Meat Matters
Butchers, Politics, and Market Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris
Published on 24. July 2006
Book
Hardback
244 pages
978-1-58046-211-2 (ISBN)
Description
In this book, Watts examines why meat mattered to a growing number of Parisians and explores the political, economic and cultural matters of the meat trade in order to illuminate more fully the changing world of Old Regime Paris.
In eighteenth century Paris, municipal authorities, guild officers, merchant butchers, stall workers, and tripe dealers pledged to provide a steady supply of healthful meat to urban elites and the working poor. Meat Mattersconsiders the formation of the butcher guild and family firms, debates over royal policy and regulation, and the burgeoning role of consumerism and public health. The production and consumption of meat becomes a window on important aspects of eighteenth-century culture, society, and politics, on class relations, and on economic change. Watts's examination of eighteenth-century market culture reveals why meat mattered to Parisians, as onetime subjects became citizens.
Sydney Watts is Associate Professor of history at the University of Richmond.
In eighteenth century Paris, municipal authorities, guild officers, merchant butchers, stall workers, and tripe dealers pledged to provide a steady supply of healthful meat to urban elites and the working poor. Meat Mattersconsiders the formation of the butcher guild and family firms, debates over royal policy and regulation, and the burgeoning role of consumerism and public health. The production and consumption of meat becomes a window on important aspects of eighteenth-century culture, society, and politics, on class relations, and on economic change. Watts's examination of eighteenth-century market culture reveals why meat mattered to Parisians, as onetime subjects became citizens.
Sydney Watts is Associate Professor of history at the University of Richmond.
Reviews / Votes
[Meat Matters] provides an often fascinating and very suggestive addition to the literature on the 'consumer revolution' that has rarely yet treated the literally consumable. As a student of Steven Kaplan, Watts brings a many-sided exploration to meat similar to that Kaplan has developed magisterially for bread. . . Meat Matters explores a little known but central slice of eighteenth-century Parisian life, provides a cut across political, economic, and cultural issues that were inevitably intertwined but which are too often separated analytically, and offers a morsel of a pre-revolutionary political economy that was central to Parisian subjects/citizens. Isn't leaving you wanting more the sign of the best kind of meal? -- Julie Hardwick * H-FRANCE, June 2009 * Sydney Watts's remarkable book . . . examines the history of one of the oldest and most influential Parisian guilds -- the butcher trade and its development throughout the eighteenth-century. . . . Watts offers an excellent analysis of the complex relationship between the butchers and journeymen, guild members and governmental officials, husbands and wives, meat producers and consumers. -- Dorothee Brantz * JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY, Vol 81, No 1 *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Rochester
United States
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
6 s/w Abbildungen
6 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
512 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-58046-211-2 (9781580462112)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2006
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Person
Sydney Watts is currently an assistant professor of history at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
Content
Introduction
The Political Economy of Meat
Meat and the Social Hierarchy
Liberty and Regulation in the Cattle Markets
Order and Disorder in the Urban Meat Markets
Guild Unity and Discord
In the Service of a Master: Apprentices and Journeymen
Building the Family Firm: Marriage and Succession
Butcher Fortune and the Workings of Credit
Conclusion: The Rise of Meat
The Political Economy of Meat
Meat and the Social Hierarchy
Liberty and Regulation in the Cattle Markets
Order and Disorder in the Urban Meat Markets
Guild Unity and Discord
In the Service of a Master: Apprentices and Journeymen
Building the Family Firm: Marriage and Succession
Butcher Fortune and the Workings of Credit
Conclusion: The Rise of Meat