Roger Price taught at the University of East Anglia, 1968–93, eventually becoming Professor of European History. In 1993 he moved to Aberystwyth as Professor of History. His many other books include The French Second Republic: A Social History (1972), Revolution and Reaction: 1848 and the French Second Republic (1975), The Modernisation of Rural France: Communication Networks and Agricultural Market Structures in Nineteenth-Century France (1983), A Social History of Nineteenth-Century France (1987), The Revolutions of 1848 (1988) and A Concise History of France (1993).

• Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Rise of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: 1. President of the Republic; Part II. State and Society: 2. Napoleon III and the Bonapartist state; 3. The system of government; 4. The management of elections; 5. Preserving public order; 6. Constructing moral order; 7. Creating the conditions for prosperity; Conclusion to part II; Part III. The Rise of Opposition: 8. The context for opposition; 9. The forms of opposition (1) legitimism; 10. The forms of opposition (2) liberalism; 11. The forms of opposition (3) republicans in the aftermath of the coup d'état; 12. The forms of opposition (4) the republican revival; Conclusion to part III; Part IV. War and Revolution: 13. War and revolution; General conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.

'… a major achievement … It will surely - and deservedly - be regarded as the standard work on the 'anatomy' of a political system now receiving its due attention.' H-FRANCE