Charity and Bienfaisance
The Treatment of the Poor in the Montpellier Region 1740–1815

An analysis of the charity and poor relief from 1750 to the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.

Colin Jones (Author)

9780521021883, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 November 2005

336 pages
22.8 x 15.4 x 2 cm, 0.507 kg

This book is a case study, based on the Montpellier region in southern France, which analyses charity and poor relief from 1750 to the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, and the effect of the French Revolution on the treatment of the poor. The breadth of the book's timescale is one of its most notable features; so too is the way in which the changing treatment of the problem of poverty is seen not only in its political and administrative context, but also in terms of police forces, charitable benefactors, the administrators of charitable institutions, and the poor themselves.

List of maps, graphs, figures and tables
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction: charity and bienfaisance in the enlightenment
Part I. The Setting: 1. Montpellier and its region
2. The eighteenth-century problem of poverty
Part II. The Treatment of Poverty Under the Ancien Regime: 3. Poor relief in Montpellier and its region
4. The crisis of traditional charity
5. Popular attitudes towards poor relief: (i) charity
6. Popular attitudes towards poor relief: (ii) medicine
7. Government, poor relief and the repression of begging
Part III. The Treatment of Poverty Under the Revolution and the Empire: 8. Towards a 'welfare state', 1789–c.1795
9. Retreat from the 'welfare state', c.1795–c.1800
10. Poor-relief institutions from the Concordat to the Restoration
Part IV. Conclusion: 11. The government and poor relief in the early nineteenth century
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]