Le citoyen secoureur. Secours publics, sauveteurs et secouristes en France à la fin du XIXe siècle

Abstract

The Helpful Citizen. Public Assistance, Rescuers, and First-aid Workers in XIXe Century France. Frédéric Caille [39-50]. This article deals with the management of collective risks in the French public space during the nineteen century. It studies two interest groups : the «rescuers» and the members of forst aid associations established between 1850 and 1900, and how they did not really attend to public safety but much more to the social construction of republican citizenship. The critic examination of the two main claims of these groups illustrates the permanence of their project : defense and illustration of the social exemplarity of a generic figure, the devoted, helpful and courageous citizen.