The Bourgeois Citizen in Nineteenth Century France: Gender, Sociability, and the Uses of Emulation (Oxford Historical Monographs)

This book analyses the process by which class society developed in post-revolutionary France. Focusing on bourgeois men and on their voluntary associations, the book addresses the construction of class and gender identities. In their gentlemen's clubs, learned societies, musical groups, gardening clubs, and charitable associations, bourgeois Frenchmen defined a social order in which the atomised individuals of revolutionary law could find places for themselves in reconstituted social groups and hierarchies. The practices of sociability reflected a bourgeois view of society as harmonious rather than torn by conflict. The potentially universal virtues of bourgeois masculinity provided a basis for a consensus that could protect social order from the destructive competitiveness of French political life and the industrialising economy. The sociable interaction of male citizens was the crucial bridge between the destruction of France's old regime and the development of a mature industrial class society. The Bourgeois Citizen in Nineteenth-Century France analyses the process by which class society developed in post-revolutionary France. Focusing on bourgeois men and on their voluntary associations, Carol E. Harrison addresses the construction of class and gender identities. In their gentlemen's clubs, learned societies, musical groups, gardening clubs, and charitable associations, bourgeois Frenchmen defined a social order in which the atomized individuals of revolutionarly law could find places for themselves in reconstituted social groups and hierarchies. The practices of sociability reflected a bourgeois view of society as harmonious rather than torn by conflict. The potentially universal virtues of bourgeois masculinity provided a basis for a consensus that could protect social order from the destructive competitiveness of French political life and the industrializing economy. The sociable interaction of male citizens was the crucial bridge between the destruction of Frances's old regime and the development of a mature industrial class society. Title Page Preface Contents List of Abbreviations Emulation: Class, Gender, and Context Contesting the Public Sphere: Associations and the Government in Nineteenth-Century France The Bourgeois as Scientist and the Sociability of the Learned Society Bourgeois Aristocracies of Talent Honest Amusements Patronage: Emulation for the Working Class The Promotion of Worker Education Charitable Imperatives Charity for the Faithful The Uses of Charity Emulating the Elite: Association and the Petit Bourgeois Conclusion: The Limits of Emulation Bibliography Index

This book analyzes the process by which class society developed in post-revolutionary France. Carol E. Harrison addresses the construction of class and gender identities, and shows how the sociable interaction of male citizens was the crucial bridge between the destruction of France's old regime and the development of a mature industrial class society.

"The Bourgeois Citizen in Nineteenth-Century France analyses the process by which class society developed in post-revolutionary France. Focusing on bourgeois men and on their voluntary associations, Carol E. Harrison addresses the construction of class and gender identities."--Jacket This volume analyzes the process by which class society developed in post-revolutionary France. Focusing on bourgeois men and on their voluntary associations, it addresses the construction of class and gender identities.