Armies of the Poor

Determinants of Working-class Participation in in the Parisian Insurrection of June 1848

Mark Traugott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351531122
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

In June 1848, two irregular armies of the urban poor fought a four-day battle in the streets of Paris that decided the fate of the French Second Republic. The Parisian National Workshops and the Parisian Mobile Guard-organizations newly created at the time of the February Revolution-provided the bulk of the June combatants associated with the insurrection and repression, respectively. According to Marx's simple and compelling hypothesis, a nascent French proletariat unsuccessfully attempted to assert its political and social rights against a coalition of the bourgeoisie and lumpenproletariat, represented by the Parisian Mobile Guard. Through a detailed study of archival sources, Mark Traugott challenges this interpretation of these events and proposes an organizational explanation.Research has consistently shown that skilled artisans and not unskilled proletarians stood at the forefront of the revolutionary struggles of the nineteenth century. Traugott compares the social identities of the main participants on opposite sides of the conflict and sorts out the reasons for the political alignments observed. Drawing on work by Charles Tilly and Lynn Lees, Traugott demonstrates that the insurgents were not highly proletarianized workers, but rather members of the highly skilled trades predominant in the Parisian economy. Meanwhile, those who spearheaded the repression were little different in occupational status, though they tended to be significantly younger. Traugott's ""organizational hypothesis"" makes sense of the observed configuration of forces. He accounts for the age differential as a by-product of the recruitment criteria that Mobile Guard volunteers were required to meet. Finally, he explains why class position creates no more than a diffuse political predisposition that remains subject to the influence of situation-specific factors such as organizational affiliations. Armies of the Poor helps clarify our understanding of the dynamic at work in the insurrectiona

SUBJECT INDEX

age, 212 n. 40. see also under June insurgents; Mobile Guard; National Guard.; cohort hypothesis

generational hypothesis Albert (Alexandre Martin), 17, 24, 200–201 n. 18, 206 n. 18

Amiens, 108, 206 n. 19

Angers, David d', 229 n. 9

anomaly, 68–70

apprenticeship, 8

Arago, Dominique François, 17, 24, 203 n. 3

army

in February Days, 14–16, 30, 34–35, 44, 203 n. 3, 204 n. 5, 227 n. 2

in June Days, 30, 44, 45, 207 n. 22

pay, 204 n. 7

removal from Paris, 19–20

artisanal activism, 171–73, 176, 184, 218 n. 54, 256 n. 1, 257 nn. 2, 3

artisans. see also trade consciousness

autonomy of, 8–10, 172

June Days participation, 32

persistence of, 7, 256 n. 1

predominance of, 7, 10

work organization, 8–9

Atelier, l’, 201 n. 18

ateliers de charité, 234 n. 2

ateliers de secours, 117, 234 n. 2

ateliers nationaux. see National Workshops

Austria, 197 n. 1

bankruptcies, 10

banquet at twenty-five centimes Mobile Guard participation in, 48, 110

National Workshops participation in, 121, 143, 166, 255–56 nn. 28, 32

as preliminary to June Days, 166

banquet campaign. see reform campaign of 1847-1848

Barbes, Armand, 21, 144

barricades

in February Days, 15, 241 n. 21

in June Days, 28–30, 110, 122, 145, 210 nn. 34, 36, 37

Barrot, Odilon, 13, 16

Bezucha, Robert...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Transaction Edition
• Preface
• ONE. The June Days of 1848 in Historical Perspective
• TWO. The Constitution and Composition of the Parisian Mobile Guard
• THREE. An Organizational Analysis of Mobile Guard Political Orientation
• FOUR. The Transformation of the National Workshops from Instrument of Cooptation to Insurrectionary Core
• FIVE. Organizational Determinants of National Workshops' Political Orientation
• SIX. The Organizational Analysis of the June Days
• METHODOLOGICAL APPENDIX: Procedures Used to Construct the Mobile Guard Sample
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Subject Index