Beyond the Terror : essays in French regional and social history, 1794-1815

Richard Cobb is one of the most active and influential English historians of France. During a long career of research and writing, his interest has ranged from the Revolution to Vichy. He is especially renowned for his seminal work on the popular movement and on popular attitudes and preoccupations during the Revolution, as well as on its provincial history. This collection of essays is written by his friends, and is dedicated to him. The essays reflect some of the issues that have preoccupied Richard Cobb. Focused on some less familiar corners of the history of the Directory and the Consulate, it is concerned with regional and social rather than metropolitan and political history. Cobb And The Historians / Martyn Lyons -- The Reconstruction Of A Church 1796-1801 / Olwen Hufton -- Picking Up The Pieces / Colin Jones -- Conscription And Crime In Rural France During The Directory And Consulate / Alan Forrest -- Common Rights And Agrarian Individualism In The Southern Massif Central 1750-1880 / Peter Jones -- Themes In Southern Violence After 9 Thermidor / Colin Lucas -- Political Brigandage And Popular Disaffection In The South-east Of France 1795-1804 / Gwynne Lewis -- Rhine And Loire / Geoffrey Ellis. Edited By Gwynne Lewis, Colin Lucas. Essays In Honor Of Richard Cobb. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Present-day scholars approach the history of France, and especially the history of the French Revolution, must negotiate three main ideological currents: first, the Anglo-Saxon tradition of empiricism, of which Richard Cobb provides an eccentric example; secondly, the French Marxist tradition of historiography; and thirdly, the influence (some would now say the imperialistic influence) of the Annales school. Richard Cobb is one of the most active and influential English historians of France. During a long career of research and writing, his interest has ranged from the Revolution to Vichy. The book is a fitting tribute to a historian whose work has so often been concerned with the survival of ordinary men and women who happened to live in revolutionary times.