Who Would Like This Book:
If you love quirky corners of history and want to peek into the real lives and mindsets of everyday folks in 18th-century France, this book is a treat. Darnton explores everything from fairy tales to city parades, digging out the strange, sometimes dark details at the heart of daily life before the Revolution. It’s perfect for fans of microhistory, those curious about cultural anthropology, or anyone who wants a fresh perspective on how ordinary people truly lived and thought in a very foreign-feeling past. The writing is full of odd facts and lively anecdotes that bring the period vividly to life.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Readers craving a strictly political or event-driven history might find this one a bit meandering. Some felt the book was uneven, with certain chapters more academic or dry than others, and a lack of clear structure throughout. If you want big-picture analysis of the French Revolution or definitive arguments rather than exploratory essays, you might be left wanting more. Also, some criticized the selectiveness in Darnton’s sources and wished for firmer conclusions.
About:
'The Great Cat Massacre' by Robert Darnton is a classic of microhistory, focusing on six episodes in 18th-century French cultural history. Darnton's approach is fascinatingly different as he delves into the specific cultural artifacts of peasants' Mother Goose rhymes, urban workers' revolt through the cat massacre, and philosophers' encyclopaedia, among others. intricately weaves together details about various classes, occupations, locations, and economic statuses in 18th-century France, presenting a detailed and innovative approach to learning about history.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include descriptions of animal cruelty and references to historical social injustices, which may be sensitive to some readers.
From The Publisher:
The landmark history of France and French culture in the eighteenth-century, a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
When the apprentices of a Paris printing shop in the 1730s held a series of mock trials and then hanged all the cats they could lay their hands on, why did they find it so hilariously funny that they choked with laughter when they reenacted it in pantomime some twenty times?
Why in the eighteenth-century version of Little Red Riding Hood did the wolf eat the child at the end?
What did the anonymous townsman of Montpelier have in mind when he kept an exhaustive dossier on all the activities of his native city?
These are some of the provocative questions the distinguished Harvard historian Robert Darnton answers The Great Cat Massacre, a kaleidoscopic view of European culture during in what we like to call "The Age of Enlightenment." A classic of European history, it is an essential starting point for understanding Enlightenment France.
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