De campesinos a franceses: La modernización del mundo rural

by Eugen Weber, Jordi Ainaud i Escudero (Translator)

Un clásico indispensable para entender la historia de Europa y la formación de las identidades nacionales.

«Un libro magistral sobre un tema la formación de los sentimientos y las preocupaciones nacionales en la historia».

Juan Pablo Fusi

¿Cómo se construye una nación? Este revolucionario estudio de Eugen Weber, publicado originalmente en 1976 pero nunca traducido al español hasta ahora, ofrece una iluminadora respuesta a esa pregunta a través del caso de Francia, considerado el ejemplo más acabado de identidad nacional perdurable a lo largo del tiempo. Weber demuestra que, cien años después de la Revolución, millones de campesinos, que conformaban más de la mitad de la población, seguían llevando las mismas vidas que sus antepasados, con un contacto limitado y superficial con el resto del país.

A partir de los hechos pequeños, de los detalles de las vidas de la gente (el choque lingüístico entre el francés y los diversos patois, las fiestas populares, el papel de la música, la lectura y la prensa, los usos de cama de los jóvenes...), Weber da forma a una obra monumental y viva que revolucionó la historia social y de los nacionalismos. Describe de forma amena, documentada y provocadora cómo en Francia tuvo lugar una auténtica crisis civilizatoria a finales del siglo XIX, a medida que las ideas y las costumbres tradicionales iban sucumbiendo ante las fuerzas de la modernización. El ferrocarril y las carreteras fueron factores decisivos, al acercar regiones hasta entonces lejanas e inaccesibles a los mercados y los centros principales del mundo moderno. La producción industrial, por su parte, hizo redundantes numerosas profesiones campesinas y el creciente sistema educativo enseñaba no solo el idioma de la cultura dominante sino también sus valores, entre ellos el patriotismo. A la altura de 1914, Francia finalmente era «La Patrie» de hecho, y no solo en nombre.

La crítica ha dicho:

«Un luminoso relato donde queda perfectamente demostrada la importancia de los detalles en el estudio de la historia de la mayoría silenciosa».
José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec

«Una de las obras más importantes e influyentes que se han escrito sobre la forja de las identidades nacionales y los desafíos de la modernidad. Una lectura imprescindible».
David Jiménez Torres

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction, European History, Sociology, Politics, Political Science

800 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1976

About the author

Historian, fought in World War II

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

I
This book was brought to me by the letter S, or maybe by W. In that I started with great delight and page turning enjoyment, reached a great tiredness with a text, then I was completely irritated by the chapter on peasant politics, before swinging round into an appreciative critical distance and abruptly turning into vales of deep inward sighs.

Equally I can say that this is a book with a compelling thesis even though I expect that any and all of its details can be proven to be wrong or at least misleading. It is a book that I found interesting and suggestive on the soft stuff (mentalities, ways of life) but weak on the hard stuff (where did the money come from this in particular has given me an unscratchable itch, if agriculture was as basic and purely at a subsistence level a trope already in the days of Arthur Young and presumably only the case in a few areas as he describes then I can't see how the peasants could get money to pay for improvements to bring about the agricultural changes he says happened changing policies and practises).

II
Ok. Lets try and review this book, first the title. In one way it is ideal - it is a near perfect précis of the book. Peasants into Frenchmen, that's what it is about, the modernisation of rural France 1870-1914 tells us what time we are focussed on, and introduces the idea of modernisation. However from the start it is clear that it is not Peasants into Frenchwomen or making Peasants French, which would be subtly perhaps different books. Problematically neither Peasant nor Frenchman is never defined, legally after all the male peasant in France even before 1914 was a Frenchman so the title is from the start a suggestive tautology, the issue is linking to his final points about colonisation and development that the nation is not a fact or a thing waiting to be discovered, but implicitly a purpositive top down project that is deliberately created more or less consciously, unfortunately the deliberate and conscious element is precisely what is lacking from Weber's book so one gets only the sense of the peasant as an object being changed by outside forces (the peasant and peasant culture is explicitly described as inert) like wood on a lathe, while at the same time Weber wants to argue for acculturation - Peasants wanting to be part of bourgeois culture because they see it as useful what this book is about is perception, how we see ourselves and how we see each other. Weber suggests that Mr Average Peasant that there can be no such person is either the problem or the delight, Weber has been described as an Impressionist historian - and that feel completely apt during the nineteenth century and before would have thought of himself as belonging to his locality and that the abstract notion of France or being French was not how he would have described himself -nor would he have been regarded as French by Mr Average Parisian, but that by 1914, or 1918 possibly, the same Average Peasant (or his descendant) on the contrary would have thought of himself as French and might even have been regarded as such by Mr Average Parisian too.

The dates at first blush seem safe anchoring points but it quickly emerges that Weber will pull in information from throughout the nineteenth century and occasionally even before that before in the last chapter he spins around and tells us that 1870-1914 was just a phase in the process of modernisation, and not necessarily the most important one - but then that last chapter is particularly provoking.

III
Weber's thesis is simple, that the conjunction of improving transportation (rail and road), conscription (but particularly WWI), and education allowed greater mobility for peasants and either (increasingly) exposed them to, or obliged them to adopt standard French as their language, inculcated the abstract notion of France and that it had a history (and a geography, literature etc etc), led to economic change first through agricultural improvements, then through specialisation ending in more market orientation and greater involvement in the national economy both as consumers (of fertilisers, tools, manufactured products) and providers (of labour and agricultural produce), produced a profound change in the mindsets and thinking of the rural population so that one can think of their being a national identity across the whole of France. And that the early part of the Third Republic was particularly important for this as this period saw key legislation and spending - on local roads and railways, on building schools and providing universal elementary education which in turn allows for the penetration of the Parisian Press even into the village cafe curiously in Weber's France there does not seem to have been any regional press and before that there was legislation criminalising child employment which created a cadre of school age children excluded from the labour market with (theoretically) time in their hands as well as requiring education for reduced periods of conscription and access to government jobs.

IV
This is a book in three parts, each slightly shorter than the preceding one. The first gives a rich, generalised picture of country life as it was, the second looks at those forces of change mentioned above and also seasonal and permanent migration to towns, and the growing division between Priests and Peasants - which here is largely the same as in Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire and possibly that is a warning that Weber over eggs his pudding that the peasant is superstitious and fond of traditions and his religious practises - including making offerings to Menhirs, punishing the images of saints for bad weather - are not really like the version of Catholicism taught in seminaries, and local priests curiously, perhaps influenced by nineteenth century ideas of progress and rationalism seemed to find traditional practises particularly offensive and troublesome. While the Third part discusses the disappearances of traditional practises like Charvaris annoying neighbours who behave badly by singing and playing music by their house through the night and veillees neighbours sitting together telling stories and doing their knitting or singing in one person's house at night. The book is wrapped up with a chapter that plays with the idea of perceiving the modernisation of rural France as colonisation and development.

I found it a highly varied book to read, in place very enjoyable, in others the generalisations annoyed me, on the whole I feel the underdevelopment of the countryside is overstated, and Weber is in at least two minds over modernisation. One the one hand he invokes Max Weber's no relationdisillusionment and there is a distinct sense of loss over the end of a cohesive, self-sufficient world though it was probably in most parts of France less cohesive and self-sufficient than he implies even before the advent of the Third Republic, on the other he is very bland about Development: "Development is not an equivocal term. It means only one thing: greater production of material goods and greater accessibility of material advantages to all" (p.492) which is the kind of statement I expect from a dictionary not from history, which on the contrary shows that it is a term that can be contested, who is paying? Are power relations changed or reinforced? Development may be understood to imply greater accessibility of material advantages, but is that what actually happens? Weber sees the arrival of manufactured goods in the village as only a positive, even in the case of bread, which shocked me as the nineteenth century was a great age of food adulteration and that fine white bread perhaps had enough chalk in it to keep a school busy

I am, having read Christ stopped at Eboli which possibly introduced me to the idea of state formation as a process of internal conquest and coercion through the series of wars between the world of the peasants and that of the state that Levi says gave rise to Italy, sympathetic to the idea of the creation of the nation state as analogous to colonisation, but Weber's conclusion is really an invitation to write another book "Perhaps the currently accepted views of colonialism need some qualification...;perhaps the unfashionable fin-de-siecle views of "progress" deserve another look" (p.492). Well, perhaps, part of the problem is that in this book Weber describes top down processes - like the minister of Education in Paris issuing standard textbooks to all schools, and bottom up processes such as peasants going to markets which presumably had been going on for centuries rather than suddenly starting in the nineteenth century, so there is another question, or an earlier process, of the decline of local cultures in towns in the regions that has to occur before they can be place to influence the countryside and having to use standard French (and metric measures etc) to speak to customers rather than patois, processes that were directed and the results of political decisions and ones like the changing attitudes among village priests or then again that might reflect changes in seminary education or policies set by the Church hierarchy - Weber doesn't investigate.... Weber also doesn't investigate the decisions of the ministry of eduction or the process of creating standard textbooks (and with it the creation or imposition of a national pantheon. I did develop the feeling from Weber's book that maybe France has a strong centralising tendency because there is a fear that the blended soup of the modern nation will spring back into its constituent ingredients if the centre relaxes its eternal vigilance, surprisingly despite de Gaulle's plaintive cry of how can you govern a country that has 246 different cheeses there has no been that I have heard of an effort to create a standard unitary national Cheese. In the background I am naturally thinking that all this means it would be a good idea to re-read Imagined communities. One of the joys of this book is despite France being the exemplar of the modern European Nation state, is how Weber points out repeatedly that this was an arbitrary creation, first comes the state, and the Flag, and the national anthem, the nation itself needs far longer in the oven before it is ready to serve up.

V
I read The Discovery of France before reading this, and it is quite apparent that Graham Robb has also read this, his book is a lot shorter, softer and has more bicycles but is suspiciously similar to this even in its phrasing in places to the point that I am thinking about the P word.

This was an interesting contrast to Ancient Futures both have much the same perspective, but her book has more Buddhism and a belief in the environmental sustainability of traditional cultures. The picture here is far harder, Weber thinks French peasant culture was inert, while Norberg-Hodge stresses how really happy the people that she saw in villages were not that those two are mutually exclusive, Weber's peasants are more brutal, Hobbesian really except not lonely - which is their problem and less into recycling.

The chapter on peasant politics really mystified me and left me wondering if Weber ever paid attention to contemporary politics he also wrote about Fascism and authoritarian politics in other books, but he might not have paid much attention to actual politics or only knew about politics by reading political theory. But my bubbling frustration needs more space than I have left, or a seminar group to express itself.

Overall I found the book fascinating and provocative, but probably overstates the backwardness and isolation of rural France and definitely lacks hard data, preferring attractive anecdotes instead - but then that does make for a rich and entertaining read.

[Randy Mcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

People tend to forget how heterogeneous--ethnically, culturally, and otherwise--modern states used to be. Canadians are probably less likely to forget than citizens of other Western states, simply because their country is prone to innumerable fissures--Québec versus English Canada, West versus East, South versus North, even downtown versus suburbs, heartland versus periphery--but other countries evidence much the same fissures. Sweden, for instance, is traditionally thought of as the epitome of homogeneity; yet, throughout its history Sweden has received so many immigrants (Walloons, Germans, Finns, Balts, Dutch) as to become a melting pot even as successive Swedish sovereigns have fought to establish uncontested boundaries. (Sweden's modern boundaries were only defined in 1815, with the cession of Finland to the Russian Empire.) This convenient memory lapse might have been produced by the Western traditions of sovereignty established with the Peace of Westphalia: Thongchai Winichakul's excellent article “Siam Mapped: Making of Thai Nationhood,” (The Ecologist, September-October 1996), explores how Thailand and the Thai national identity have been molded by successive Thai governments the better to establish Thailand's maximum sovereignty and ethnic homogeneity.

At least people seem to forget this less often than before. We can probably thank Eugen Weber's classic Peasants into Frenchmen for this. France was Europe's first modern republic, and well into the 19th century France arguably ranked as the single most powerful state in the West. Most people believe the stereotype that France is a homogeneous society, yet well into 19th century as many French citizens regularly spoke languages other than French--Breton, Occitan dialects, Basque, Catalan, Flemish, Alsatian, Corsican--instead of French, and even in French-speaking areas provincial loyalties often transcended the putative bond of the nation. The introduction of immigrant languages only complicated this picture. Renan, in his famous attempt to define the French nation, said that any nation was defined by the consent of its component communities; Weber argues that if consent was involved, it was manufactured, engineered.

We know, thanks to the research that Weber inspired, the French case is prototypical for most other nation-states. The post-Revolutionary French state was concerned with eliminating troublesome political identities, but by and large for the first half of the 19th century this was limited to the centralization of national affairs in Paris and the pursuit of national glory. Under the Second Empire and--still more--the Third Republic, active steps were made to encourage the elimination of provincial loyalties. Urbanization and industrialization helped immensely, of course, dislocating traditionally agricultural rural communities and allowing a specifically Francophone modernity to penetrate. The growth of mass media--book and magazine publishing, popular music, and the like--also played an important role in making French trendy for the non-Francophone young and diminishing the intergenerational transmission of language. Weber brought a new perspective on the school as vehicle for francophonization; though it was less than successful in homogenous non-Francophone peasant societies (Brittany is the most spectacular example), in areas even minimally open to the French language it removed the children from the traditional norms of peasant society. In one interesting passage, Weber recounts how it took generations to convince the French masses to use the metric system, with measurement in the public sphere (distances, say, and commerce) succumbing more quickly than measurements relating to one's person. I myself, living in a country that converted to metric just before me birth, use kilometres but not kilograms. And now, almost all of France's minority languages are nearing extinction, and the Fifth Republic is far more universally Francophone than any of the previous republics or monarchies of France. Where France has gone, any number of other countries have followed or are trying to follow in their different ways--Thailand, for instance. The French nationalizing project mostly worked.

If this book has a fault, it is that it does not consider the substantial foreign immigration to France. Over the lifetime of the Third Republic, perhaps five million Europeans (at first Belgians, then Spaniards and Italians, then Poles, White Russians, and Armenians, among many others) immigrated to France, making their homes in town or country, assimilating with remarkable speed. This immigration has continued to the present, of course: The Frenchman of the early 21st century is now likely to have at least one grandparent of foreign birth, just like his/her American contemporary. It seems certain that the same methods used to acculturate Limousins to French norms were used to acculturate Ligurians; yet, there was little mention of foreign immigration apart from a mention of Flemish immigrants in Nord and other passing statements. One passage, in which he describes how the folkloric traditions of certain Parisian neighbourhoods disappeared as old generations died off and new residents came in, strikes me as useful. It would have been nice if there had been a sufficiently updated version to cover this, or an updated version to cover all of the scholarly innovations, for a fuller perspective on the integration and assimilation of all the unofficial non-Francophone cultures of France in English. We can, however, look forward for followup works--Graham Robb's The Discovery of France, for instance--to carry the torch.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A discussion of peasant life in France -- from the patois they still spoke instead of French, through the economy, and the practice of local justice, to the festivities -- and the forces that changed it -- compulsory education, roads, ability to buy thing down to lime for the fields -- and the resulting changes.

Very extensive. Down to how the peasants did not give up their brightly colored wedding gowns until some time after it became custom to get the bride a white veil.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in way over my head when I had to read this for a college course - THE college course - that was the most difficult I ever took. "I like France, I speak some French (un peu), my family has ties to France, yeah this class should be great!" I barely made it out alive. Though entirely unsympathetic, my professor was one of the most brilliant men I've ever had a chance to learn from, and aside from expanding my knowledge about this Gallic land, I became a much better student (in my writing, reading comprehension, and study skills) due to his methods. I thank him for that.

I know all of that doesn't really have anything to do with this book, but just know that it's a doozy. I might try it again in a few years, when I'm older and wiser.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

[Faheem · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible book. Few books will demonstrate better the difference between pre-modernity and modernity, and how we can never get the former back. Actually merits the book of the overused term of being a 'modern classic'.

[Anthony Zupancic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Huge, piercing history.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting read that challenges assumptions about the supposed strength and historic durability of the 'Frencg being French.'

With a rare sense of wit for academic literature, Weber makes a compelling case that the Third Republic, rather than historical through-lines going back to the Ancien Regime is when the centralized notion of French identity came about. Using a wealth of primary sources and drawing on folklore and popular literature of the time, Weber does a deep dive into the integration of the rural peasantry into the Parisian culture. At times, one does have to wonder whether he is being too broad-sweeping that there weren't modernization efforts prior to 1970, but overall the thesis feels compelling.

What really makes this book compelling is that it is a microcosm for concepts of state-building, national identity, and urban/rural cultural divides which are obviously still quite salient today.

[AskHistorians]

A classic if there ever was one. It's easy to get enamored with Paris and the Eiffel Tower and the Belle Epoque when we think of this period, but France has always been tricky: it's much more rural than you think, especially the southern half. Weber does a great job explaining how France was rural and how the Third Republic worked to bring rural France into the fold: peasants into Frenchmen.

[Eric Byrd]

I heard from a friend that this consists of many lurid anecdotes and squalid stories excavated from the archives of officialdom. Also, Horne's 'The Price of Glory' has made me very curious about France at the start of the last century.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense and detailed read. The argument can get lost in all the archival evidence, but the sources enable him to paint a very colorful picture of peasant life in 19th-century France. Had I more time to read this book, I could appreciate his ability to do so!

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book while in a history of modern France course studying in Istanbul and I still think about it often. It has been one of the most useful texts for understanding the creation of modern nation-states and its participants' identities.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

some might enjoy the detail but I found it a bit redundant at times.

[Conceitedreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

what i learned: what i learned is, the french peasant is even more backwards, dirty,and uncivilized than the inhabitants of Darkest Africa.

[Lashonda Slaughter Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you ever thought about French identity, nationalism, and the French people is wrong and in a glorious way.

[b.andherbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my graduate class on Nationalism and all I remember is that if the peasants had fresh bread things were pretty damn bad. Moldy bread = had enough to store and keep = times are good!

[Michael Albada · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're curious about the relationship between states and nations, it's hard to find a more interesting exploration than Peasants into Frenchmen. This compelling and meticulously researched account details how rural France was transformed from a collection of isolated, traditional communities into a unified modern nation. Eugen Weber delves into the sweeping changes brought by roads, railways, schools, and military service, which all served as tools for integrating rural peasants into a shared French identity. His narrative traces the gradual erosion of regional dialects, customs, and self-sufficiency, and the rise of a cohesive national consciousness driven by the state’s push for modernization.

Weber’s approach is both empathetic and critical, highlighting the often-overlooked resistance and ambivalence felt by rural communities as they faced pressures to adopt “French” values and norms. His exploration of modernization reveals the complexities and contradictions of this transformation—it was as much about loss as it was about progress. The nuanced stories he uncovers bring a human dimension to this historical shift, making the social and cultural costs of “progress” feel immediate and real.

This book resonates as a study of nation-building and the dynamics of cultural assimilation, and it prompts reflection on the costs and benefits of modernization. In an era of both rapid globalization and deep populist, anti-globalization angst and backlash, Weber’s insights feel timely, reminding us of the tension between local identity and centralized state influence.

[DW Rowlands · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic work was a very interesting and in-depth study of French peasant life between the founding of the Third Republic and the outbreak of World War I, a period that, Weber argues, saw the shift of peasant life from being fundamentally a continuation of what it had been under the Ancien Régime to something that looks fundamentally modern. I learned a lot both about Early Modern peasant life and about the transition, as well as about ways that French and English peasant life were different, since my knowledge of peasant life in the Early Modern period had primarily been focused on England. My one complaint, which is perhaps unsurprising in an academic history of French culture written in the 1970's, is that Weber assumes his audience is fluent in French, and so leaves most of his quotes untranslated, sometimes making it unclear what his argument is if one doesn't read French at all.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es increíble que este librazo, clásico total de la historiografía, estuviera sin traducir al español desde hace medio siglo. Título hermano de 'La persistencia del Antiguo Régimen, de Mayer, describe una Francia rural de ingreso muy tardío en la modernización, de campesinos de habla gutural e incomprensible, tradiciones que se pierden en el alba de los tiempos e innumerables supersticiones, en donde, de repente, en el quicio entre el XIX y el XX, un vendaval súbito acaba con todo hasta los cimientos. Brutal.

[Nacho Calvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

En este libro se explica la transformación sufrida por la sociedad rural Francesa en el s.XIX y principios del s.XX. Detalla con ejemplos y teorías el porqué y el como de tal transformación. A mí me ha hecho pensar sobre la transformación de la sociedad actual y los paralelismos con los de aquella época. Me parece un libro muy recomendable, y además creo que se pueden sacar paralelismos con las sociedades de otros países que sufrieran transformaciones similares en diferentes épocas con la misma intencionalidad, osea, la modernización.

[Teri Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una obra magistral que nos explica el proceso de modernización y nacionalización de Francia en el siglo XIX. Weber da un análisis profundo para mostrar cómo las políticas del estado moldearon la identidad nacional. Es una muy buena referencia para comprender el desarrollo de las naciones modernas. A pesar de que varios aspectos que presenta son ampliamente debatibles por su afán centralizador este libro ha resultado ser extraordinario.

[Julio · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best history books I ever read. It is not my intention to resume or describe the book because there are many reviews who do this.
I simply say that it present circumstances in the rural world that contract with the traditional view of the Belle Époque. The book describes many interest facts and anecdotes of the different live, and thinking of the regions of the periphery. 
I would that someone will write something as good as this about other countries in the same age.

[Kara Severson · Rating 1 out of 5]

i just read this bc i had to, not of choice

[William Guerrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive social history of rural France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, filled with fascinating detail. Not an easy read, but worth the effort.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would've been five stars for so effectively capturing a time and place but one star off for being kinda judgy

[Armistead B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of the decline of French the peasantry. I found it particularly interesting comparing the trajectory of rural France to the current situation in rural Togo

[TimEs · Rating 4 out of 5]

too much description, felt as though it lacked analysis for much of it. Otherwise, it's a pretty compelling case study for the development of France as a nation.

[Agnes Fontana · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'auteur nous montre comment les provinces françaises sont longtemps restées, contrairement aux images d'Epinal, des territoires étrangers les uns aux autres, misérables et sauvages ; comment tout cela n'a fini qu'avec la guerre de 14... structures familiales, mentalités, rapports au travail, à l'argent, traditions, fêtes... tout est examiné... Dommage que les auteurs cèdent à la tentation de l'exhaustivité et de l'érudition (en 1876, les scieurs de long du Nord du Limousin fêtaient la saint-Gaspard de la sorte...), le propos eût gagné en synthèse et en lignes de forces.

[Kåre]

Jeg kom ikke så langt. Tror at den kommer til at vise mange af de ting, man ved fra antropologi om "tilbagestående" folk, blot set i forhold til Franske landboere i perioden fra ca. 1850 til 1900. Interessant, at overgangen fra stor splittelse mellem land og overklasse i by kan tidsfestet til denne periode, som vel falder sammen med den nationale vækkelsesperiode. Men for at sige mere, skal jeg læse den bedre, og det var den for lang og ikke-fængende til.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penetrates luminously beyond its immediate area of investigation. I wonder: Whence the idea that "generality is the supreme faculty of the modern mind?" What an exciting philosophical precommitment, and apparently the only thing in the book that somehow escapes being footnoted...

[Charles Nicholas Saenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!