Contributions À L'histoire Démographique De La Révolution Française by M. BouloiseauReview by: Vincent W. BeachThe American Historical Review, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Oct., 1963), pp. 120-121Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1904446 .

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I20 Reviews of Books thority and the nature of the surviving source materials make it 'impossible to identify the roles of Louis XIII, Richelieu, and the lesser ministers in determining policy. On the other hand, the book is rich in its analyses of the complex factors that influenced the making of policy and demonstrates the author's extensive knowledge of these administrative and personal realities. Particularly vivid are his handling of Chavigny's role as Richelieu's "contact man"l with Louis, Gaston d'Orl6ans, and lesser figures, and Bullion's personal manipulation of official fi- nancial dealings. In my opinion, the section on finances makes a most important contributon to an understanding of the war years of the reign. The book is also a valuable study of the power relationships, administrative techniques, and the abilities and contributions of certain key administrators during these years of crisis. It is indispensable to all who would understand the administrative and political realities of the period and the ways in which they both limited and were utilized by Cardinal Richelieu.

Brown Universsity WILLIAM F. CHURCEt

CONTRIBUTIONS A L'HISTOIRE DAMOGRAPHIQUE DE LA R]WO- LUJTION FRAN9AISE. By M. Bouloiseau et al. [Commission d'Histoire &onomique et sociale de la R6volution, Menoires et documents, Number I4.] (Paris: the Commission. i962. Pp. x75.)

IN a brief introduction to the six studies included in this volume, Marcel Reinhard explains that the general purpose of this and similar works is to determine how demographic factors influenced the course of the Revolution and how the Revo lution influenced the demographic history of France.

In the first of two articles dealing with the prerevolutionary period, Y. Le Moigne, in a study based on records in Strasbourg's Municipal Archives, presents convincing evidence that birth, marriage, and death rates in eighteenth-century Strasbourg are functions (within limits) of the price levels of wheat and rye. The city's population jumped from 30,000 in I700 to 50,000 in I789, but the means of subsistence did not increase proportionately. Consequently, wheat and rye were expensive between I770 and I789, and Le Moigne sees a direct relationship be- tween high prices for grain and a stagnant Strasbourg economy in which low wages and unemployment were the rule for the two decades preceding the Revo- lution. (In a general way, Le Moigne's conclusions support the depression thesis of Labrousse.) Marc Bouloiseau, using Haut-Normandie as his example, con- cludes that population estimates based on the feu (hearth, family, household) must be made with caution since its size and structure varied with the region, the period, or even the social class or tax under consideration. In the collection of the taille, for example, the feu included only the father, mother, and minor children. But in the administration of the gabelle, the chef de famille wag responsible for all persons living under his roof, and the feu might include his parents, brothers, sisters, and servants. In the first of the volume's contributions dealing with the

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Chapman: The Third Republic of France 12I

revolutionary era, Jean Iban6s, exploiting records of the census decreed by the National Assembly in I791, classifies and analyzes the population (4,I48 inhabi- tants) of a small section of Paris (Place des Vosges and neighborhood) in terms of birthplace, age, family structure, occupation, and social class. He finds that only 40 per cent of those living in this limited area were born in the capital, thus con. firming Chevalier's conclusion that most of the inhabitants of Paris during the revolutionary era came from the provinces. Jean Claude Perrot has chosen the city of Caen for a case study of passive citizens as enumerated in I792. He con- cludes that some 9,ogg of a total population of 35,0oo belonged to families in- cligible to vote, and he indicates, in imaginative graphs and tables, the geographi- cal distribution, the size of their families, and the rent they paid. Michel Vovelle has examined parish registers, fiscal rolls, state documents, and hospital records and has collected a mass of statistical data on births, marriages, and deaths in the city of Chartres from I760 to I820. In an impressive array of graphs and tables, he demonstrates that marriages and births zoomed during periods of crisis at the national level and that migrations from rural areas to Chartres during this era pro- vide evidence that the Revolution may have triggered a trend that was the pre- cursor of radical nineteenth-century changes in France's rural-urban population ratio. The series of studies concludes with notes by Reinhard and M. Merlet on special problems relative to the use of birth, marriage, and death records during the revolutionary era.

In their totality the articles represent original research of the highest order. The authors' conclusions are circumspect and cautious, fully cognizant of the limitations of studies based on isolated cases and limited numbers. They have achieved their basic objective: to define problems, indicate sources, and provide a methodology that will stimulate and guide future work in this field.

University of Colorado VINCENT W. BEACH

THE THIRD REPUBLIC OF FRANCE: THE FIRST PHASE, I87I-I894. By Guy Chapman. (New York: St Martin's Press. i96Z. PP. Xxii, 433. $I2.00.)

PvtoPssoit Chapman tells us that his projected three-volume study of the Third Re- public is directed to "the discovery and dissection of the events in France that led to the defeat and the downfall" of that regime in I940. He eschews "straightforward narrative history" and adds that in the age of demos (since I848), "it is impossi- ble to conceive pure political history." The first volume of his work nevertheless comes about as close to being pure political narrative as one can imagine, and the central problem that he has set out to elucidate tends to be swept under the rug. There are occasional chapters on social and economic matters, and in the final pages Chapman does seek to give some meaning to the story that he has told. Still, most of the book is devoted to a blow-by-blow account of parliamentary shadowboxing and is packed with detail about almost forgotten politicians and cabinet crises. At times, indeed, the narrative becomes so congested as to make

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