Want to Heal America? Look to 19th Century France

If the box office receipts of the recent film Civil War offer any indication, Americans are preoccupied with our national divisions, which only seem to grow by the day. But while futuristic — or dystopian — fiction stokes fear about our current situation, history provides examples of ways to heal the fracture. And the most hopeful parallel to our current moment comes not from American history, but rather from France in the late 19th century.