The Contentious French
Charles Tilly
A bold, stimulating synthesis which all students of the broad sweep of modern French history will want to ponder and argue about.
--William Doyle, Times Higher Education Supplement
[A] panoramic survey of four centuries of social conflict...A persuasive and well-written recreation of the dense texture of daily lives...Tilly is concerned to understand the actors in their own terms and not to condemn them as irrational mobs, sentimentalize them as the virtuous oppressed or patronize them as 'primitive rebels.'
--Alan B. Spitzer, New York Times Book Review
Few historians are more familiar with the rich qualitative and quantitative material on popular protest, and no scholar has spent more hours in more French archives in search of the causes behind collective actions...If the historian's charge is to make sense of the seemingly senseless, to weave a coherent story from disparate threads, Professor Tilly has applied his formidable talents to the perfect subject and met the challenge on many fronts.
--Michael Burns, American Scholar
Tilly's The Contentious French is a remarkable book that clarifies the historical impact of the processes of statemaking, industrialization, urbanization, and proletarianization. The writing style is as evocative as it is clear; readers will be delighted with the systematic and elegant presentation of the experiences of ordinary French men and women...Important, provocative, and convincing.
--John Merriman, Yale University