Skip to Main Content

Becoming Bourgeois: Love, Kinship, and Power in Provincial France, 1670-1880

Online ISBN:
9781501701290
Print ISBN:
9780801453984
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

Becoming Bourgeois: Love, Kinship, and Power in Provincial France, 1670-1880

Christopher H. Johnson
Christopher H. Johnson
Professor of History Emeritus, Wayne State University
Find on
Published online:
18 August 2016
Published in print:
27 August 2015
Online ISBN:
9781501701290
Print ISBN:
9780801453984
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

This book traces the fortunes of three French families in the municipality of Vannes, in Brittany—Galles, Jollivet, and Le Ridant—who rose to prominence in publishing, law, the military, public administration, and intellectual pursuits over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Revisiting complex issues of bourgeois class formation in France from the perspective of the interior lives of families, the book argues that the most durable and socially advantageous links forging bourgeois ascent were those of kinship. Economic success, though certainly derived from the virtues of hard work and intelligent management, was always underpinned by marriage strategies and the diligent intervention of influential family members. The examination of hundreds of personal letters opens up a whole world: the vicissitudes of courtship; the centrality of marriage; the depths of conjugal love; the routines of pregnancy and the drama of childbirth; the practices of child rearing and education; the powerful place of siblings; the role of kin in advancing the next generation; tragedy and deaths; the enormous contributions of women in all aspects of becoming bourgeois; and the pleasures of gathering together in intimate soirées, grand balls, country houses, and civic and political organizations. Family love bound it all together, and this is ultimately what this book is about, as four generations of rather ordinary provincial people capture our hearts.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close