Armies Of The Poor Summary

Traugott, Mark. Armies of the Poor:Determinants of the Working-Class Participation in the Parisian Insurrection of June 1848. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2002.

The French Revolution of 1848 overthrew the Orleanist monarchy, and created the Second French Republic. In the four months that followed, the June Uprising would occur and the opposing forces this time would be the Mobile Guard and the National Workshops, both the repression and insurrection respectively, were former allies in the February Revolutions. The Mobile Guard would triumph over the National Workshops, and the ideals of revolution were abandoned. “Armies of the Poor” opens with Traugott seeing an anomaly in Karl Marx’s claims that the proletariat insurgents were
Head of the Mobile Guard, General Duviver was tasked with handling the young members of the repression. There were many insufficiencies of maintaining the Mobile Guard in the early days of its formation. But General Duviver proved himself capable of quelling the disorder within the Mobile Guard. Delays in payroll were a source of tensions in the first days of the Mobile Guard, “the threat of public order reinforced Duviver’s efforts….to regularize the situation” (94). Another crisis that arose was the lack of uniforms within the Mobile Guard. Though the uniforms had been promised, delays of delivery threatened a riot. The general did not ignore his corps demands, “the general’s paternal attentions seemed to have resolved the situation to their satisfaction, for no further complaints were registered…”(95). Maintaining order and authority was a difficult task in the National Workshops. Emilie Thomas, head of the National Workshops, did not anticipate the “insuperable difficulties due in large part to the phenomenally rapid growth of the membership” (155). Thomas had expected membership enrollment to peak at 10,000, but its rapid growth to over 100,000. The overwhelming amount of members made it difficult to control. Thomas had hoped to personal connect with the members, but it was not possible due to its numbers. The differences between the repression and the insurgents on
He is careful to note discrepancies between his research and with the research of other published works, especially in chapter two when statistic evidence is provided to demonstrate the not so far occupational differences between the mobile guard and the rest of the Parisian population. Not only has Traugott conducted careful research, he is able to give life to the subjects of his research. Not only does Traugott provide statistical data and historical fact to reinforce his claims, he also grants background information about historical characters of importance in his study, allowing readers to enjoy the full extent of the times