Work and revolution in France : the language of labor from the Old Regime to 1848

Work and Revolution in France is particularly appropriate for students of French history interested in the crucial revolutions that took place in 1789, 1830, and 1848. Sewell has reconstructed the artisans' world from the corporate communities of the old regime, through the revolutions in 1789 and 1830, to the socialist experiments of 1848. Research has revealed that the most important class struggles took place in craft workshops, not in 'dark satanic mills'. In the 1830s and 1840s, workers combined the collectivism of the corporate guild tradition with the egalitarianism of the revolutionary tradition, producing a distinct artisan form of socialism and class consciousness that climaxed in the Parisian Revolution of 1848. The book follows artisans into their everyday experience of work, fellowship, and struggles and places their history in the context of wider political, economic, and social developments. Sewell analyzes the 'language of labor' in the broadest sense, dealing not only with what the workers and others wrote and said about labour but with the whole range of institutional conventions, economic practices, social struggles, ritual gestures, customs, and actions that gave the workers' world a comprehensive shape. Frontmatter (page N/A) Preface (page ix) 1 Introduction: Social History and the Language of Labor (page 1) 2 Mechanical Arts and the Corporate Idiom (page 16) 3 Journeymen's Brotherhoods (page 40) 4 The Abolition of Privilege (page 62) 5 From Gens de Metier to Sans-Culottes (page 92) 6 A Revolution in Property (page 114) 7 Industrial Society (page 143) 8 Workers Corporations (page 162) 9 The July Revolution and the Emergence of Class Consciousness (page 194) 10 The Paradoxes of Labor (page 219) 11 The Revolution of 1848 (page 243) 12 Conclusion: The Dialectic of Revolution (page 277) Notes (page 285) Bibliography (page 318) Index (page 329) Introduction : Social History And The Language Of Labor -- Mechanical Arts And The Corporate Idiom -- Journeymen's Brotherhoods -- The Abolition Of Privilege -- From Gens De Métier To Sans-culottes -- Revolution In Property -- Industrial Society -- Workers' Corporations -- The July Revolution And The Emergence Of Class Consciousness -- The Paradoxes Of Labor -- The Revolution Of 1848 -- Conclusion : The Dialectic Of Revolution. William H. Sewell, Jr. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 318-328) And Index. Work and Revolution in France is particularly appropriate for studens of French history interested in the crucial revloutions that took place in 1789, 1830, and 1848. Sewell has reconstructed the artisans' world from the corporate communities of the old regime, through the revolutions in 1789 and 1830, to the socialist experiments of 1848. TRADE CORPORATIONS were a ubiquitous feature of French cities of the old regime.