East Baton Rouge Parish Library

Soldier and peasant in French popular culture, 1766-1830, David M. Hopkin

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-384) and indexes

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Soldier and peasant in French popular culture, 1766-1830

bibliography

818734949

David M. Hopkin

Royal Historical Society studies in history. New series,, 0269-2244

Revolutionary France gave the modern world the concept of the "nation-in-arms", a potent combination of nationalism, militarism and republicanism embodied in the figure of the conscript. But it was not a concept shared by those most affected by conscription, the peasantry, who regarded the soldier as representative of an entirely different way of life. Concentrating on the militarised borderlands of eastern France, this book examines the disjuncture between the patriotic expectations of elites and the sentiments expressed in popular songs, folktales and imagery. Hopkin follows the soldier through his life-cycle to show how the peasant recruit was separated from his previous life and re-educated in military mores; and he demonstrates how the state-sponsored rituals of conscription and the popular imagery aimed at adolescent males portrayed the army as a place where young men could indulge in adventure far from parental and communal restraints. The popular idea of moustachioed military folk-heroes contributed more to the process of turning "peasants into Frenchmen" than the mythology of the "nation-in-arms"