Peasantry and Society in France since 1789 [Paperback]

This book examines the social, economic and cultural evolution of the peasantry in France and its place in French society since 1789.An overview of the principal problems and changes that have affected the French peasantry since 1789 examines the social, economic, and cultural evolution of the peasantry from subsistence to a commercialized capitalist farming economy.An overview of the principal problems and changes that have affected the French peasantry since 1789 examines the social, economic, and cultural evolution of the peasantry from subsistence to a commercialized capitalist farming economy.This book provides a lucid introductory overview of the principal problems and changes that have affected the French peasantry since 1789. Dr. Moulin examines the social, economic, and cultural evolution of the peasantry as a subsistence economy that has been replaced by commercialized, capitalist farming, and looks at the political consequences of the dramatic relative decline in the numerical importance of the French rural sector. Regional variations are discussed, and the impact of changes in education, diet, and housing analyzed in a lucid account, translated by anglophone experts on the subject, that should readily establish itself as the principal text on the subject. Useful student aids include a chronology and bibliographies of both French and English work.Outline chronology; Introduction; 1. From the ancien r?gime to the Restoration 17891815; 2. A slow transformation: 18151870; 3. The difficult years: 18701914; 4. Towards a separate world: 1914-1950; 5. A spectacular transformation: 1950 to the present; Notes; Conclusion; Bibliography; Guide to further reading in English; Index. Moulin deserves praise for writing a history that is much more than an arid economic treatise filled with facts, figures, charts, and graphs--although the volume does contain its share of these. Economic modernization is certainly the dominant theme, but the author is equally sensitivl�