The Formation of the Parisian Bourgeoisie, 1690-1830

“David Garrioch’s new book boasts a veritably mouth-watering title. Those who know Dr. Garrioch’s earlier work on neighbourhood and community in eighteenth-century Paris will not be disappointed by the quality of his research and the extent of the archival sources on which his work is based—there has been page-turning and carton-wielding of heroic proportions behind this study. Very unusual for a work of this type, moreover, is the character of those sources: Dr. Garrioch draws extremely copiously on the archives of local self-government in Paris—parishional, ecclesiastical and police archives, plus the riches of the Minutier Central—to delineate a middle class captured essentially in terms of its engagement in local politics… This is a book which reads extremely well and which offers a thought-provoking new angle on a number of major problems of contemporary historiographical concern… Dr. Garrioch’s brave study highlights the importance of the development of the bourgeoisie in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century France, and underlines the need for an even more inclusive recounting of their history.”—Colin Jones, Journal of French History [UK]

“This is a very significant contribution to French history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This account, which does not neglect economic change, offers a whole series of interesting new takes on the subject of the bourgeoisie.”—Sarah Maza, author of Private Lives and Public Affairs: The Causes Célèbres of Prerevolutionary France