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This is a dense, difficult, yet fascinating book that will appeal to readers with a strong background in French history and scholars interested in the relationship between civil society and the state. It outlines what Gerson terms a “cult of local memories,” a movement that swept through France in the nineteenth century. This public effort of “unprecedented magnitude” (p. 3) involved the resuscitation of the local past and attachment to individual localities, reflecting anxieties about France’s future in the tumultuous period following the French Revolution. While a previous wave of French historiography represented nineteenth-century nation-building and modernization as a shift away from ties to local regions, with their distinct customs, languages and lifeways, towards national identification through relentless centralization, Gerson’s book joins the next wave of works that challenge this view, and shows instead how “the local and modernity were interlaced rather than inimical in France” (p. 2). Love of the local went hand in hand with nation-building, he argues, and the “cult of local memories” even contributed to processes typically associated with modernity, such as the rise of science, and increased civic participation. This is a work of remarkable scholarship that, strangely, does not adequately engage with the vast theoretical literature on social memory, leading to some notable omissions. Gerson never explains why he calls this phenomenon a cult of local memories, for instance, when much of what he describes involved historical research and writing. The book is primarily descriptive, yet may be sufficiently rich without another layer of analysis, for the diversity of activities he describes that comprise the “field of local memories” is astounding: monographs on local history were published by the hundreds, and scholars put forth dictionaries, inventories of archaeological sites, journals, and developed local learned societies, contests, and historical pageants. While some of these efforts were promoted or sponsored by governmental agencies such as the Comité des Travaux Historiques, most were carried out in the provinces by local elites: almost exclusively men, members of the landed aristocracy, local bourgeoisie (members of the liberal professions, public servants, factory owners and merchants), and the clergy. They organized themselves into an array of scientific and scholarly organizations that met regularly and participated in wider congresses. The author focuses exclusively on the activities of these elites and national and local state representatives and does not explore how these efforts may have been received by non-elite locals. He outlines this “cult” on a national scale, spotlighting activities in the department of the Nord. The periodicity of this book presumably follows that of the movement itself, but, as a result, the decades of concern here (1820s to 1880s) straddle several political regimes. This is refreshing, and certainly good historical practice, but can lead to confusion to all but those readers well versed in French history. During the “Restoration” (1814-1830), France was ruled by a Bourbon king, then Napolean I, followed by the Bourbons and then finally ultraroyalists under Charles X until the July Revolution of 1830. The “July monarchy” lasted until the “February” Revolution of 1848. A republic followed with Louis Napolean III as president, who led a coup in 1851, and ruled as emperor until 1870, when the Third Republic was established. Gerson argues for a certain continuity across this period, noting for instance that many key individuals engaged in the state’s efforts to promote local historical research survived these political shifts or reemerged in subsequent administrations, but it is unclear to this reader just how we should conceptualize “the state” across so many major political breaks. It is also not always clear what the ramifications of these many changes in government were either on the local elites engaged in the “cult,” or on officials sponsoring them. Perhaps in part due to so many regime changes, the motivations of the participants across this period were multiple and often contradictory. In the broadest sense, this “cult” can be viewed as a response to the French Revolution. During the Revolution, there was a considerable destruction of noble and church property, and a concern arose regarding the need to preserve those properties remaining and to inventory the nation’s new patrimony, including buildings, manuscripts, statues Reviews

journal of political ecology

The Pride of Place: Local Memories and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century France, Gerson, Stéphane (2003) Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Reviewed by Andrea Smith