Liberty and Locality in Revolutionary France
Six Villages Compared, 1760–1820

A comparative 'micro-history' for the period between the old and the new France, 1760–1820.

Peter Jones (Author)

9780521821773, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 March 2003

322 pages, 6 b/w illus. 10 maps 3 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.64 kg

'… outstanding … Those familiar with his work will not be surprised that the book is characterized by a deep familiarity with both national politics and the 'revolution in the village', expressed in succinct, lucid prose.' History

This book examines the interface between the old and the new France in the period 1760–1820. It adopts an unusual 'comparative micro-historical' approach in order to illuminate the manner in which country dwellers cut themselves loose from the congeries of local societies that made up the Ancien Régime, and attached themselves to the wider polity of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic state. The apprehensions and ambitions of six groups of villagers located in different parts of the kingdom are explored in close-up across the span of a single adult lifetime. Contrasting experiences form a large part of the analysis, but the story is ultimately one of fusion around a set of values that no individual villager could possibly have anticipated, whether in 1750 or 1789. The book is at once an institutional, a social and a political history of life in the village in an epoch of momentous change.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Mise-en-scène
2. The structures of village life towards the end of the ancien régime
3. Agendas for change: 1787–1790
4. A new civic landscape
5. Sovereignty in the village
6. Church and state in miniature
7. Land of liberty?
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]