Peasants Into Frenchmen

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Having finished a very good book on the French Revolution, I was reminded of a book I read back in grad school that really impressed me. It was Peasants Into Frenchmen by Eugen Weber. It's that brilliant social history the French did so well for at least a couple of generations. The first part of the book is a treasure trove of nuggets about peasant life, then he moves on to talk about how country life changed over the course of the 19th century. The title of the book states his thesis (all titles should be so concisely elegant).

He talks about simple things, such as why getting peasants to switch from thatch roofs (serious fire hazard) to tile or slate proved to be so difficult. Or the obstacles to paying day laborers in coin rather than in kind.

The book is filled with quotes, and one really struck me, so I'll share it here. He was talking about changing aspirations among peasants in the latter third of the 19thc. The quote is from a school teacher in the countryside near the town of Nancy. Here's what he said, back in 1889.

"What used to be superfluous has become indispensable; we suffer deprivations of things our ancestors never heard of."

Plus la change, right?

 

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Another example I found fascinating is the difficulty coinage had in penetrating the countryside. The French Revolution upended a great many things, and one of the most disruptive was a push toward standards. This included coinage. The range of what constituted currency in 19thc France was simply astonishing (and dismaying, for officials in the towns). I liked the example of peasants in one area that found a large hoard of Roman coins. These they cleaned up and proceeded to use as currency, inventing their own equivalencies. Those coins circulated for a couple of generations.

But the item that really caught my eye was paying hired help. Day laborers in the mid-century got upset when peasants wealthy enough to hire day laborers started trying to pay their wages in coin. Those laborers weren't just accustomed to being paid in kind, and it wasn't just ignorant workers resisting change, though one should never overlook such factors. It was also that much of the business transacted in the countryside still was done by barter. Those coins had limited applicability--limited currency. They were not as valuable as being paid in kind. Being paid in wine and meat brought wine and meat to the table. Being paid in coin did not, or was not as immediately useful.

It makes sense. But it also makes sense that city folk would regard it as just another example of rural ignorance.