Rules of Rebellion

In the spring of 1750 a fearful rumour spread around Paris: it was said that the police were abducting children in broad daylight, never to be seen again. This book is the story of that rumour and of the popular uprisings which followed in its wake. Through a close examination of archive material, the authors have reconstructed and event in pre-Revolutionary France which, though extraordinary, revealed general structures and trends in the society of the ancien regime. This book shows how, from the disorder of street rallies and the violence and chaos of the crowd, a new authority gradually emerged, one which was nourished by rumour and which foreshadowed the Revolution of 1789.