It is generally believed that liberalism everywhere enshrined the triumph of the individual, the right to choose oneself and one's form of society. This is true of Mme de Staël and Benjamin Constant, who, in opposition to Napoleon's «despotism», developed a view of the individual as a free subject judging institutions. However, this was not the case in France with the mainstream movement founded by Guizot, which tended to erase the individual in favour of the State, notables and esprit de corps. This book provides the first overview, both philosophical and historical, of French liberalism, including the all-too-often neglected liberal Catholicism...