Alexandra Paulin-Booth
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197266977
- eISBN:
- 9780191955488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266977.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Ideas of the French present were challenged and reframed through colonial discourse. This posed challenging new questions about whose present was being promoted by French political culture; where ...
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Ideas of the French present were challenged and reframed through colonial discourse. This posed challenging new questions about whose present was being promoted by French political culture; where that present was located; and who should be governed by it. Drawing in part on Johannes Fabian’s critique of anthropology, this essay sees imperialism as a classic test for scholars concerned with understanding how different temporalities may coexist and even clash. Because, for older generations of anthropologists, the observer was naturally assumed to inhabit a different time, there exists a question at the heart of any discussion about the clashing of temporalities within imperial relationships that points to the plurality of time and the constant clash of perspective through different experiences of the present. Colonial administrators often remarked on the differing role of history in the present-times of different parts of the French Empire. France’s civilising mission was upset, on a daily basis, by the difference in present experience as it was reflected in social patterns and working habits. Administrators found that in practice, the path to the European present was full of detours. Ultimately, for leading politicians and colonial administrators, the French Empire remained a symbol of the future destiny of modern French progress; yet across the central swathe of political opinion from which these politicians came, there remained a belief in understanding and administering the colonial present, closer to home and closer to the ‘humanity’ which they believed the Empire to be promoting.Less
Ideas of the French present were challenged and reframed through colonial discourse. This posed challenging new questions about whose present was being promoted by French political culture; where that present was located; and who should be governed by it. Drawing in part on Johannes Fabian’s critique of anthropology, this essay sees imperialism as a classic test for scholars concerned with understanding how different temporalities may coexist and even clash. Because, for older generations of anthropologists, the observer was naturally assumed to inhabit a different time, there exists a question at the heart of any discussion about the clashing of temporalities within imperial relationships that points to the plurality of time and the constant clash of perspective through different experiences of the present. Colonial administrators often remarked on the differing role of history in the present-times of different parts of the French Empire. France’s civilising mission was upset, on a daily basis, by the difference in present experience as it was reflected in social patterns and working habits. Administrators found that in practice, the path to the European present was full of detours. Ultimately, for leading politicians and colonial administrators, the French Empire remained a symbol of the future destiny of modern French progress; yet across the central swathe of political opinion from which these politicians came, there remained a belief in understanding and administering the colonial present, closer to home and closer to the ‘humanity’ which they believed the Empire to be promoting.
J. P. Daughton
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195305302
- eISBN:
- 9780199866991
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305302.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Between 1880 and 1914, tens of thousands of men and women left France for distant religious missions, driven by the desire to spread the word of Jesus Christ, combat Satan, and convert the world's ...
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Between 1880 and 1914, tens of thousands of men and women left France for distant religious missions, driven by the desire to spread the word of Jesus Christ, combat Satan, and convert the world's pagans to Catholicism. But they were not the only ones with eyes fixed on foreign shores. Just as the Catholic missionary movement reached its apex, the young, staunchly secular Third Republic launched the most aggressive campaign of colonial expansion in French history. Missionaries and republicans abroad knew they had much to gain from working together, but their starkly different motivations regularly led them to view one another with resentment, distrust, and even fear. This book tells the story of how troubled relations between Catholic missionaries and a host of republican critics shaped colonial policies, Catholic perspectives, and domestic French politics in the tumultuous decades before the First World War. With case studies on Indochina, Polynesia, and Madagascar, this book challenges the long-held view that French colonizing and “civilizing” goals were shaped by a distinctly secular republican ideology built on Enlightenment ideals. By exploring the experiences of Catholic missionaries, one of the largest groups of French men and women working abroad, the book argues that colonial policies were regularly wrought in the fires of religious discord — discord which indigenous communities exploited in responding to colonial rule.Less
Between 1880 and 1914, tens of thousands of men and women left France for distant religious missions, driven by the desire to spread the word of Jesus Christ, combat Satan, and convert the world's pagans to Catholicism. But they were not the only ones with eyes fixed on foreign shores. Just as the Catholic missionary movement reached its apex, the young, staunchly secular Third Republic launched the most aggressive campaign of colonial expansion in French history. Missionaries and republicans abroad knew they had much to gain from working together, but their starkly different motivations regularly led them to view one another with resentment, distrust, and even fear. This book tells the story of how troubled relations between Catholic missionaries and a host of republican critics shaped colonial policies, Catholic perspectives, and domestic French politics in the tumultuous decades before the First World War. With case studies on Indochina, Polynesia, and Madagascar, this book challenges the long-held view that French colonizing and “civilizing” goals were shaped by a distinctly secular republican ideology built on Enlightenment ideals. By exploring the experiences of Catholic missionaries, one of the largest groups of French men and women working abroad, the book argues that colonial policies were regularly wrought in the fires of religious discord — discord which indigenous communities exploited in responding to colonial rule.
Matt K. Matsuda
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195162950
- eISBN:
- 9780199867660
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162950.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book presents a broad ranging survey of French colonial engagements in the Pacific and Asian worlds of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Multiple studies, each in a different territory, examine ...
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This book presents a broad ranging survey of French colonial engagements in the Pacific and Asian worlds of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Multiple studies, each in a different territory, examine French ideas of imperialism as they become manifested through religion, nationalist and patriotic fervour, tropical fantasy, literary and artistic creation, or colonial match-making to shape a distinctly Gallic “Empire of Love” in the Pacific. Successive chapters examine contested colonial sites where the French were present in Tahiti, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna, with analyses of encounter and conflict in France, Panama, Indochina, and Japan. Each chapter focuses on particular Islander, Asian, and French protagonists, from Kanak warriors and Tahitian monarchs, to French penal colony prisoners and Japanese courtesans as they negotiate power relations tied to emotions. All of the chapters are linked together by the politics and writings of the famed naval captain and novelist Pierre Loti.Less
This book presents a broad ranging survey of French colonial engagements in the Pacific and Asian worlds of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Multiple studies, each in a different territory, examine French ideas of imperialism as they become manifested through religion, nationalist and patriotic fervour, tropical fantasy, literary and artistic creation, or colonial match-making to shape a distinctly Gallic “Empire of Love” in the Pacific. Successive chapters examine contested colonial sites where the French were present in Tahiti, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna, with analyses of encounter and conflict in France, Panama, Indochina, and Japan. Each chapter focuses on particular Islander, Asian, and French protagonists, from Kanak warriors and Tahitian monarchs, to French penal colony prisoners and Japanese courtesans as they negotiate power relations tied to emotions. All of the chapters are linked together by the politics and writings of the famed naval captain and novelist Pierre Loti.
Philip T. Hoffman, Gilles Postel-Vinay, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691182179
- eISBN:
- 9780691185057
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691182179.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
Prevailing wisdom dictates that without banks countries would be mired in poverty. Yet somehow much of Europe managed to grow rich long before the diffusion of banks. This book draws on centuries of ...
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Prevailing wisdom dictates that without banks countries would be mired in poverty. Yet somehow much of Europe managed to grow rich long before the diffusion of banks. This book draws on centuries of loan data from France to reveal how credit abounded well before banks opened their doors. The book shows how a vast system of shadow credit enabled nearly a third of French families to borrow in 1740, and by 1840 funded as much mortgage debt as the American banking system of the 1950s. The book traces how this extensive private network outcompeted banks and thrived prior to World War I—not just in France but in Britain, Germany, and the United States—until killed off by government intervention after 1918. Overturning common assumptions about banks and economic growth, the book paints a revealing picture of an until-now hidden market of thousands of peer-to-peer loans made possible by a network of brokers who matched lenders with borrowers and certified the borrowers' creditworthiness. The book challenges widespread misperceptions about French economic history, such as the notion that banks proliferated slowly, and the idea that financial innovation was hobbled by French law. By documenting how intermediaries in the shadow credit market devised effective financial instruments, this compelling book provides new insights into how countries can develop and thrive today.Less
Prevailing wisdom dictates that without banks countries would be mired in poverty. Yet somehow much of Europe managed to grow rich long before the diffusion of banks. This book draws on centuries of loan data from France to reveal how credit abounded well before banks opened their doors. The book shows how a vast system of shadow credit enabled nearly a third of French families to borrow in 1740, and by 1840 funded as much mortgage debt as the American banking system of the 1950s. The book traces how this extensive private network outcompeted banks and thrived prior to World War I—not just in France but in Britain, Germany, and the United States—until killed off by government intervention after 1918. Overturning common assumptions about banks and economic growth, the book paints a revealing picture of an until-now hidden market of thousands of peer-to-peer loans made possible by a network of brokers who matched lenders with borrowers and certified the borrowers' creditworthiness. The book challenges widespread misperceptions about French economic history, such as the notion that banks proliferated slowly, and the idea that financial innovation was hobbled by French law. By documenting how intermediaries in the shadow credit market devised effective financial instruments, this compelling book provides new insights into how countries can develop and thrive today.
Theodore Zeldin
- Published in print:
- 1977
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198221258
- eISBN:
- 9780191678424
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221258.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book is a history of the French, covering the period 1848–1945, which tries to explain their idiosyncrasies, enthusiasms, and prejudices. It goes beyond the recital of events to investigate ...
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This book is a history of the French, covering the period 1848–1945, which tries to explain their idiosyncrasies, enthusiasms, and prejudices. It goes beyond the recital of events to investigate their attitudes and behaviour over an unusually wide range of activities. The first part scrutinizes the peculiar way of thinking and of talking adopted by the French, their powerful sense of national identity, their ambivalent feelings about foreigners. It shows what it meant to be a Breton or a Provencal, an Alsation or an Auvergnat. The second part analyses French taste and the role of the artist. It enquires into the quality of life, the French view of happiness, friendship and comfort, humour, reactions to scientific progress, compromises with corruption and superstition. This survey is a major reinterpretation of France's achievement as a nation and of the individual experience of the French. It has taken its place as one of the great works of scholarship on modern France.Less
This book is a history of the French, covering the period 1848–1945, which tries to explain their idiosyncrasies, enthusiasms, and prejudices. It goes beyond the recital of events to investigate their attitudes and behaviour over an unusually wide range of activities. The first part scrutinizes the peculiar way of thinking and of talking adopted by the French, their powerful sense of national identity, their ambivalent feelings about foreigners. It shows what it meant to be a Breton or a Provencal, an Alsation or an Auvergnat. The second part analyses French taste and the role of the artist. It enquires into the quality of life, the French view of happiness, friendship and comfort, humour, reactions to scientific progress, compromises with corruption and superstition. This survey is a major reinterpretation of France's achievement as a nation and of the individual experience of the French. It has taken its place as one of the great works of scholarship on modern France.
Tom Stammers
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197266977
- eISBN:
- 9780191955488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266977.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Around 1900, Paris saw the advent of a new art of collecting that re-evaluated the contemporary detritus of everyday life. Eduard Fuchs was hungry for the unusual and the uncanonic. He sought to ...
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Around 1900, Paris saw the advent of a new art of collecting that re-evaluated the contemporary detritus of everyday life. Eduard Fuchs was hungry for the unusual and the uncanonic. He sought to privilege an art that could reveal the rich complexity of society. A ‘petite histoire’ implied the overturning of traditional hierarchies of artistic or historical value, and the recovering of the varied life of the present. A vogue emerged among a new community of art-lovers to treasure the transient and everyday things that were in danger of being swept away in the constant hussle of modern urban life. The Société historique, archéologique et artistique de Vieux Papier, founded in 1900, epitomised this trend, prizing the print culture of the everyday. Amateur societies grew up that celebrated the mass production of imagery and explored changes in social awareness of the artefacts of modern life, in the bombardment of the senses that ensued when, for example in 1889, more than 600,000 posters covered Paris. The material culture of the passing moment was now being recognised as characteristic of the modern experience, and fragile though they were, those ephemeral traces of quotidian culture had begun to find their curators and their historians.Less
Around 1900, Paris saw the advent of a new art of collecting that re-evaluated the contemporary detritus of everyday life. Eduard Fuchs was hungry for the unusual and the uncanonic. He sought to privilege an art that could reveal the rich complexity of society. A ‘petite histoire’ implied the overturning of traditional hierarchies of artistic or historical value, and the recovering of the varied life of the present. A vogue emerged among a new community of art-lovers to treasure the transient and everyday things that were in danger of being swept away in the constant hussle of modern urban life. The Société historique, archéologique et artistique de Vieux Papier, founded in 1900, epitomised this trend, prizing the print culture of the everyday. Amateur societies grew up that celebrated the mass production of imagery and explored changes in social awareness of the artefacts of modern life, in the bombardment of the senses that ensued when, for example in 1889, more than 600,000 posters covered Paris. The material culture of the passing moment was now being recognised as characteristic of the modern experience, and fragile though they were, those ephemeral traces of quotidian culture had begun to find their curators and their historians.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270034
- eISBN:
- 9780191600685
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270038.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This study of the Catholic Church and religious life in eighteenth‐century France seeks to ‘recapture the atmosphere of the times, and to appreciate the beliefs, aspirations, hopes, and fears of four ...
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This study of the Catholic Church and religious life in eighteenth‐century France seeks to ‘recapture the atmosphere of the times, and to appreciate the beliefs, aspirations, hopes, and fears of four generations. This first volume deals with the question of Church and State, including the alliance between the clerical and secular powers, the wealth of the Church, and the general assemblies of the clergy and clerical taxation, and secondly with the religious establishment, meaning not only the higher clergy, cathedral chapters, and the monastic orders, but also the ordinary curés, the parish structure, and the mass of lower and marginal clerics. It shows how the constant pressure of worldly interests influenced religious vocations and allegiance among the clergy and laity because of the Gallican Church's close integration into the social order. The lifestyle of the clergy is evoked from the aristocratic bishops at the summit of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to the humblest and poorest of the religious orders, male and female. The motives and vocations of all sections of the clergy are analysed through individual portraits and discussion of their social actions, e.g. in education and caring for the sick and poor. A major theme emerging from the wide‐ranging examination of the relationship between the clergy and the rest of society is how the archaic structures of the Gallican Church and the ancien régime slowed down all pastoral initiatives meant to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing social and intellectual environment. Diocesan and parish organizations handicapped responses to changes in population; the complex regulations governing benefices put a premium on influence and opportunism; and most reforming schemes in monasteries and convents were rendered ineffective by the rules governing religious orders. Similarly, the growth of the Enlightenment critique of established religion runs like a leitmotif through all aspects of the study. Nevertheless, the discussion avoids abusive generalizations, views the dilemmas facing the clergy with sympathy, and pays due tribute to genuine religious vocations and how people sincerely pursued useful work in the world.Less
This study of the Catholic Church and religious life in eighteenth‐century France seeks to ‘recapture the atmosphere of the times, and to appreciate the beliefs, aspirations, hopes, and fears of four generations. This first volume deals with the question of Church and State, including the alliance between the clerical and secular powers, the wealth of the Church, and the general assemblies of the clergy and clerical taxation, and secondly with the religious establishment, meaning not only the higher clergy, cathedral chapters, and the monastic orders, but also the ordinary curés, the parish structure, and the mass of lower and marginal clerics. It shows how the constant pressure of worldly interests influenced religious vocations and allegiance among the clergy and laity because of the Gallican Church's close integration into the social order. The lifestyle of the clergy is evoked from the aristocratic bishops at the summit of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to the humblest and poorest of the religious orders, male and female. The motives and vocations of all sections of the clergy are analysed through individual portraits and discussion of their social actions, e.g. in education and caring for the sick and poor. A major theme emerging from the wide‐ranging examination of the relationship between the clergy and the rest of society is how the archaic structures of the Gallican Church and the ancien régime slowed down all pastoral initiatives meant to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing social and intellectual environment. Diocesan and parish organizations handicapped responses to changes in population; the complex regulations governing benefices put a premium on influence and opportunism; and most reforming schemes in monasteries and convents were rendered ineffective by the rules governing religious orders. Similarly, the growth of the Enlightenment critique of established religion runs like a leitmotif through all aspects of the study. Nevertheless, the discussion avoids abusive generalizations, views the dilemmas facing the clergy with sympathy, and pays due tribute to genuine religious vocations and how people sincerely pursued useful work in the world.
Daniel Huws
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263020
- eISBN:
- 9780191734199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263020.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Edmund Fryde liked to dwell on the quirks of fate. It was a game. He liked to explain how by some round-about chain of causation you, his friend, came to be where you were because of some long-past ...
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Edmund Fryde liked to dwell on the quirks of fate. It was a game. He liked to explain how by some round-about chain of causation you, his friend, came to be where you were because of some long-past chance action on his part. That Edmund himself, the gifted Jewish boy of cosmopolitan upbringing from Warsaw, should have spent over fifty years of his life in Aberystwyth, resigned to having been stranded there and, in his later years, increasingly content with his fate, was not to be predicted. For much of his time at Aberystwyth he was active in the affairs of the College, as a member of the Senate, on the Finance Committee, the Library Committee, acting as secretary of the Staff House. Edmund was also an inspirational teacher. In the lecture theatre, as in conversation, he had a remarkable ability to bring characters to life. His lectures on subjects outside his specialities, subjects upon which he never wrote, were as gripping as any. Apart from art, these included 18th-century French history — Edmund was in essence a child of the Enlightenment — and 19th- and 20th-century Russian history.Less
Edmund Fryde liked to dwell on the quirks of fate. It was a game. He liked to explain how by some round-about chain of causation you, his friend, came to be where you were because of some long-past chance action on his part. That Edmund himself, the gifted Jewish boy of cosmopolitan upbringing from Warsaw, should have spent over fifty years of his life in Aberystwyth, resigned to having been stranded there and, in his later years, increasingly content with his fate, was not to be predicted. For much of his time at Aberystwyth he was active in the affairs of the College, as a member of the Senate, on the Finance Committee, the Library Committee, acting as secretary of the Staff House. Edmund was also an inspirational teacher. In the lecture theatre, as in conversation, he had a remarkable ability to bring characters to life. His lectures on subjects outside his specialities, subjects upon which he never wrote, were as gripping as any. Apart from art, these included 18th-century French history — Edmund was in essence a child of the Enlightenment — and 19th- and 20th-century Russian history.
Julian Wright
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197266977
- eISBN:
- 9780191955488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266977.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Jean Jaurès made it a personal mission to inhabit the present of political debate with his own physical persona, and the drama of his speeches, especially in the French lower house of parliament was ...
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Jean Jaurès made it a personal mission to inhabit the present of political debate with his own physical persona, and the drama of his speeches, especially in the French lower house of parliament was self-conscious. Jaurès argued that democracy should provide the basis for social change in the present. No longer was it necessary to dream of utopias and plan secretively for future revolution. The socialist present as he saw it was an open, extrovert experience of lively argument, inspiring speeches and real physical commitment. The physicality of Jaurès’ presence within democratic argument was never more dramatically revealed than in the visceral shock of his assassination, felt as a crushing blow to the body politic, on the eve of the First World War. But his commitment to democratic ‘presence’ also shaped political reporting and commentary in his own day. Through his stubbornly forensic reading of the reports of great crimes and scandals, he would force his auditors to follow him through the precise process of recognizing, day by day and minute by minute, the evidence of violence against oppressed minorities. It was as though Jaurès understood that social redemption could only be attained through the paying of deep individual attention in and to the present.Less
Jean Jaurès made it a personal mission to inhabit the present of political debate with his own physical persona, and the drama of his speeches, especially in the French lower house of parliament was self-conscious. Jaurès argued that democracy should provide the basis for social change in the present. No longer was it necessary to dream of utopias and plan secretively for future revolution. The socialist present as he saw it was an open, extrovert experience of lively argument, inspiring speeches and real physical commitment. The physicality of Jaurès’ presence within democratic argument was never more dramatically revealed than in the visceral shock of his assassination, felt as a crushing blow to the body politic, on the eve of the First World War. But his commitment to democratic ‘presence’ also shaped political reporting and commentary in his own day. Through his stubbornly forensic reading of the reports of great crimes and scandals, he would force his auditors to follow him through the precise process of recognizing, day by day and minute by minute, the evidence of violence against oppressed minorities. It was as though Jaurès understood that social redemption could only be attained through the paying of deep individual attention in and to the present.
Theodore Zeldin
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198221777
- eISBN:
- 9780191678493
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221777.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the aims of this book; one of which is to investigate the image of the French as thinking themselves as being, above all else, intelligent and to assess the place that ...
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This chapter discusses the aims of this book; one of which is to investigate the image of the French as thinking themselves as being, above all else, intelligent and to assess the place that intelligence, or reason, or ideas have in French life, to explain how intellectuals came to be held in such exceptionally high esteem, and to show the consequences this has had. This chapter further reveals that Modern French history can be usually interpreted in one of two ways: the more traditional approach and an alternative approach. The book's aim is that this may serve to throw some light on the question of how the French differed from other nations in this period. The method employed for this study is analytical in the sense that the book tries to disentangle the different elements and aspects of French life, and to study each independently and look at its inter-relationships. The book further aims for generalizations traditionally made about France to become, as it were, loose. In other words that it will be possible to see how they were invented, and by whom, and what they represent and what they conceal.Less
This chapter discusses the aims of this book; one of which is to investigate the image of the French as thinking themselves as being, above all else, intelligent and to assess the place that intelligence, or reason, or ideas have in French life, to explain how intellectuals came to be held in such exceptionally high esteem, and to show the consequences this has had. This chapter further reveals that Modern French history can be usually interpreted in one of two ways: the more traditional approach and an alternative approach. The book's aim is that this may serve to throw some light on the question of how the French differed from other nations in this period. The method employed for this study is analytical in the sense that the book tries to disentangle the different elements and aspects of French life, and to study each independently and look at its inter-relationships. The book further aims for generalizations traditionally made about France to become, as it were, loose. In other words that it will be possible to see how they were invented, and by whom, and what they represent and what they conceal.
PETER McPHEE
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202257
- eISBN:
- 9780191675249
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202257.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book seeks to do three things; first, to formulate a cohesive national history of rural politics during a critical period, while respecting the specificities of regional structures and ...
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This book seeks to do three things; first, to formulate a cohesive national history of rural politics during a critical period, while respecting the specificities of regional structures and behaviour; secondly, to establish a different interpretation of the whole period of the Second Republic by placing the rural inhabitants of the mid-19th century France at the centre stage; and lastly, to give new light and perspective to the rural French history by giving comparative and theoretical work as well as case-studies on the field of rural studies. The book also discusses of the electoral geography and political makeup of rural France within a narrative framework.Less
This book seeks to do three things; first, to formulate a cohesive national history of rural politics during a critical period, while respecting the specificities of regional structures and behaviour; secondly, to establish a different interpretation of the whole period of the Second Republic by placing the rural inhabitants of the mid-19th century France at the centre stage; and lastly, to give new light and perspective to the rural French history by giving comparative and theoretical work as well as case-studies on the field of rural studies. The book also discusses of the electoral geography and political makeup of rural France within a narrative framework.
Christopher S. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520256309
- eISBN:
- 9780520934863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520256309.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter demonstrates how the ever-changing itinerary of la grande boucle has been exploited to generate diverse and often opposing views of French society, history, and identity. It evaluates ...
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This chapter demonstrates how the ever-changing itinerary of la grande boucle has been exploited to generate diverse and often opposing views of French society, history, and identity. It evaluates past bicycle races conducted in France and how they affected France's view towards the Tour de France. The chapter shows how the psychological impact of including the lost provinces in the Tour itinerary, from 1906 through 1910 L'Auto persuaded the German authorities to allow the race to pass through Alsace-Lorraine. It explains that L'Auto's use of the Tour's itinerary to honor the sacrifices of so many French soldiers reflected a broader commemorative movement.Less
This chapter demonstrates how the ever-changing itinerary of la grande boucle has been exploited to generate diverse and often opposing views of French society, history, and identity. It evaluates past bicycle races conducted in France and how they affected France's view towards the Tour de France. The chapter shows how the psychological impact of including the lost provinces in the Tour itinerary, from 1906 through 1910 L'Auto persuaded the German authorities to allow the race to pass through Alsace-Lorraine. It explains that L'Auto's use of the Tour's itinerary to honor the sacrifices of so many French soldiers reflected a broader commemorative movement.
Alan Bullock and F. W. D. Deakin
- Published in print:
- 1973
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198221043
- eISBN:
- 9780191678400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221043.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
All nations – as the same poll, carried further on an international scale, revealed – consider themselves to be intelligent, but France was the country that placed intelligence highest, as the virtue ...
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All nations – as the same poll, carried further on an international scale, revealed – consider themselves to be intelligent, but France was the country that placed intelligence highest, as the virtue it admired most. One of the aims of this book is to examine this image, to assess the place that intelligence, or reason, or ideas have in French life, to explain how intellectuals came to be held in such exceptionally high esteem, and to show the consequences this has had. Modern French history is usually interpreted in one of two ways. The more traditional approach is to show it as the unfolding of a struggle between revolution and reaction. An alternative approach is to regard these struggles as the superficial covering of social divisions and to show that power was concentrated, despite the victory of democracy, in the bourgeoisie, or even in a small section of it, composed of no more than a few hundred families. It also tried to disentangle the different elements and aspects of French life, and to study each independently and in terms of their inter-relationship.Less
All nations – as the same poll, carried further on an international scale, revealed – consider themselves to be intelligent, but France was the country that placed intelligence highest, as the virtue it admired most. One of the aims of this book is to examine this image, to assess the place that intelligence, or reason, or ideas have in French life, to explain how intellectuals came to be held in such exceptionally high esteem, and to show the consequences this has had. Modern French history is usually interpreted in one of two ways. The more traditional approach is to show it as the unfolding of a struggle between revolution and reaction. An alternative approach is to regard these struggles as the superficial covering of social divisions and to show that power was concentrated, despite the victory of democracy, in the bourgeoisie, or even in a small section of it, composed of no more than a few hundred families. It also tried to disentangle the different elements and aspects of French life, and to study each independently and in terms of their inter-relationship.
Nicolas Beaupré
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197266977
- eISBN:
- 9780191955488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266977.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter digs into the variety of temporal challenges posed by the war, and uncovers the practice of writing as a way of locating one’s self in time. Soldiers living at the front experienced a ...
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This chapter digs into the variety of temporal challenges posed by the war, and uncovers the practice of writing as a way of locating one’s self in time. Soldiers living at the front experienced a sense of dislocation as they tried to reconstruct a sense of the flow of time through days and nights and weeks whose meaning had been shattered. The cycle of time from day to day was distorted. But for soldiers there was also an intense alternative experience of time: the catastrophic or paroxysmal moment of battle. The intensity of the battle created a cæsura in time, an insurmountable barrier between the past and the present. This extended the psychological trauma of soldiers, but they tried to rebuild time through correspondence, through planning for leave, and through countless little rites that allowed them to reconstruct their mastery of time. The challenges to human temporal rhythms posed by modern technological change were thus distilled intensely and poignantly by the war. The generations that followed lived with that changed temporality, unable easily to find a way of counter-balancing the destruction of human time it had brought about.Less
This chapter digs into the variety of temporal challenges posed by the war, and uncovers the practice of writing as a way of locating one’s self in time. Soldiers living at the front experienced a sense of dislocation as they tried to reconstruct a sense of the flow of time through days and nights and weeks whose meaning had been shattered. The cycle of time from day to day was distorted. But for soldiers there was also an intense alternative experience of time: the catastrophic or paroxysmal moment of battle. The intensity of the battle created a cæsura in time, an insurmountable barrier between the past and the present. This extended the psychological trauma of soldiers, but they tried to rebuild time through correspondence, through planning for leave, and through countless little rites that allowed them to reconstruct their mastery of time. The challenges to human temporal rhythms posed by modern technological change were thus distilled intensely and poignantly by the war. The generations that followed lived with that changed temporality, unable easily to find a way of counter-balancing the destruction of human time it had brought about.
Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195093032
- eISBN:
- 9780199854493
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195093032.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book explores the realities and representations of same-sex sexuality in France in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the period that witnessed the emergence of “homosexuality” in the modern ...
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This book explores the realities and representations of same-sex sexuality in France in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the period that witnessed the emergence of “homosexuality” in the modern sense of the word. Based on archival research and textual analysis, the chapters examine the development of homosexual subcultures and illustrate the ways in which philosophers, pamphleteers, police, novelists, scientists, and politicians conceptualized same-sex relations and connected them with more general concerns about order and disorder. The book uses the methods of intellectual and cultural history, the history of science, literary studies, legal and social history, and microhistory. This book shows how the subject of homosexuality is related to important topics in French history: the Enlightenment, the revolutionary tradition, social discipline, positivism, elite and popular culture, nationalism, feminism, and the construction of identity.Less
This book explores the realities and representations of same-sex sexuality in France in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the period that witnessed the emergence of “homosexuality” in the modern sense of the word. Based on archival research and textual analysis, the chapters examine the development of homosexual subcultures and illustrate the ways in which philosophers, pamphleteers, police, novelists, scientists, and politicians conceptualized same-sex relations and connected them with more general concerns about order and disorder. The book uses the methods of intellectual and cultural history, the history of science, literary studies, legal and social history, and microhistory. This book shows how the subject of homosexuality is related to important topics in French history: the Enlightenment, the revolutionary tradition, social discipline, positivism, elite and popular culture, nationalism, feminism, and the construction of identity.
Peter McPhee
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202257
- eISBN:
- 9780191675249
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202257.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book is a scholarly study of rural politics in France during the Second Republic (1848–52). The Revolution of 1848 and the subsequent regime changed the face of mass politics in France; ...
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This book is a scholarly study of rural politics in France during the Second Republic (1848–52). The Revolution of 1848 and the subsequent regime changed the face of mass politics in France; unprecedented numbers of French men and women participated in legal and illegal forms of political activity during a period of protracted crisis ultimately resolved by a military coup d'état. In exploring the neglected history of rural France in this period, the book draws on hundreds of regional studies to examine the large-scale political mobilizations of right and left in the countryside, and offers a new synthesis and interpretation of these years. The book shows that rural politics were both more complex and more threatening to urban élites than has been generally recognized, and provides an analysis of a turbulent period in modern French history and its long-term social and political consequences.Less
This book is a scholarly study of rural politics in France during the Second Republic (1848–52). The Revolution of 1848 and the subsequent regime changed the face of mass politics in France; unprecedented numbers of French men and women participated in legal and illegal forms of political activity during a period of protracted crisis ultimately resolved by a military coup d'état. In exploring the neglected history of rural France in this period, the book draws on hundreds of regional studies to examine the large-scale political mobilizations of right and left in the countryside, and offers a new synthesis and interpretation of these years. The book shows that rural politics were both more complex and more threatening to urban élites than has been generally recognized, and provides an analysis of a turbulent period in modern French history and its long-term social and political consequences.
Alan Bullock and F. W. D. Deakin
- Published in print:
- 1973
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198221043
- eISBN:
- 9780191678400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221043.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The peasants could theoretically have been the masters of France. The history of the peasantry cannot be written simply in terms of the issues that parliaments debated or of the parties into which ...
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The peasants could theoretically have been the masters of France. The history of the peasantry cannot be written simply in terms of the issues that parliaments debated or of the parties into which these were divided. These bourgeois preoccupations certainly affected the peasants, but the main reason why the peasants did not throw their weight more decisively was that they were fighting other battles, largely unchronicled by the literate classes, but far more important to them. It is with these battles that this chapter is concerned. The generalisations about the innate conservatism of the peasant need to be interpreted carefully in the context of French history. The French Revolution did not create a peasant democracy. The peasants' social scale is described. The duping of the peasants is also discussed.Less
The peasants could theoretically have been the masters of France. The history of the peasantry cannot be written simply in terms of the issues that parliaments debated or of the parties into which these were divided. These bourgeois preoccupations certainly affected the peasants, but the main reason why the peasants did not throw their weight more decisively was that they were fighting other battles, largely unchronicled by the literate classes, but far more important to them. It is with these battles that this chapter is concerned. The generalisations about the innate conservatism of the peasant need to be interpreted carefully in the context of French history. The French Revolution did not create a peasant democracy. The peasants' social scale is described. The duping of the peasants is also discussed.
Margaret Atack
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198715153
- eISBN:
- 9780191694929
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198715153.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The month of May in the year 1968 was truly an exceptional episode in French history thanks to the violence of street battles with the police, the level of popular support for the protesters, the ...
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The month of May in the year 1968 was truly an exceptional episode in French history thanks to the violence of street battles with the police, the level of popular support for the protesters, the size of the demonstrations, the millions on strike, and the endless discussion all around. It felt like a revolution, with the old order being torn apart and notions of spontaneity and immediacy being connoted all around. May was an object of historical knowledge before it even began to be over, with articles for the newspaper Combat turned into a tract and pinned on trees; while subversive journals and large amounts of newsprint were being devoted to the events. Contemporary newsreels shadowed the story of May from university crisis to national crisis as the May riots and strikes gained progressively in prominence. May is a monstrous library, as well as an unsolvable puzzle, or so it seems. May was the crossroads through which history, social change, social and political theorizations of the individual and society, have all passed.Less
The month of May in the year 1968 was truly an exceptional episode in French history thanks to the violence of street battles with the police, the level of popular support for the protesters, the size of the demonstrations, the millions on strike, and the endless discussion all around. It felt like a revolution, with the old order being torn apart and notions of spontaneity and immediacy being connoted all around. May was an object of historical knowledge before it even began to be over, with articles for the newspaper Combat turned into a tract and pinned on trees; while subversive journals and large amounts of newsprint were being devoted to the events. Contemporary newsreels shadowed the story of May from university crisis to national crisis as the May riots and strikes gained progressively in prominence. May is a monstrous library, as well as an unsolvable puzzle, or so it seems. May was the crossroads through which history, social change, social and political theorizations of the individual and society, have all passed.
Christopher Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520256309
- eISBN:
- 9780520934863
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520256309.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In this history of the world's most famous bicycle race, the author tells the story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour ...
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In this history of the world's most famous bicycle race, the author tells the story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour organizers, and a host of other commentators together with a wide-ranging analysis of the culture surrounding the event—including posters, songs, novels, films, and media coverage—he links the history of the Tour to key moments and themes in French history. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, the author explores how their public images have changed over the past century. A new preface explores the long-standing problem of doping in light of recent scandals.Less
In this history of the world's most famous bicycle race, the author tells the story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour organizers, and a host of other commentators together with a wide-ranging analysis of the culture surrounding the event—including posters, songs, novels, films, and media coverage—he links the history of the Tour to key moments and themes in French history. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, the author explores how their public images have changed over the past century. A new preface explores the long-standing problem of doping in light of recent scandals.
Jann Pasler
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257405
- eISBN:
- 9780520943872
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257405.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter determines why the 1890s were one of the most exciting, richest, and most productive periods in French music history. It studies other powerful cultural forces that came before the ...
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This chapter determines why the 1890s were one of the most exciting, richest, and most productive periods in French music history. It studies other powerful cultural forces that came before the Dreyfus Affair and influenced music and its meanings. It investigates the changes in the nature of both the Right and the Left as they impacted music and the musical world.Less
This chapter determines why the 1890s were one of the most exciting, richest, and most productive periods in French music history. It studies other powerful cultural forces that came before the Dreyfus Affair and influenced music and its meanings. It investigates the changes in the nature of both the Right and the Left as they impacted music and the musical world.
