"The Flâneur, the Badaud, and the Making of a Mass Public in France, circa 1860-1910," American Historical Review 109:1 (February 2004).
ERRATUM
In describing the social strife of the late nineteenth century—evidence, I suggest, that the image of the depoliticized crowd was an ideological fantasy—I point to the infamous episode of the May Day massacre of Fourmies, in which the army opened fire on a large group of working-class protesters. I say that the massacre left fourteen dead, but give no reference. In fact, the army fusillade left nine dead, including a ten or eleven year-old boy, and wounded thirty-some other demonstrators.
I'm not precisely sure how I arrived at the number of fourteen dead, though in searching out the correct figure—after re-reading the account of the massacre and its aftermath in Maurice Agulhon, The French Republic, 1879-1992 (1993)—I've seen numerous references to ten, twelve and fourteen dead, errors likely due to the various accounts in the press reporting of the day. The London Times reported fourteen dead and forty wounded (May 14, 1891). In its first reports on these events, Le Figaro (May 2, 1891) counted seven dead. The next day, it recognized twelve dead and sixteen wounded, "two of whom will probably be dead by the time I send you these lines." Louis Pastouras noted that ten workers were killed in these events, citing La Révolte of May 9, 1891 (The Anarchism of Jean Grave, 2003, 46). After investigating the situation, the correspondent for Le Figaro counted nine individuals dead, but noted that another individual, dead of "une attaque d'apoplexie que lui a donnée l'émotion," should also be figured among the victims. Regarding the other wounded individuals, the correspondent noted: "I won't follow the example of many newspapers, having them die prematurely." (Le Figaro, May 4, 1891).
In the contentious social struggles of the 1890s, nine victims were quite enough to show that all was not right in the Republic. In the Chamber of Deputies a few days later, Georges Clemenceau put it in these terms: "The dead are strong persuaders. One must pay attention to the dead.... I tell you that the primary fact of politics today is the inevitable revolution which is preparing.... The Fourth Estate is rising and reaching for the conquest of power. One must take sides. Either you meet the Fourth Estate with violence or you welcome it with open arms. The moment has come to choose." (Quoted in Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower, 1966, 409). Fourmies would become a rallying cry for anarchists and socialists. Ironically, it would also become a rallying cry for anti-semites, who claimed that Jews were behind the massacre (see Edouard Drumont conspiratorial tract, Le Secret de Fourmies, 1892).
For a description of these events and a handful of primary sources, see the dossier on "Le 1er Mai à Fourmies," at Patrimoine et Ouverture Européenne, the website of the Sous-Commission Patrimoine of the CAAC, http://www2.ac-lille.fr/patrimoine-caac/.
Last updated on June 13, 2007.