Popular Rumour in Revolutionary Paris, 1792–1794

Description

This book examines the impact of rumour during the French Revolution, offering a new approach to understanding the experiences of those who lived through it. Focusing on Paris during the most radical years of the Jacobin republic, it argues that popular rumour helped to shape perceptions of the Revolution and provided communities with a framework with which to interpret an unstable world. Lindsay Porter explores the role of rumour as a phenomenon in itself, investigating the way in which the informal authority of the ‘word on the street’ was subject to a range of historical and contemporary prejudices. Drawing its conclusions from police reports and other archival sources, this study examines the potential of rumour both to unite and to divide communities, as rumour and hearsay began to play an important role in defining and judging personal commitment to the Revolution and what it meant to be a citizen. Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 1-35 “Prenez Garde Citoyens!”: Policing Popular Rumour (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 37-68 “Un Bruit de Frayeur Se Répand”: Informal Communication Networks and the Creation of Rumour (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 69-104 Rumour, Riots, Feasts and Famines (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 105-134 Rumour and Community: Solidarity and Conflict in the Sans-Culotte Neighbourhoods of Year II (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 135-170 Rumour, Reputation and Identity (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 171-203 Rumour, Denunciation and Terror (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 205-240 Conclusion (Lindsay Porter)....Pages 241-246 Back Matter ....Pages 247-267