Mass Violence and the Self: From the French Wars of Religion to the Paris Commune

312 Pages·2019·6.441 MB·English

by  Howard G. Brown

Mass Violence and the Self

Mass Violence
& the Self
from the french wars
of religion to the
paris commune
Howard G. Brown
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ithaca & London
Copyright © 2018 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in
writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University
Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit
our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.
First published 2018 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brown, Howard G., author.
Title: Mass violence and the self : from the French wars
of religion to the Paris Commune / Howard G. Brown.
Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018014899 (print) | LCCN
2018017113 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501730702 (pdf) |
ISBN 9781501730726 (epub/mobi) |
ISBN 9781501730610 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Violence—France—History. | Political
violence—France—History. | Psychic trauma—France—
History. | Collective memory—France—History. |
Identity (Psychology) —France—History. | Group
identity—France—History. | Self (Philosophy) —
France—History.
Classification: LCC HN440.V5 (ebook) | LCC HN440.V5
B78 2018 (print) | DDC 303.60944—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014899
Cover image: Detail from The Massacre at Lyon, ordered by Collot d’Herbois
at the head of 100000 sans-culottes. Stipple engraving by James Idnarpila
(Giacomo Aliprandi) after original by Jacques Bertaux (London, 1804).
Bibliothèque nationale de France.
contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: A Discourse on Method 1
1. Massacres in the French Wars of Religion 34
2. The Fronde and the Crisis of 1652 77
3. The Thermidorians’ Terror 113
4. The Paris Commune and the “Bloody Week” of 1871 161
Conclusion 216
Notes 229
Index 277
Plates are at the end.
v

illustrations
Figures
Figure 1. “The Massacre at Cahors in Quercy, 19 November 1561” 57
Figure 2. “The Massacre at Sens in Burgundy done by the populace in
the month of April 1562” 60
Figure 3. Catholic polemic: Huguenots as iconoclastic monkeys
subjugating a lion that represents both Lyon and France 72
Figure 4. A supporter of the Fronde exhorting Parisians to revolt against
Cardinal Mazarin 87
Figure 5. The Hôtel de Ville in Paris during the Fronde 101
Figure 6. The entry of Louis XIV into Paris, 21 October 1652 111
Figure 7. Drowning rebels in the Loire during the Vendée civil war of
1793 125
Figure 8. “Government of Robespierre.” Samson the executioner, having
already guillotined various groups of people, cuts off his own
head. 128
Figure 9. “Monument raised to the spirits of victims immolated at Lyon
by the terrorists” 150
Figure 10. Royalist cutthroat with an assault on a Jacobin in the
background 157
Figure 11. “Massacre that happened at Montpellier” (fictional) 158
Figure 12. “Incendiaries: pétroleuses and their accomplices” 173
Figure 13. Communards killed defending a barricade, 24 May 1871 180
Figure 14. “Paris—Summary execution of insurgents, agents of the
Commune, rue Saint-Germain-L’Auxerrois, 25 May at 6:30” 181
Figure 15. Rebels killed in the fighting at La Roquette prison during
Bloody Week 182
Figure 16. “The end of the Commune. The execution of a
pétroleuse.” 183
Figure 17. “Memories of the Commune—an execution in the
Luxembourg Gardens” 185
vii
viii List of Illustrations
Figure 18. “Arresting women, one in a National Guard uniform, accused
of shooting an officer” 186
Figure 19. “A column of incendiaries led to the Champs de Mars, 24
May” 199
Figure 20. Visitors leaving accused Communards imprisoned at the
military camp of Satory near Versailles 200
Plates (at the end)
Plate 1. “The Massacre at Vassy the first of March 1562”
Plate 2. “The Massacre at Tours done by the populace in the month of
July 1562”
Plate 3. Protestant iconoclasm at Lyon
Plate 4. Assassination of Admiral Coligny and massacre of Saint
Bartholomew’s Day
Plate 5. Desecration of graves by Protestants
Plate 6. “Narrative of Mazarin being forced into exile at Sedan”
Plate 7. “Pillaging and Burning a Village”
Plate 8. Massive procession of the relics of Sainte Geneviève and others
at Paris on 11 June 1652
Plate 9. Battle in the faubourg Saint-Antoine between rebel forces under
the Prince de Condé and royalist forces under Marshal Turenne,
2 July 1652, with the Bastille in the background
Plate 10. “The Massacre at Lyon ordered by Collot d’Herbois in 1793”
Plate 11. “Plagues of Egypt or the state of France from 1789 to the
establishment of the current constitution”
Plate 12. “The Harsh Means of Joseph Lebon”
Plate 13. “Tableau of some of the crimes committed during the
Revolution and especially under the National Convention”
Plate 14. Destruction on the rue de Rivoli in Paris, May 1871
Plate 15. “Their Works.” Five “infamous” civilian and military leaders of
the Versailles government led by Adolphe Thiers
Plate 16. “Massacre of the Dominicans from Arcueil, 25 May 1871”
Plate 17. Paris burning
Plate 18. “Women defending the barricade at the Place Blanche”
Plate 19. “Capturing Montmartre on 23 May”
Plate 20. “Attack on the Place Vendôme on 23 May”
Plate 21. “Death of M. Darboy, Archbishop of Paris”
Plate 22. Burned ruins of the Hôtel de Ville
List of Illustrations ix
Plate 23. “Shrouding the dead at the Ambulances de la Presse: harvest of
one day’s combat”
Plate 24. “A corner of the room for those shot and deposited at the
Ambulances de la Presse, rue Oudinot”
Plate 25. Identifying a dead body after the taking of a barricade
Plate 26. “To his excellence Monsieur Thiers, head of the executive
power of the rural Republic. Bravo Adolphe! William is just a
coward!!!”
Plate 27. Corpses photographed during May 1871 for the purpose of
identification
Plate 28. Self-commissioned photographs of members of the Commune
Pilotell and Gaudon in a photograph album assembled by the police
Plate 29. Communards photographed by Eugène Appert in the prisons
of Versailles