`This is a remarkable piece of historical scholarship...It will become required reading for the vast armies of labour, social and political historians, some of whom will be infuriated, most enraptured, all of whom will be impressed and inspired.' Professor Jolyon Howorth, University of Bath. France was not only the home of the `classic' bourgeois revolution of 1789 but also of some of the earliest and most dramatic episodes of working-class revolt. This book is the first attempt in English to offer a synthesis of the wealth of material on this history. It not only presents an overview of changing structures but also examines working class politics and culture in the century and a half from the Revolution to the Popular Front. Roger Magraw combines `classic' labour history (the study of worker activists, unions and strikes) with an analysis of the changing strategies of state and capitalist elites towards labour and on labour. He also examines working class life and culture, including notions of community, religion and anticlericalism, popular education and familty structures, and discusses the attitudes and role of women workers, immigrants and young workers. Whilst incorporating the insights of recent `revisionist' historiography, Roger Magraw seeks to re-emphasise the genuine historic achievements of the French labour movement.

Author Biography

Roger Magraw previously taught at the University of Leeds and is currently a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Warwick.