It is the purpose of this study to provide an extensive account of Leon Harmel, one that incorporates the excellent scholarly material that has come to light since 1974 while also attempting to delve into the heart and soul of the man.
Whenever possible, Harmel speaks directly through extant correspondence, speeches, and publications. But this study also attempts to determine whether Harmel's thoughts and actions merely reflected his epoch and culture or if he was truly distinctive. In addition to the general texts on the social Catholic and Christian democratic movements used by Trimouille, this study employs such new standard works as those by John McManners, Paul Misner, Parker Thomas Moon, and Alec R. Vidler. It also introduces numerous other scholarly works by American, British, and French scholars who have contributed enormously to an understanding of the world of Leon Harmel.
This book is divided into five chapters, with each chapter unfolding another forum from which Harmel lived out his developing social program. Chapter 1 introduces Leon Harmel on a personal level. Learning about his family and the early years of Harmel's life leads naturally to an understanding of his philosophy and social vision. It also explains his talent for entrepreneurship. Chapter 2 focuses on Val-des-Bois. It is here that Harmel operated as patron of the family business and as social reformer. Expanding the factory reform started by his father, he successfully turned the spinning mill into a Christian corporation and one that, for the most part, operated with a profit. Chapter 3 tests Harmel outside terra firma, that is, outside the familiar, outside his family and family business. Provocateur amid fellow factory owners and heir to a rich legacy of French social reform, he soon made a distinctive mark in nineteenth-century social Catholicism. Not surprisingly, he caught the eye of the pope. As Leo XIII prepared his great encyclical on labor, Rerum Nouarum, he was inspired by what had occurred at Val-des-Bois. But the worker pilgrimages propelled the pope into action. Chapter 4 delves into the French worker pilgrimages, which put to use Harmel's exceptional organizational talents, displayed the religiosity of the male worker, and uncovered the political nature of the pilgrimages to Rome. The pilgrimages put Léon Harmel on the European stage too. Not above using theatrical gimmicks or the press to their advantage, both entrepreneur and pope demonstrated their finesse in using modern media techniques to achieve religious and political goals. Success bred suspicion, however, especially among Italian nationalists, and an incident at the Pantheon in Rome during the 1891 pilgrimage halted ambitions and turned Harmel in yet another direction. Chapter 5 documents Harmel's role in the founding of Christian democracy in France, a movement that absorbed time and energy in the waning years of his life. The Conclusion documents his rich legacy as entrepreneur and as social reformer, assuring him a permanent place in the social history of France as well as in the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
