Saturday, October 1, 2011

Insurgent identities: class, community, and protest in Paris from 1848 to the Commune.

Insurgent identities: class, community, and protest in Paris from 1848 to the Commune. Chicago: University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including , 1995. Pp. viii, 253. &black and white plates, statistical and methodological appendices,bibliography, index. Craft traditions, class consciousness, or neighbourhood ties --which of these factors fashioned the social identity and politicaloutlook of Parisian workers in the middle of the nineteenth century?This is the big question Roger Gould tackles in his stimulatingreinterpretation re��in��ter��pret?tr.v. re��in��ter��pret��ed, re��in��ter��pret��ing, re��in��ter��pretsTo interpret again or anew.re of the social impact of political conflict, economicchange and urban reconstruction, from the Revolution of 1848 to theParis Commune of 1871. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , what shaped the socialconsciousness of the men and women who participated in these famousepisodes of urban violence? The author challenges the linear view of the "class-formationnarrative" which dominates historical writing on this period. Heagrees that 1848 saw the breakthrough of class consciousness as a shaperof workers' identity. But he argues (convincingly in my opinion)that this was the outcome of specific political and economiccircumstances, and that the class solidarity momentarily attained in1848 did not replace alternative markers of workers' consciousness.Indeed, it was craft identity, not class consciousness, that formed thebasis for revived labour militancy in Paris in the 1860s -- specificallyin skilled trades that remained concentrated in the city centre, not inindustries that were dispersed across different wards. Here theinfluence of urban space played a much greater role than formal labourassociations, for labour militancy was strongest in trades where therelations of the workshop were reinforced by daily patterns ofsociability in the same neighbourhood's cafes and wineshops. The aspect of the book that will most interest readers of thisjournal is Gould's rejection of the standard interpretation of theeffects of Haussmannisation -- the celebrated rebuilding of the citycentre in the 1850s and 1860s. Historians wedded to the"class-formation narrative" hold that urban reconstruction setoff a sharp jump in property values and rents that drove working-classfamilies out of the right-bank neighbourhoods of central Paris and intothe cheaper suburbs, especially those in the northeastern quadrant (LaVillette, Belleville and Charonne -- today's 19th and 20th wards).There they found themselves isolated in overwhelmingly working-classneighbourhoods quite different from the socially mixed central wardsthey had left behind. This spatial segregation of working people in the1860s heightened class consciousness and kindled a bitter politicaldiscourse that attacked both urban capitalism and its servant, theimperial regime of Napoleon III. Consequently, a defining aspect thegreat uprising of 1871 was the violent repossession The taking back of an item that has been sold on credit and delivered to the purchaser because the payments have not been made on it.For example, if an individual fails to render prompt payments on a new car, the car might be subject to repossession by the finance company, of the city centreby dispossessed, insurgent INSURGENT. One who is concerned in an insurrection. He differs from a rebel in this, that rebel is always understood in a bad sense, or one who unjustly opposes the constituted authorities; insurgent may be one who justly opposes the tyranny of constituted authorities. workers. Gould contests this interpretation by denying that working peopleexperienced increased social segregation in Second Empire Paris. Heagrees that many Parisian workers (as well as provincial newcomers)moved from the centre to the periphery of the city. But, he argues, thesuburban neighbourhoods they entered were not socially monolithic butrather "akin to an urban village" where social relationsincluded everyday contact between middle- and working-class people. ForParisian workers the outcome of urban reconstruction was not socialisolation but rather a new spatial identitity based on new ties ofresidence. To support his bold thesis, Gould compares marriage records in twocentral wards with two wards in the northeastern periphery for the year1869. When a bridal party with the required four male witnesses came tothe town hall for the civil ceremony, they had to identify themselves byname, age, address and occupation. Gould uses a sample of thisinformation to show that many bridal parties were socially mixed, withmen from middle-class occupations serving as witnesses for working-classcouples. Although four out of five people in the suburban wards wereworkers, three-quarters of working-class marriages there included atleast one witness with a middle-class occupation (and a third involvedtwo middle-class witnesses). This result is the opposite of what theclass-isolation interpretation would predict, and Gould uses it to arguethat the supposedly homogeneous suburban wards actually constituted anew urban space where social contacts arising from common residence cutacross class lines. From that perspective, Gould holds that the greatParisian insurrection A rising or rebellion of citizens against their government, usually manifested by acts of violence.Under federal law, it is a crime to incite, assist, or engage in such conduct against the United States. INSURRECTION. of 1871 was grounded not in class antagonism butrather in the collective action and resentment of specificneighbourhoods -- "the salient collective identity" of thetime -- against the centralizing state. The author shows imagination and resourcefulness in deployingmarriage records to support his challenge to the standard interpretationof Haussmannisation. But can the weight of his new view be supported onsuch a slender evidentiary ev��i��den��tia��ry?adj. Law1. Of evidence; evidential.2. For the presentation or determination of evidence: an evidentiary hearing.Adj. 1. base? Quite apart from the size of the sampleor the taxonomic tax��o��nom��ic? also tax��o��nom��i��caladj.Of or relating to taxonomy: a taxonomic designation.tax problems of classifying certain occupations as"middle-class", a much broader issue is at stake here.Marriage is a rite of passage rite of passagen.A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood. in which the couple publicly seeks socialapproval and legitimacy for their union. On such occasions we might wellexpect couples from the lower rungs of the social ladder to try toenhance their status by enlisting the presence of an acknowledged socialsuperior at the ceremony. But does that act necessarily imply that thesepeople shared a genuine social relationship? One can readily envision agroom asking his boss (or a civil servant, teacher or shop-keeper) to"do him the honour" of standing up for him on the big day. Andone can just as easily see middle-class witnesses agreeing because,given their social position, that would be "the right thing todo". Deference and noblesse oblige noblesse o��blige?n.Benevolent, honorable behavior considered to be the responsibility of persons of high birth or rank.[French, nobility is an obligation : noblesse, nobility + are also forms of socialinteraction; so the real question is whether Gould's sampleindicates the presence of real relationships cutting across classboundaries, as opposed to transitory crossings of social pathsappropriate only to this ceremonial occasion. This said, Gould's book nevertheless remains a stimulatinganalysis of the social and political consequences of the Frenchcapital's most famous episode of urban renewal, one that is likelyto provoke an engaging debate among social historians. But InsurgentIdentities also supplies a good introduction to the literature onnineteenth-century French labour history and so will be suited toclassroom use as well. A book that is both stimulating for specialistsand useful for undergraduates does not come along all that often, andthe author deserves to be con gratulated for producing one. E.P. Fitzgerald Department of History Carleton University Carleton University,at Ottawa, Ont., Canada; nonsectarian; coeducational; founded 1942 as Carleton College. It achieved university status in 1957. It has faculties of arts, social sciences, science, engineering, and graduate studies, as well as the Centre for

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