Macmahon
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Macmahon. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
mak'ma-on' (1808-1893), a noted French soldier and statesman. He was born at Sully and died at Paris. His ancestry may be inferred from his name. He was the descendant of an Irish family that fled to France on the fall of the Stuarts. MacMahon's father rose to be a peer of France. MacMahon served in the Algerian War, and took part also in the siege of Sebastopol. He led the French division which stormed the Malakoff in 1855. During the war with Austria in 1859 he was made Duke of Magenta in recognition of gallant service on the battlefield of that name. During the Franco-Prussian War he shared the disasters which overtook the French forces. He was defeated by the Germans at Worth and surrendered a large army at Sedan. The Germans held him prisoner for a time. In 1871 he was placed in command of the French troops in Paris and suppressed the Communistic uprising. From 1873 to 1879 he was president of the French Republic. His reputation is that of a man of bravery, integrity, and patriotism.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARIE EDME PA- TRICE MAURICE DE (mäk-mä-ông), DUKE OF MAGENTA, a Marshal of France, descended from an Irish Jacobite family; born in Sully, near Autun, France, July 13, 1808. After distinguished services he won a marshal's baton and the dignity of Duke of Magenta for the decisive part he took in the battle of that name. He was nominated governor-general of Algeria in 1864. In the Franco-German War of 1870-1871 he had command of the first army corps, but was defeated at Wörth, and wounded and captured at Sedan. On the close of the war he was made commander of the army of Versailles, with which he suppressed the Commune. In 1873 he was elected president of the republic for a period of seven years. He resigned on Jan. 30, 1879. He died in Paris, Oct. 17, 1893.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare facts in Aiton's 1910 and Collier's 1921 entries still stand: MacMahon was born at Sully in 1808, took the Malakoff in 1855, was made Duke of Magenta in 1859, lost at Wörth and Sedan, crushed the Commune, and served as president from 1873 until his resignation on 30 January 1879. What has shifted is the weight given to two episodes both accounts pass over lightly. The phrase "suppressed the Communistic uprising" now carries the Bloody Week of May 1871, in which government troops under his command killed thousands of Parisians in a matter of days; and the crisis of 16 May 1877, when he dismissed a premier who held the Chamber's confidence and lost the ensuing elections, is treated by modern historians as the moment that fixed the French presidency as a weak, ceremonial office and made the cabinet answerable to parliament rather than the head of state. No French president resigned again until Charles de Gaulle in 1969.
Written for this edition, 2026.