After the French Revolution and the dissolution of the monastic orders, the great Abbey of Cluny in France was closed and the buildings were sold for materials. This process went on for nearly thirty years, just as a romantic appreciation of the medieval past was gaining popularity. Although the government was unable to halt most of the demolition work, one transept arm with a large and small tower was saved from ruin, along with a few small Gothic buildings and the eighteenth-century cloister. Efforts to preserve, repair, and reuse the remains waxed and waned for a century while historians wrote with regret about the abbey’s demise. In 1927, Kenneth Conant came from Harvard to excavate the site with American funding in order to prepare full-scale reconstructive drawings of the abbey. Conant’s vision of medieval Cluny entered the art-historical canon and placed Cluny at the center of debates about Romanesque architecture and sculptural decoration in Europe. This study follows the discursive history of the site while investigating the role of memory in the construction of the past and the development of the conception of heritage and patrimony in France. FOREWORD BY GILES CONSTABLE AND AVANT-PROPOS D'ERIC PALAZZO "Marquardt’s account of the modern resurrections of medieval Cluny is a riveting one." "...her research urges a rethinking of the modern conceptual structures that guide our study and interpretation of medieval art and culture." "Marquardt meditat[es] on the complex ideas, histories, events, and touristic activities (including the performance of pageants) that contributed to the fashioning of Cluny as a “memory site.” Kathryn L. Brush, University of Western Ontario (Canada)
This book analyzes the negotiation of socio-political concepts, such as citizenship, republicanism, and representation, between “ordinary” French citizens and their representatives in parliament during the early twentieth century. By examining the letters written to French Deputies of the Chamber (députés) at a tumultuous time in French political history, the author sheds light on the role that politically unorganized citizens played in the process of democratization. Central to the investigation are the aspirations, wishes and demands of individuals acting on their own or as spokespersons for informal communities. The way that they formulated personal requests in their letters to députés reveals their expectations of political representatives, the regime, and their own place in society. By taking a closer look at the epistolary relations between voters and non voters on the one hand and their deputies on the other during a time of rapidly succeeding governments, economic crises and changes in electoral laws, this book demonstrates how the Third Republic’s existence was co-determined by ordinary citizens’ perceptions of the regime. Helping readers to reflect on the nuances of the politicization process, this innovative book offers unique insights for those researching French political history and modern European political culture.
How war gave birth to revolution in the 19th century The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 introduced new military technologies, transformed the organization of armies, and upset the continental balance of power, promulgating new regimented ideas of nationhood and conflict resolution more widely. However, the mass armies that became a new standard required mass mobilization and the arming of working people, who exercised a new power through both a German social democracy and popular insurgent French movements. As in the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Paris Commune of 1871 grew directly from the discontent among radicalized soldiers and civilians pressed into armed service on behalf of institutions they learned to mistrust. If this militarized class conflict, the brutality of the Commune's subsequent repression not only butchered the tens of thousands of Parisians but slaughtered an old utopian faith that appeals to reason and morality could resolve social tensions. War among nations became linked to revolution and revolution to armed struggle.
Annotated selected list of floras and floristic works relating to vascular plants, including bibliographies and publications dealing with useful plants and vernacular names.