The Sans-Culottes : The Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government, 1793-1794

A phenomenon of the pre-industrial age, the Sans-Culottes--master craftsmen, shopkeepers, small merchants, domestic servants--were as hostile to the ideas of capitalist bourgeoisie as they were to those of the ancien regime which was overthrown in the first years of the Revolution. Here is a detailed portrait of who these people were and a sympathetic account of their moment in history. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Table of Contents FOREWORD INTRODUCTION: BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION AND POPULAR ACTIVITY THE REVOLUTIONARY CALENDAR THE PARISIAN SECTIONS (map) HISTORICAL TABLE OF THE PARISIAN SECTIONS I. POPULAR MASSES AND MILITANT SANS-CULOTTES: THEIR ATTITUDES AND SOCIAL COMPOSITION 1. The popular consciousness of social antagonisms 2. Statistical Data II. THE SOCIAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE PARIS SANS- CULOTTES 1. From the Right to Existence to “Equal Incomes" 2. From “Equal Incomes” to Restrictions on Property Rights 3. The Sans-Culottes and Commercial Capital 4. Popular Fiscal Law 5. The Rights to Equal Work Opportunity and to Assistance 6. The Right to Education III. THE POLITICAL INCLINATIONS OF THE PARISIAN SANS-CULOTTES 1. Popular Sovereignty 2. The Control and Recall of Elected Officers 3. The Permanence and Autonomy of the Sections 4· Insurrection IV. POPULAR POLITICS IN ACTION 1. Publicity, "The People's Protector ״ 2. Unity as a Guarantee of Victory 3. Violence V. THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PARIS SANS-CULOTTES 1. The Sectional Assemblies 2. Sectional Committees and Their Officers 3. From Popular Societies to Sectional Societies VI. DAILY LIFE AMONG MILITANT SANS-CULOTTES CONCLUSION: ON THE POPULAR MOVEMENT AND REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT: A SUMMARY OF POLITICAL CONTRADICTIONS INDEX A riveting portrait of the radical and militant partisans who changed the course of the French RevolutionA phenomenon of the preindustrial age, the sans-culottes—master craftsmen, shopkeepers, small merchants, domestic servants—were as hostile to the ideas of capitalist bourgeoisie as they were to those of the ancien régime that was overthrown in the first years of the French Revolution. For half a decade, their movement exerted a powerful control over the central wards of Paris and other large commercial centers, changing the course of the revolution. Here is a detailed portrait of who these people were and a sympathetic account of their moment in history. From June 1793 to February 1794, the Parisian sansculottes movement allowed the consolidation of the revolutionary government and the organization of the dictatorship of public safety, while at the same time imposing upon a reluctant Convention economic measures considered right for ameliorating the lot of the masses. 'This book is...concerned with the study of the all-important social force within the revolutionary process in France between 1793 and 1794, during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship of Public Safety, that is to say, with the Paris of the sans-culottes, organized in forty-eight sections.' Albert Soboul ; Translated By Rémy Inglis Hall. Translation Of: Les Sans-culottes Parisiens En L'an Ii. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.