. Although they had different relationships with science, they nevertheless came together around a common interest in canals and railways. The introduction by Kostas Chatzis, Nathalie Montel, and Antoine Picon reveals in particular the links between the publication of the work and a railway project between Paris and Rouen, itself the successor to a canal project between these two cities. Above all, it sheds light on the complex relationship between canals and railways, as well as the technical and economic debates surrounding them.
For historians of urban planning and geographers, Les Vues politiques et pratiques sur les travaux publics de France is even more important. It provides a better understanding of the state of transport routes in France on the eve of the transformations brought about by the railroad. The overall project they present is also part of the emergence of the concept of a territorial network, which would have a lasting impact on territorial and urban planning practices. It is the modern French territory, structured by major infrastructure networks, that the four authors of Vues politiques et pratiques help to outline.
In concrete terms, the book proposes the establishment of a national transport system combining road, canal, and rail networks. This general transport infrastructure plan is characterized by being both multimodal and hierarchical: it envisages the digging of canals and the construction of railways as complementary and links their different uses, foremost among which are passenger and freight traffic. The route of the new transport links takes into account both the physical geography of the country and the location of mineral resources and seaports. The need to create docks and warehouses, similar to those in England, is also emphasized, as these new facilities are an integral part of this vast public works plan designed to open up France's regions. Estimated at two billion francs and scheduled to be completed in ten years, this ambitious program of major works is also considered an investment plan, likely to serve as a stimulus for the French economy, which was in decline in the early years of the July Monarchy.
Beyond these specialized interests, Vues politiques et pratiques is also likely to appeal to a much wider readership interested in the genesis of modern France as a nation-state. In his 2013 book, The Birth of Territory, devoted to the origins of modern territorial concepts, British political scientist and geographer Stuart Elden gives only marginal attention to communication routes. However, these play an essential role in many countries, starting with France, whether in contributing to the emergence of national markets or facilitating the mobility of individuals and, by the same token, their sense of belonging to a community much larger than the parishes, countries, and regions that had long prevailed over vague and abstract national identities. In the case of France, roads and railways contributed powerfully to the "end of the terroirs" highlighted by the American historian Eugen Weber in his eponymous book, which took full effect in the last decades of the 19th century.
However, the materiality of the transformations brought about by public works and communication routes, their "positive" nature, to use an expression that was in vogue during the first half of the 19th century, should not obscure the fact that the nations whose emergence they facilitated remained, to a large extent, "imagined communities," as the Anglo-Irish political scientist Benedict Anderson rightly pointed out. According to Anderson, public works and transport links contribute to the construction of the collective imagination that constitutes national identities. They are themselves inseparable from a set of representations that can be traced back in history.
While set in the context of the early years of the July Monarchy, the Vues politiques et pratiques refer to the much broader undertaking of constructing a national identity corresponding to a specific territory. Once again, we may question the utopian nature of the overall plan they propose. It amounts to the same thing as questioning "the reality of utopia," to use the apt expression coined by historian Michèle Riot-Sarcey.
Whether exploring the origins of modern France, reflecting on the relationship between planning and private enterprise, or questioning the ability of utopia to permeate very concrete efforts to transform the world, Les Vues politiques et pratiques resonates with many contemporary debates.