Revolution and environment in Southern France, 1780-1830 : peasants, lords, and murder in the Corbières /

In this cogently argued and thoroughly researched study, McPhee (Univ. of Melbourne) analyzes the four-decade long battle between peasants and former lords of the Corbi`eres, in southern Languedoc, over the control of the rough hillside of garrigues or wasteland used as sheep pastures, which the poorer peasantry seized and cleared in the aftermath of the French Revolution. This struggle culminated in the murder of two nobles by a band of villagers in the wake of the Revolution of 1830. Actions of the poorer peasants in massive land clearance occasioned an impassioned debate about the environmental consequences (soil erosion) of these essentially unchecked clearances. The debate over the rural environment and the war waged on illegal land clearance was also inextricably bound up with a significant shift in economic strategies. Much of the land seized and cleared on the commons by peasants was planted in vines and lead to a shift toward viticulture in the Corbi`eres. The acceleration of wine growing resulted from the initiatives of small producers profiting from the abolition of seigneurial and royal constraints on land use or illegal seizure and clearing of land and suggests the importance of far-reaching economic changes initiated by the poorest sections of the community. Tables; maps. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. J. Heimmermann; University of North Alabama