The "truth" about the middle ages: La Revue des Deux Mondes and late nineteenth-century French medievalism

After the French defeat of the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71), scholars Fustel de Coulanges, Ludovic Vitet and Eugène Aubry-Vitet used La Revue des Deux Mondes, the leading periodical of their time, to boost patriotism. Their essays exalted the Middle Ages as the birthplace of France and called upon contemporaries to reconsider ideas about the past. They argued that discovering "the truth" about medieval France - that it was never barbaric, but always strong, independent and resilient - would speed recovery of war wounds. These intellectuals' dedication to rewriting French history sparked contemporary interest for all things medieval while creating a market for medieval scholarship.