Thèse sous la direction de M. François Poirier (Université Paris 13), 2007.

Abstract

This thesis analyses the relations and the interactions between the French and the British anarchist movements from 1880 to 1914. It seeks to counteract the prevalence of studies which reduce anarchist internationalism to polemical and inefficient formal institutions, or consider the movement in a strictly national - and therefore truncated - context.
The ideological and militant transfers between these movements are emphasised. The role and density of informal networks, and the many channels making such cross-influences possible are brought to light, especially through the impact of the French anarchist colonies living in Britain.
The importance of this Franco-British connection can be observed through the rise of anarchosyndicalist propaganda from the late 1880s to the Great War, the implementation of libertarian pedagogic ventures or international protest campaigns.
Through the seemingly marginal case of the anarchists, this transnational study also opens new vistas for a comparative study of workers’ integration in France and Britain in the last decades of the long nineteenth century. The reception of the libertarian movement also allows for a privileged insight into French and British societies at the end of the century, through the case of a stigmatised dissident group.