In a dazzling new interpretation of four hundred years of modern
French history, Charles Tilly focuses not on kings and courtiers
but on the common people of village and farm buffeted by the
inexorable advance of large-scale capitalism and the consolidation
of a powerful nation-state. Tilly, author of "The Vendee" and many
other books, chooses the contention of the masses as his medium in
painting this vivid picture of the people's growing ability and
willingness to fight injustice, challenge exploitation, and claim
their own place in the hierarchy of power.
Contention is not necessarily disorder. The more we look at
contention, says Tilly, the more we discover order created by the
rooting of collective action in everyday social life through a
continuous process of signaling, negotiation, and struggle. In
seventeenth-century France, ordinary people did not know how to
demonstrate, rally, or strike, but they had standard procedures for
expelling a tax collector, undermining a corrupt official, and
shaming moral offenders. By the end of the eighteenth century,
French people were experimenting with delegations, public meetings,
and popular justice. Through the nineteenth century, with the
growth of an industrial proletariat, they developed an extensive
repertoire of strikes, demonstrations, and direct attacks on
landlords and capitalists, as well as conflicts setting worker
against worker. In the twentieth century, scenarios of protest
expanded to even larger-scale forms such as mass meetings,
electoral campaigns, and broad-based social movements.
Rather than arguing these developments in the abstract, "The
Contentious French" provides lively descriptions of real events,
with pauses to make sense of their patterns. The result is a view
of politics with the common struggle for power at its core and the
changing structure of power as its envelope.
"The Contentious French" is bound to be controversial, and
therefore required reading for specialists in European history,
social movements, and collective action. Its fresh approach will
also appeal to students and general readers.
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