Merchants, Landlords, Magistrates: The Depont Family in Eighteenth-Century France

Originally published in 1980. A social historian of modern France, Robert Forster discovered a series of father—to—son letters that presented an unusual opportunity to trace in human terms the impact of institutions and cultural norms on eighteenth—century French society. From these letters and other family papers, Forster reconstructed a family biography of the Deponts of La Rochelle over four generations. Their story affords new insights into the workings of institutions—economic, religio...