Neighbourhood and Community in Paris, 1740–1790

A picture of pre-Revolutionary Paris as a structured local community based on neighbourhood ties.

David Garrioch (Author)

9780521522311, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 August 2002

292 pages
23.9 x 16.2 x 2 cm, 0.43 kg

In the second half of the eighteenth century, Paris was the second largest city in Europe, with a population of some half a million. Contemporary writers described it as anonymous and chaotic, and so it must have seemed to many new arrivals from the provinces. Yet the records of the local police officials, which have remained virtually untouched for two hundred years, reveal a world which was far from anonymous, where most people went about their daily affairs in streets and shops where not only the places but also the faces were familiar. From the mass of individual disputes and incidents reported to the police in each quarter there emerges a picture of a structured, largely self-regulating local community based first and foremost on neighbourhood ties. This study explores the way that such communities functioned and were maintained, and in the process touches on many aspects of life in eighteenth-century Paris.

List of illustrations
List of tables and graphs
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The primacy of neighbourhood and the local community
2. The family
3. Work
4. Religion
5. Recreation and leisure sociability
6. The evolution of the local community
Conclusion
Select bibliography
Index/glossary.

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