A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern

A magisterial new history of French society between the end of the middle ages and the Revolution by one of the world's leading authorities on early modern France. Using colorful examples and incorporating the latest scholarship, William Beik conveys the distinctiveness of early modern society and identifies the cultural practices that defined the lives of people at all levels of society. Painting a vivid picture of the realities of everyday life, he reveals how society functioned and how the different classes interacted. In addition to chapters on nobles, peasants, city people, and the court, the book sheds new light on the Catholic church, the army, popular protest, the culture of violence, gendered relations, and sociability. This is a major new work that restores the ancien r_gime as a key epoch in its own right and not simply as the prelude to the coming Revolution.

William Beik is Emeritus Professor of History at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. His previous publications include Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution (1997) and Louis XIV and Absolutism: A Study with Documents (2000).

List of illustrations	p. x
List of tables	p. xiii
Preface	p. xiv
Introduction: France and its population	p. 1
The creation of France	p. 1
Diversity of geography and culture	p. 4
Population and long-term economic environment	p. 8
Rural communities and seigneurial power	p. 15
Origins of the village community	p. 23
The seigneurie	p. 25
Peasant life, agriculture, and social distribution	p. 43
The agricultural unit: fields, commons, and prelevements	p. 43
The rural community	p. 55
Men, women, and families	p. 58
Conclusion	p. 62
Domination by the nobility	p. 66
The nobility in society	p. 72
Levels and lifestyles	p. 77
The magnates	p. 85
Conclusion	p. 95
City life and city people	p. 98
Life in the city	p. 100
Town governments	p. 105
Merchants and professional "middle classes"	p. 107
The world of artisans	p. 113
Women's work	p. 119
The urban poor	p. 123
The shape of the urban population	p. 126
The rise of seafaring ports	p. 128
The monarchy and the new nobility	p. 134
The world of venality and royal office	p. 135
The financiers and the royal fiscal system	p. 146
Rise of a new robe-ministerial elite	p. 152
Ecclesiastical power and religious faith	p. 164
Social background and role in society	p. 166
Royal power and Catholic decadence	p. 175
The challenge from the Huguenots	p. 180
Confessional interaction on the local level	p. 186
Resurgent Catholicism	p. 190
Warfare and society	p. 204
Life among the troops	p. 213
Civilians and the scourge of war	p. 217
The army in the eighteenth century	p. 222
Social bonds and social protest	p. 224
Family relations	p. 225
Social relations in the community	p. 227
Conflict, protest, revolt	p. 237
Traditional attitudes and identities	p. 255
The culture of the majority	p. 256
Catholic rituals	p. 258
The annual cycle of rituals	p. 264
Popular honor and popular violence	p. 268
Culture of the traditional nobility	p. 273
The political culture of the grandees	p. 281
Conclusion	p. 285
Emerging identities - education and the new elite	p. 289
The culture of civic leaders	p. 294
The culture of high officeholders	p. 301
The culture of the Jansenist opposition	p. 305
Conclusion	p. 309
Monarchs and courtly society	p. 313
The royal household	p. 313
Court culture	p. 316
The court of Louis XIV	p. 325
The eighteenth-century court	p. 336
Conclusion	p. 337
Aristocracy's last bloom and the forces of change	p. 342
Forces of change	p. 343
Paris and the beginnings of a consumer society	p. 353
Conclusion	p. 362
A brief synopsis of early modern French history	p. 367
Genealogy of the French Monarchy	p. 372
Notes	p. 374
Index	p. 393
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France

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