This book, first published in 1983, is a major contribution to our understanding of how and why French rural peasant society became modernised by radical changes in the communications system in particular, the coming of the railways. The author argues that complex changes in the transport systems, and their effects on agricultural market structures, finally brought traditional French rural civilisation to an end. With the extension of commercialisation, and the widening of horizons, new economic and social structures and changed attitudes rapidly came into being. Writing as an economic...

This book explores the manner in which the Roman Catholic Church in France responded to successive revolutions in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1871, as well as to the cultural upheaval associated with accelerating socio-economic change. It focuses on the Church as an institution; on the activities of its parish priests; and on the response(s) of those to whom they offered pastoral care. It takes a social and cultural approach, drawing on recently published prosopographical work by French historians as well as substantial archive research.