Ballots and Barricades : Class Formation and Republican Politics in France, 1830-1871

Using class analysis to understand the dynamics of political conflict in mid-nineteenth-century France, Ronald Aminzade explores political activity among workers in three industrialized French cities—Toulouse, Saint-Étienne, and Rouen. A comparative case-study design enables the author to analyze how the complex interaction between industrialization, class relations, and party development fostered revolutionary communes in some cities but not others. Challenging traditional theories of industrialization and revolution, Aminzade innovatively uses narratives to provide a historically grounded analysis of the failed municipal revolutions of 1871 and the triumph of liberal-democratic institutions in France. In each of these cities, distinctive patterns of capitalist industrialization and class restructuring intersected with shifting political opportunities at the national level to produce local republican parties with different ideologies, strategies, and alliances. Focusing on changing relations between republican parties and male workers, whose identities and economic standing were in transition, Aminzade examines struggles within local parties among liberal, radical, and socialist republicans. The outcome of these struggles, he argues, shaped the willingness of workers to embrace the ballot box or take to the barricades. Contents List of Illustrations List of Maps and Tables Acknowledgments Part One: Political Change, Early Industrialization, and French Republicanism 1 The Political Consequences of Early Industrialization 2 Mid-Nineteenth-Century French Republicanism: Organization, Ideology, and Opportunities Part Two: A Tale of Three Cities: Toulouse, Saint-Étienne, Rouen 3 Patterns of Industrialization and Class Formation 4 Toulouse: From Liberal Republicanism to an Alliance of Radicals and Socialists 5 Saint-Etienne: The Transformation and Triumph of Radical Republicanism 6 Rouen: The Transformation of Radicalism and Triumph of Liberalism 7 Failed Revolutions: The Communes of 1870-1871 Conclusion: Political Change, Class Analysis, and Republicanism Abbreviations Used in the Notes and Bibliography Notes Bibliography Index Using class analysis to understand the dynamics of political conflict in mid-nineteenth-century France, this title explores political activity among workers in three industrialized French cities - Toulouse, Saint-Etienne, and Rouen. It analyses the failed municipal revolutions of 1871 and the triumph of liberal-democratic institutions in France. Using class analysis to understand the dynamics of political conflict in 19th-century France, this study explores the political activities of workers in three cities: Toulouse, Saint-Etienne and Rouen, and shows their interrelationship in the areas of industrialization and class relations.