Ascending Republic

The Ballooning Revival in Nineteenth-Century France

Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira

$135

Paperback

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English

MIT Press
10 June 2025

Technology: general issues

Why and how the French made the balloon into one of the quintessential symbols of late nineteenth-century modernity, and how the balloon's reinvention shaped the airplane's assimilation in the early years of aviation.

Why and how the French made the balloon into one of the quintessential symbols of late nineteenth-century modernity, and how the balloon's reinvention shaped the airplane's assimilation in the early years of aviation.

On August 27, 1783, a large crowd gathered in Paris to watch the first ascent of a hydrogen balloon. Despite the initial feverish enthusiasm, by the mid-nineteenth century the balloon remained relatively unchanged and was no longer seen as the harbinger of a new era. Yet that all changed in the last third of the century, when following the traumatic Franco-Prussian War defeat, the balloon reemerged to become the modern artifact that captured the attention of many. Through this process, the balloon became an important symbol of the fledgling Third Republic, and France established itself as the world leader in flight. In Ascending Republic, Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira tells for the first time the story of this surprising revival.

Through extensive research in the press and archives in France, the United States, and Brazil, De Oliveira argues that French civil society cultivated popular enthusiasm for flight (what historians call ""airmindedness"") decades before the advent of the airplane. Champions of French ballooning made the case that if the British Royal Navy controlled the seas and the Imperial German Army dominated the continent, then France needed to take ownership of the skies. The French appropriated this newly imagined geopolitical space through a variety of practices, from republican savants who studied the atmosphere at high altitudes to aristocrats who organized transcontinental long-distance competitions. All of this made Paris into the global capital of a thriving aeronautical culture that incorporated seemingly contradictory visions of sacrificial patriotism, aristocratic modernity, colonial anxiety, and technological cosmopolitanism.

By: Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262549806
ISBN 10: 0262549808
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments Introduction: The Old Rendered Modern Part I: Breathing New Air into the Balloon 1 A Balloon’s-Eye View of the Nineteenth Century 2 The Siege of Paris and the Balloon’s Redemption Part II The Airminded Republic 3 Martyrs Made in the Sky: Republican Aeronautical Science and Sacrificial Patriotism 4 The Belle Époque Aloft: Aristocratic Modernity and the Spectacle of Ballooning in the Press 5 Imperial Skies: Colonial Anxiety and Territorial Overstretch in Africa and Indochina 6 Making le petit Santos: Technological Cosmopolitanism and Celebrity in the Atlantic World Part III: The Soaring Republic 7 Becoming the “Winged Nation”: From Lighter-than-Air to Heavier-than-Air Flight Notes Archives and Libraries Consulted Works Cited Index

Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira is Assistant Professor of History at IE University in Madrid, Spain, and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

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Ascending Republic

The Ballooning Revival in Nineteenth-Century France

Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira

$135

Paperback

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