A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France

by William Beik

Overview

A magisterial history of French society between the end of the middle ages and the Revolution by one of the world's leading authorities on early modern France. Using colorful examples and incorporating the latest scholarship, William Beik conveys the distinctiveness of early modern society and identifies the cultural practices that defined the lives of people at all levels of society. Painting a vivid picture of the realities of everyday life, he reveals how society functioned and how the different classes interacted. In addition to chapters on nobles, peasants, city people, and the court, the book sheds new light on the Catholic church, the army, popular protest, the culture of violence, gendered relations, and sociability. This is a major new work that restores the ancien régime as a key epoch in its own right and not simply as the prelude to the coming Revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521709569
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/14/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	420
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

William Beik is Emeritus Professor of History at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. His previous publications include Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution (1997) and Louis XIV and Absolutism: A Study with Documents (2000).

Table of Contents

Introduction: France and its population; 1. Rural communities and seigneurial power; 2. Peasant life, agriculture, and social distribution; 3. Domination by the nobility; 4. City life and city people; 5. The monarchy and the new nobility; 6. Ecclesiastical power and religious faith; 7. Warfare and society; 8. Social bonds and social protests; 9. Traditional attitudes and identities; 10. Emerging identities - education and the new elite; 11. Monarchs and courtly society; 12. Aristocracy's last bloom and the forces of change; A brief synopsis of early modern French history; Genealogy of the kings of France.

Editorial Reviews

"...an excellent survey of early modern French social and cultural history. Highly recommended." -Choice

"Professor Beik's survey of early modern social and cultural history will soon enough be a standard in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses...the real value of this work for students and scholars alike will be experienced in unpacking the entirety of Beik's distinct argument from the many strands of French social and cultural history from which it is derived."
Canadian Journal of History, Dean T. Ferguson, Texas A&M University, Kingsville

"Aimed squarely at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, as well as those looking for a thorough and reliable introduction to the past several decades of scholarship, A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France, provides a thoughtful, well-written, and consistently engaging synthesis of a prodigious amount of scholarship on a vast array of topics." -H-France

From the Publisher