The myth of the French bourgeoisie : an essay on the social imaginary, 1750-1850 / Sarah Maza.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maza, Sarah C., 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Middle class--France--History--18th century.

Middle class.

Middle class--France--History--19th century.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Sarah Maza argues that the French bourgeois of history never in fact existed, except as a critical counter-norm to French society, an imagined and threatening embodiment of materialism, self-interest, commercialism and mass culture, which defined all that France rejected.

Who, exactly, were the French bourgeoisie? Unlike the Anglo-Americans, who widely embraced middle-class ideals and values, the French--even the most affluent and conservative--have always rejected and maligned bourgeois values and identity. In this new approach to the old question of the bourgeoisie, Sarah Maza focuses on the crucial period before, during, and after the French Revolution, and offers a provocative answer: the French bourgeoisie has never existed. Despite the large numbers of respectable middling town-dwellers, no group identified themselves as bourgeois. Drawing on political and economic theory and history, personal and polemical writings, and works of fiction, Maza argues that the bourgeoisie was never the social norm. In fact, it functioned as a critical counter-norm, an imagined and threatening embodiment of materialism, self-interest, commercialism, and mass culture, which defined all that the French rejected. A challenge to conventional wisdom about modern French history, this book poses broader questions about the role of anti-bourgeois sentiment in French culture, by suggesting parallels between the figures of the bourgeois, the Jew, and the American in the French social imaginary. It is a brilliant and timely foray into our beliefs and fantasies about the social world and our definition of a social class.

Contents:

Acknowledgments Introduction: Is There a Class in This Text? 1. The Social Imaginary in Prerevolutionary France 2. Commerce, Luxury, and Family Love 3. Revolutionary Brotherhood and the War against Aristocracy 4. The Social World after Thermidor 5. The Political Birth of the Bourgeoisie, 1815-1830 6. The Failure of "Bourgeoisie Monarchy" Conclusion: The Bourgeois, the Jew, and the American Notes Index

Notes:

Originally published: 2003.

ISBN:

9780674040724

0674040724

OCLC:

1294423191