A Case for Dissidence in Occupied Paris: The Zazous, Youth Dissidence and the Yellow Star Campaign in Occupied Paris (1942)
In Occupied Paris in June 1942, non-Jewish Parisians protested against the ordinance requiring Jews to wear the yellow star. Based largely on police archives, this article examines a subgroup within the protest made up of non-Jewish youth known as the Zazous. The Zazous were known for their attraction to jazz swing culture, music and dress, [...]
Living the Enlightenment in an Age of Revolution: Freemasonry in Bordeaux (1788-1794)
Despite the assumed connections between Freemasonry and the French Revolution, the historiography of the brotherhood during this period remains remarkably thin. Using newly available archival holdings, this microhistory reconstructs Masonic life in Bordeaux, focusing specifically though not exclusively on the Anglaise lodge, from the calling of the Estates General to the fall of Robespierre. It [...]
Mettons Toujours Londres: Enlightened Christianity and the Public in Pre-Revolutionary Francophone Europe
The existence of a Christian Enlightenment in eighteenth-century francophone Europe has started to gain some recognition in recent studies. Using a case study of the letters Georg-Jonathan von Holland sent to the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel while in the process of publishing his refutation of the baron d’Holbach’s materialist Système de la nature, this article [...]
The Sacrifice of the Mass and the Redefinition of Catholic Orthodoxy during the French Wars of Religion
Before the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion, there was internal disagreement over whether the Church should concede points of theology to Protestantism for the sake of concord. Charles de Guise, cardinal de Lorraine, sought a compromise with Lutherans in the Holy Roman Empire and was prepared to forgo the sacrificial aspect of the [...]
The Right to Punish: Jurisdictional Disputes between Royal and Municipal Officials in Medieval Toulouse
Over the years, scholars have worked to unpack the meaning behind the gory punishments and numerous executions of the later Middle Ages. Most studies have concentrated on how punitive spectacles represented the king’s justice and have missed the opportunity to examine the competition over punishment between authorities outside the French royal realm. By studying criminal [...]