The Pride of Place: Local Memories and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century France

Abstract

By Stéphane Gerson. Ithaca — London, Cornell University Press, 2003. xii+324 pp. Hb £33.50; $55.00. Pb £14.95; $24.95. This thought-provoking and impressively documented study challenges the view that nineteenth-century French culture and politics were essentially about urbanization, centralization and modernization. Gerson's point is that localism continued to matter, even when the grand narratives of nation-building appeared almost exclusively to focus on the construction of the ‘patrie’. This book gives further impetus to work on the local dimension that has been undertaken recently by Sudhir Hazareesingh, Peter Jones and Anne-Marie Thiesse. Gerson concentrates on the Département du Nord but he backs up his findings with examples taken from the Loiret, the Aveyron and elsewhere. He argues convincingly that it is wrong to conflate localism with expressions of rural conservatism. Liberals and republicans were just as involved as were traditionalists in the process of retrieving local history. Gerson highlights the contribution made by a certain André Le Glay whose passion for conveying the importance of the local history of his area remained constant whatever the nature of the regime in power in Paris. In addition to writing history Le Glay organized historical pageants and spectacles. Gerson examines the role played by Guizot's Comité des travaux historiques, the contribution made by local learned societies, the significance of emerging provincial periodicals and the intellectual networks that grew up around the increasing number of scientific congresses. He attends to the debates concerning regional languages and discusses the views of a range of figures including Génin, Ampère and Fortoul, as well as the neglected case of Pierquin de Gembloux. One fascinating example of the developing cult of local memory was ‘the great room’ that was built in Montargis in the 1840s. It contained panels that depicted great men of the area and functioned as a local version of the Panthéon, as a veritable ‘lieu de mémoire’. What interests Gerson is the extent to which such affirmations of local identity could be integrated within the celebration of the unity of the ‘patrie’ itself. Did the state involve itself in funding such initiatives in order to depoliticize local elites? Gerson demonstrates that the organized ‘pedagogy of space’ that we associate with the Third Republic and the policies of Buisson and Ferry (the institution of the ‘musée cantonal’) had much earlier roots. Attention is paid to the degree to which political squabbling invaded the attempts to encourage reverence for local identity. I particularly enjoyed reading what Gerson has to say about pageants and processions, especially the ‘fête des Incas’ that was organized episodically at Valenciennes between 1825 and 1882. This book will be essential reading for students of nineteenth-century France. However, it will also provide rewarding reading for anyone who has an interest, professional or otherwise, in the ways in which the state seeks to determine the research agenda and control the production of knowledge.