Abstract

Today eight Schools of Arts and Crafts are the largest source of engineers in France but they originated from a single school established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803. At the time many French were concerned that their industries lagged behind the British. What better way to modernize industry than to train boys and young men in a more rational approach to production and send them out to lead industrial change? Historians have left a pessimistic view of the school's first quarter century, but my reading of the evidence, including the archives on school shops and commerce, has led me to nearly the opposite conclusion—the school of Châlons was, from 1807 to 1830, one of the most innovative and unusual schools of all time.

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