Crowd Actions in Britain and France from the Middle Ages to the Modern World

309 Pages·2015·2.467 MB·English

by  Michael T. Davis (eds.)

Crowd Actions in
Britain and France
from the Middle Ages
to the Modern World
Edited by
Michael T. Davis
Crowd Actions in Britain and France from the
Middle Ages to the Modern World

Crowd Actions in Britain and
France from the Middle Ages
to the Modern World
Edited by
Michael T. Davis
Griffith University, Australia
Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Michael T. Davis 2015
Individual chapters © Respective authors 2015
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
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ISBN 978-1-349-55766-0 ISBN 978-1-137-31651-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137316516
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crowd actions in Britain and France from the Middle Ages to the modern world /
Michael T. Davis.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Riots – Great Britain – History. 2. Riots – France – History.
3. Crowds – Great Britain – History. 4. Crowds – France – History. I. Davis,
Michael T., 1969– editor.
HV6485.G7.C78 2015
363.32930941—dc23 2015015596
Contents
Acknowledgements v ii
Notes on Contributors v iii
Introduction: The Arc of Violence: Riots, Disturbances of the Peace,
Public Protests and Crowd Actions in History 1
Jack Fruchtman, Jr
Part I Riots from the Middle Ages to the Age of Revolution
1 Heresy, Rebellion and Utopian Courage: The English Peasant
Rising of 1381 1 7
Mark O’Brien
2 Riot and Religion in Sixteenth-Century France 3 1
Penny Roberts
3 Protest and Rebellion in Seventeenth-Century France 4 3
William Beik
4 The Politics of Protest in Seventeenth-Century England 58
John Walter
5 Provisioning, Power and Popular Protest from the Seventeenth
Century to the French Revolution and Beyond 8 0
Cynthia A. Bouton
6 Food Riots and the Politics of Provisions in Early-Modern England
and France, the Irish Famine and World War I 101
John Bohstedt
7 Nights of Fire: The Gordon Riots of 1780 and the Politics of War 1 24
Nicholas Rogers
8 ‘Reformers No Rioters’: British Radicalism and Mob Identity
in the 1790s 1 46
Michael T. Davis
Part II Riots in the Industrial Era
9 Machine-Breaking and the ‘Threat from Below’ in Great Britain
and France during the Early Industrial Revolution 165
Jeff Horn
10 M ilitarization and Collective Action in Great Britain, 1815–20 179
Gordon Pentland
v
vi Contents
11 The Revolutionary Century? Revolts in Nineteenth-Century France 193
Peter McPhee
12 R ed May Days: Fears and Hopes in Europe in the 1890s 208
Chris Wrigley
Part III Riots in the Modern World
13 1968: Politics Takes to the Pavement 225
Brett Bowden
14 M aking Other Worlds Possible? Riots, Movement and
Counter-Globalisation 239
Tadzio Mueller and Sian Sullivan
15 R iots in Thatcher’s Britain 256
Peter Hayes
16 France’s Burning Issue: Understanding the Urban Riots of
November 2005 270
Raphaël Canet, Laurent Pech and Maura Stewart
Select Bibliography 293
Index 295
Acknowledgements
This volume has been a long time in the making. By exploring a topic that has
deep historical roots and contemporary relevance, this book was originally
conceived as something of a sequel to a volume co-edited with Brett Bowden
entitled T error: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism (2008). I would like to thank Brett
for his initial involvement in conceptualizing this book. I would also like to
thank all of the contributors for their enormous forbearance and continued
support as this project faced unforeseeable challenges that hindered its pro-
gress. The first of these was the passing of Charles Tilly who agreed to con-
tribute to the volume but most regrettably died in 2008 before being able to do
so. More recently, another original contributor – Roger Wells – suffered a tragic
fall that resulted in brain damage. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to
include Roger’s essay in the volume. At Palgrave Macmillan, this book was ori-
ginally under the wing of Ruth Ireland, before passing to Holly Tyler and now
Jade Moulds. I would like to extend my gratitude to each of these editorial staff
at Palgrave Macmillan for their help and patience throughout the project.
vii
Notes on Contributors
William Beik is Professor of Early Modern French Social and Institutional
History at Emory University. He has written widely on French history, including
Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-Century France: State Power and Provincial
Aristocracy in Languedoc (1985), which was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams
Prize by the American Historical Association; Urban Protest in Seventeenth-
Century France: The Culture of Retribution (1997); Louis XIV and Absolutism: A
Brief Study with Documents (2000). He is the co-editor of the N ew Approaches to
European History series published by Cambridge University Press. He is espe-
cially interested in aspects of the social and institutional history of sixteenth-
and seventeenth-centuries France, and one of his recent works is A Social and
Cultural History of Early Modern France (2009).
John Bohstedt is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. His forthcoming work is an essay entitled ‘The Politics of Food Riots
in World History’. He is the author of two books: T he Politics of Provisions: Food
Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, c. 1550–1850 (2010) and
Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales, 1790–1810 (1983).
Cynthia A. Bouton is Professor of History at Texas A&M University. Her works
include T he Flour War: Gender, Class and Community in Late Ancien Regime France
(1993) and I nterpreting Social Violence in French Culture: Buzançais, 1847–2008
(2012). Her current research focuses on the circulation of basic foodstuffs in
the Atlantic during the Age of Revolution.
Brett Bowden is Professor of History and Political Thought at the University of
Western Sydney. He also holds visiting appointments at the Australian National
University and the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence
Force Academy. His recent major works include C ivilization and War (2013);
The Empire of Civilization: The Evolution of an Imperial Idea (2009), which was
awarded the 2011 Norbert Elias Prize; and the four-volume edited collection,
Civilization: Critical Concepts (2009).
Raphaël C anet is a professor in the School of International Development and
Global Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. A sociologist and political
scientist by training, he was educated in both France and Quebec. His research
focuses primarily on forms of political action by crossing the study of col-
lective representations, political institutions and social practices. Amongst his
key works are T he Global Justice Movement: Social Forums, Resistance and New
Political Culture (2010); C risis of the State, Societies’ Revenge (2006); T he Neoliberal
viii
Notes on Contributors ix
Regulation: Crisis or Adjustment? (2004); and T he Nation in Debate: Between
Modernity and Postmodernity (2003).
Michael T. Davis is a lecturer in the School of Humanities at Griffith
University. His works include R adicalism and Revolution in Britain, 1775–1848
(2000); L ondon Corresponding Society (2002); N ewgate in Revolution: An Anthology
of Radical Prison Literature in the Age of Revolution (ed. with I. McCalman and
C. Parolin, 2005); Unrespectable Radicals? Popular Politics in the Age of Reform (ed.
with P. A. Pickering, 2008); Terror: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism in Europe, 1605
to the Future (ed. with B. Bowden, 2008); and Liberty, Property and Politics (ed.
with G. Pentland, 2015).
Jack F ruchtman , Jr is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program
in Law and American Civilization at Maryland’s Towson University, United
States. He has written, edited or annotated ten books. His work includes studies
of the political thought of Thomas Paine, Richard Price, Joseph Priestley,
Thomas Reid, Helen Maria Williams and Thomas Hardy, as well as the Marquis
de Condorcet and Jacques-Pierre Brissot. His most recent works include T he
Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine (2009) and the second edition of T he
Supreme Court: Rulings on American Government and Society (2014). He also serves
as co-editor of the Pickering & Chatto series on The Enlightenment World.
Peter Hayes is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sunderland, UK.
His research interests include political theory, ideology and social policy. His
recent works include a co-edited book T aiwan’s Long Road to Democracy (2009),
and articles in journals such as Pediatrics ; The International Journal of Law ; Policy
and the Family ; and Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics .
Jeff Horn is Professor of History at Manhattan College. He has written or
edited four books on the era of the French and Industrial Revolutions. His next
monograph entitled E conomic Development in Early Modern France: The Privilege
of Liberty, 1650–1830 will be published in 2015.
Peter McPhee has published widely on the history of France 1780–1880, par-
ticularly on the social history of politics. His most recent book is R obespierre:
A Revolutionary Life (2012). He was appointed to a personal chair in History
in 1993 at the University of Melbourne, where he was also the University’s
inaugural Provost from 2007 to 2009.
Tadzio Mueller is a political scientist, climate justice activist and translator
living in Berlin, where he works as a research fellow for the Rosa Luxemburg
Foundation. He has co-edited C ontours of Climate Justice , is a founding member
of Turbulence: Ideas for Movement, and has published widely on green cap-
italism and the German ‘Energiewende’. His current research focuses on