Synopses & Reviews
and#147;To the barricades!and#8221; The cry conjures images of angry citizens, turmoil in the streets, and skirmishes fought behind hastily improvised cover. This definitive history of the barricade charts the origins, development, and diffusion of a uniquely European revolutionary tradition. Mark Traugott traces the barricade from its beginnings in the sixteenth century, to its refinement in the insurrectionary struggles of the long nineteenth century, on through its emergence as an icon of an international culture of revolution. Exploring the most compelling moments of its history, Traugott finds that the barricade is more than a physical structure; it is part of a continuous insurrectionary lineage that features spontaneous collaboration even as it relies on recurrent patterns of self-conscious collective action. A case study in how techniques of protest originate and evolve, The Insurgent Barricade tells how the French perfected a repertoire of revolution over three centuries, and how students, exiles, and itinerant workers helped it spread across Europe.
Review
and#8220;Brilliant and elegantly written. . . . [A] masterful work of historical sociology.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This fascinating study should be a priority for every universityand#8217;s collection.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Insurgent Barricades is a work that should have been written ages ago, filling a gaping hole in revolutionary studies.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;An engaging and important book.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Captivating. . . . Careful and comprehensive. . . . Mark Traugott offers a magisterial history of the insurgent barricade. . . . A must read.and#8221;
Review
“An engaging and important book.” Peter L. De Rosa - The Historian
Review
“Readers of whatever discipline will . . . gain new insights into the insurrectionary impulse and the tradition of urban protest.” Christopher H. Johnson - Journal Of Modern History
Review
and#8220;Readers of whatever discipline will . . . gain new insights into the insurrectionary impulse and the tradition of urban protest.and#8221;
Synopsis
"Excavating a database of 150 barricades, large and small, successful and unsuccessful, Mark Traugott provides us with a natural history of the insurrectionary barricade and#151; its physiognomy, its development, and its diffusion. From its origins in sixteenth-century Paris to its culmination in the 1848 revolution, and from France to all of Europe, this memorable book is a model of how history and social science can be creatively combined to demonstrate how a key element of modern contentious politics emerged and diffused."and#151;Sidney Tarrow, author of Power in Movement
About the Author
Mark Traugott is Professor of History and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of Armies of the Poor: Determinants of Working-Class Participation in the Parisian Insurrection of June 1848 and the editor and translator of The French Worker: Autobiographies from the Early Industrial Era (UC Press), among other books.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
1. The Insurgent Barricade
2. The First Barricades
3. The Barricades of the Fronde
4. The Long-Term Incidence of Barricade Events and the Lost Barricades of the French Revolution
5. Barricades in Belgium, 1787and#150;1830
6. The Barricade Conquers Europe, 1848
7. The Functions of the Barricade
8. Barricades and the Culture of Revolution
Appendix A. Database of European Barricade Events
Appendix B. Did the Wave of Revolutionism in 1848 Originate in Paris or Palermo?
Appendix C. The Barricade and Technological Innovations in Transportat and Communications
Notes
References
Index