Blood In The City: Violence And Revelation In Paris, 17891945,New

The Terror Of 179394, The Paris Commune Of 1871, The Dreyfus Affairexplosions Of Violence Punctuated French History From The Start Of The Revolution Until The Liberation At The Close Of World War Ii. The Distinguished Scholar Richard D. E. Burton Here Offers A Stunningly Original Account Of These Outbursts, Concluding That Recourse To Political Violence Was Not Occasional And Abnormal, But Rather The Usual Pattern, In French History.Instead Of Adhering To Conventional Chronological Lines, Blood In The City Is Structured Topologically Around A Number Of Major Parisian 'Sites Of Memory,' Including Place De La Concorde, Sacr Coeur, And The Eiffel Tower. For Thirty Years Burton Has Visited And Revisited Paris, Crisscrossing The Streets On Foot, And Lived With Great Nineteenth And Twentiethcentury Literary Depictions Of The City. Drawing On Historical, Literary, Visual, Anthropological, And Psychological Sources, He Develops A Wideranging Account Of Violence In Modern French Politics. In So Doing, He Provides Powerful Insights Into Political Violence, Scapegoating, The Idea Of Sacrifice, And The Widespread French Obsession With Conspiracy.Burton Demonstrates That Time And Again The Same Basic Scenario Has Been Acted Out On The Streets Of Paris: One Or More People Would Be Singled Out From The Community And Imprisoned, Exiled, Or, More Often, Subjected To Violence By The Crowd Or The State. In Particular, He Explores How Catholicismin Its Extreme, Ultrareactionary Formshaped The Worldviews Of Parisians And How The Killing Of A Sacrificial Victim Came To Be Seen As A Reenactment Of The Crucifixion Of Christ.