An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries
464
An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries
464Paperback
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Overview
Marie Aymard was an illiterate widow who lived in the provincial town of Angoulême in southwestern France, a place where seemingly nothing ever happened. Yet, in 1764, she made her fleeting mark on the historical record through two documents: a power of attorney in connection with the property of her late husband, a carpenter on the island of Grenada, and a prenuptial contract for her daughter, signed by eighty-three people in Angoulême. Who was Marie Aymard? Who were all these people? And why were they together on a dark afternoon in December 1764? Beginning with these questions, An Infinite History offers a panoramic look at an extended family over five generations. Through ninety-eight connected stories about inquisitive, sociable individuals, ending with Marie Aymard’s great-great granddaughter in 1906, Emma Rothschild unfurls an innovative modern history of social and family networks, emigration, immobility, the French Revolution, and the transformation of nineteenth-century economic life.
Rothschild spins a vast narrative resembling a period novel, one that looks at a large, obscure family, of whom almost no private letters survive, whose members traveled to Syria, Mexico, and Tahiti, and whose destinies were profoundly unequal, from a seamstress living in poverty in Paris to her third cousin, the cardinal of Algiers. Rothschild not only draws on discoveries in local archives but also uses new technologies, including the visualization of social networks, large-scale searches, and groundbreaking methods of genealogical research.
An Infinite History demonstrates how the ordinary lives of one family over three centuries can constitute a remarkable record of deep social and economic changes.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691208183 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Publication date: | 09/27/2022 |
| Pages: | 464 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 The World of Marie Aymard 14
Chapter 2 The Marriage Contract 31
Chapter 3 A Bird s-Eye View 58
Chapter 4 The First Revolution 88
Chapter 5 The French Revolution in Angoulême 120
Chapter 6 A Family in Changing Times 158
Chapter 7 Modern Lives 195
Chapter 8 Histories of Economic Life 219
Chapter 9 Family Capital 238
Chapter 10 Charles Martial and Louise 265
Chapter 11 The End of the Story 300
Acknowledgments 307
Appendix 1 Children and Grandchildren 309
Appendix 2 The Eighty-Three Signatories 315
Notes 329
Index 437
What People are Saying About This
"In Emma Rothschild’s remarkable analysis, a marriage contract in a Balzacian backwater becomes a portal into an ever-expanding historical universe spanning three continents and as many centuries. This is a strikingly original work full of surprising encounters, a brilliantly successful experiment in archival research, a meditation on historical writing, and a subtle exploration of the fortunes of individuals in their multiple frames of time and space."—Keith Baker, Stanford University"An Infinite History is an extraordinary achievement. It is impossible not to compare Rothschild to Zola, for only a master of the craft could begin with an ordinary illiterate woman and use the most up-to-date methods to recreate a social world. Shattering longstanding assumptions about the immobility of life in the hinterland, this rich tapestry of a book will become a classic of historical writing for years to come."—Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It Matters
"This astonishingly imaginative work combines a sweeping panorama of French society, from the Age of Revolutions to the eve of the Great War, with a subtly pointillist account of the personal quirks and individual destinies within a provincial city. Brilliantly achieved and written with warmth and wit, An Infinite History establishes Emma Rothschild as the Balzac of nineteenth-century history."—Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London
"This fascinating, groundbreaking book alters our assumptions about historical scale through the linked stories of little-known people who sold lemonade, argued over petty debts, lost their beloved dogs, searched for missing relatives, and got in all kinds of ordinary and extraordinary trouble across a tumultuous century. As their lives begin to incorporate far-flung locations across the world—from Saint-Domingue and Tahiti to Syria—their town in provincial France becomes a microcosm of global transformation."—Amy Stanley, author of Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World
"A history of the manifold and surprising connections that linked a remote and provincial corner of France to the rest of the country and the world, An Infinite History is at once delightful and profound. It is a genuinely remarkable work—thoroughly original, formidably researched and erudite, and beautifully written. I anticipate that it will receive ample praise and be read widely."—Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Study