Abstract
Baker has shown recreational voluntary associations as having flourished in France during the 1880s and 1890s, animating the cultural lives not only of large towns but also of many small villages. He reveals a strong associational movement and rejects the orthodox view that individualism was the key characteristic of provincial, rural society in France between 1870 and 1914. In broad terms, amateur musical societies and sports clubs spread from the north and east of France to areas in the south and west but, more specifically, they diffused from Paris to the provinces and down the settlement hierarchy from urban to rural areas. Their development was most marked in the more economically advanced regions with good communications. The success or failure of individual associations was closely linked to the social and technical skills of their key agents, many of whom were schoolteachers or priests. Focusing on the concepts of sociability and fraternity, Baker shows that while musical societies and sports clubs were practical expressions of social co-operation they also exhibited the contrary characteristic of competition (both among members of an association and among different associations). Furthermore, they also reflected the fundamental conflicts around politics and religion which permeated French society between 1848 and 1914, as well as social tensions based on occupation, class, age and gender. Hostility was as much a feature of the associational scene as harmony.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Andersson, G. 1982. ‘Education and entertainment: a study of the civilian Swedish wind bands during the latter part of the nineteenth century’. Upsaliensis 7, 155–60.
Arnaud, P. 1987a. (ed.) Les athlètes de la République: gymnastique, sport et idéologie républicaine 1880/1914 (Paris: L’Harmattan).
———. 1987b. ‘La sociabilité sportive. Jalons pour une histoire du mouvement sportif associatif’, in Arnaud (1987a), 359–84.
———. 1988. ‘La trâme et la chaîne: le réseau des sociétés conscriptives (1870–1890)’. Sport Histoire 1, 41-83.
Arnaud, P. and Camy, J. (eds). 1986. La naissance du mouvement sportif associatif en France: sociabilités et formes de pratiques sportives (Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon).
Baker, A. R. H. 1995. ‘Locality and nationality: geopieties in rural Loir-et-Cher (France) during the nineteenth century’, in S. Courville and N. Séguin (eds) Espace et culture; space and culture (Sainte-Foy, Québec: Les Presses de l’ Univesité Laval), 77–88.
———. 2013. ‘Pigeon-racing clubs in Pas-de-Calais, France, 1870–1914’’. Journal of Historical Geography 41, 1–12.
Bythell, D. 1997. ‘Provinces versus metropolis in the British brass band movement in the early twentieth century: the case of William Rimmer and his music’. Popular Music 16, 151–63.
Cambon, J. 2011. Les trompettes de la République: harmonies et fanfares en Anjou sous la Troisième République (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes).
Carlini, A. 2007. ‘Les bande dans l’Italie du XIXe siècle’, in Bödeker, H. E. and Veit, P. (eds) Les sociétés de musique en Europe 1700–1920. Structures, pratiques, sociabilités (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag), 401–29.
Chaline, J.-P. 1998. Sociabilité et érudition: les sociétés savantes en France (Paris: Éditions du C.T.H.S).
Chambat, P. 1997. ‘Les vitrines de la République. Unifromes, défilés, drapeaux dans les fêtes de gymnastique en France (1879–1914)’, in Arnaud, 259–68.
Charle, C. 1994. A social history of France in the 19th century (Oxford: Berg).
Chevalier, M. 1980. La vie humaine dans les Pyrénées ariègoises (Tarascon: Éditions M. Th. Genin).
Couderc, G. 2010. ‘Sociétés chorales et renaissance de la musique anglaise,1840–1914’. Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens 71, 403–17.
Corbin, A. 1995a. (ed.) L’avènement des loisirs 1850–1960 (Paris; Aubier).
———. 1995b. ‘La fatigue, le repos et la conquête du temps’, in Corbin (ed.), 276–98.
Defrasne, J. 2004. Histoire des associations françaises (Paris: L’Harmattan).
De Planhol, X. 1994. An historical geography of France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Dine, P. 1994. ‘The tradition of violence in French sport’, in R. Günther and J. Windebank (eds), Violence and conflict in modern French culture (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press), 245–60.
Etheridge, S. 2017. ‘Southern Pennine Brass Bands and The Creation of Northern Identity, c.1840–1914: Musical Constructions of Space, Place and Region’. Northern History. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0078172X.2016.1254379. Accessed 1 July 2017.
Farcy, J.-C. 1995. ‘Le temps libre au village’, in Corbin, 230–74.
Gaugain, J.-C. 2000. Jeux, gymnastique et sports dans le Var 1860–1940 (Paris: L’Harmattan).
Gerbod, P. 1991. ‘Vox populi’ in Bailbé, J-M. et al., 231–55.
Goujon, P. 1981. ‘Associations et vie associative dans les campagnes au XIXe: le cas du vignoble de Saône-et-Loire’ Cahiers d’Histoire 26, 107–51.
———. 1986. ‘La naissance des sociétés sportives en Saône-et-Loire avant 1914: La sociabilité sportive entre la tradition et la nouveauté’, in Arnaud and Camy (eds), 199–221.
———. 1993. Le vigneron citoyen. Mâconnais et Chalonnais,1848–1914 (Paris: Éditions du C.T.H.S).
Grange, A. 1993. L’apprentissage de l’asociation 1850–1914. Naissance du secteur volontaire non lucratif dans l’arrondissement de Villefranche-sur-Saône (Paris: Mutualité française).
Gumplowicz, P. 2001. (1st edn 1987) Les travaux d’orphée: deux siècles de pratique musicale amateur en France (1820–2000): harmonies, chorales, fanfares (Paris: Aubier).
Hamerton, P. G. 1889. French and English: a comparison (London: Macmillan).
Harris, S. 2000. ‘Festivals and fêtes populaires’, in Kidd, W. and Reynolds, S. (eds) Contemporary French cultural studies (London: Hodder Arnold), 220–8.
Harrison, C. E. 1999. The bourgeois citizen in nineteenth-century France: gender, sociability and the uses of emulation (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Hazareesingh. S. 2016. How the French think (London: Penguin Books).
Herbert, T. (ed.). 2000. The British brass band: a musical and social history (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Holt, R. 1981. Sport and society in modern France (London: Macmillan).
———. 1998. ‘Sport, the French and the Third Republic’. Modern and Contemporary France 6, 289–99.
Hubscher, R. et. al. 1992. L’histoire en mouvements: le sport dans la société française (XIX e –XX e siècle) (Paris: Armand Colin).
Ihl, O. 1996. La fête républicaine (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po).
Lajosi, K. and Stynen, A. (eds). 2015. Choral societies and nationalism in Europe (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill).
Lejeune-Resnick, E. 1991. Femmes et associations (1830–1880): vrais démocrates ou dames patronesses? (Paris: Éditions Publsnd).
Manneville, P. 1995. ‘Créations et créateurs de sociétés de football en Seine-Inférieure’. Annales de Normandie 45, 493–510.
Marrus, M. R. 1977. ‘Modernisation and dancing in rural France: from “La Bourrée” to “Le Fox-Trot”, in Beauroy, J., Bertrand, M. and Gargan, E. T. (eds), Popular culture in France: the wolf and the lamb, from the old régime to the twentieth century (Saratoga, Calif.: Anma Libri), 141–59.
Martin, L. 2014. ‘The democratisation of culture in France in the 19th and 20th centuries’. International Journal of Cultural Policy 20, 440–55.
Mason, T. (ed.). 1989. Sport in Britain: a social history (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
McMillan, J. F. 2000. France and women 1780–1914: gender, society and politics (London: Routledge).
McPhee, P. 1992. A social history of France, 1780–1880 (London: Routledge).
Mermier, A. 1985. Albertville autrefois: promenades dans l’espace et temps 1900–1920 (Albertville: Alain Mermier).
Morris, R. J. 1990. ‘Clubs, societies and associations’, in F. M. L. Thompson (ed.) The Cambridge social history of Britain 1750–1959. Vol. 3. Social agencies and Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 395–443.
Munoz, L. 2001. ‘Le sport catholique en France au début du vingtième siècle’, Stadion 27, 55–69.
Newsome, R. 1998. Brass roots: a hundred years of brass bands and their music, 1836–1936 (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Oosterhuis, H. 2016. ‘Cycling, modernity and national cultures’. Social History 41, 233–48.
Ozouf, M. 1998. ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’, in Nora, P. (ed.) Realms of memory: the construction of the French past. Vol. 3 Symbols (New York: Columbia University Press), 77–114.
Parlebas, P. 1986. ‘La sociabilité de l’antagonisme dans le sport’, in Arnaud and Camy (eds), 127–46.
Poyer, A. 2003. Les premiers temps des véloce-clubs. Apparition et diffusion du cyclisme associatif français entre 1867 et 1914 (Paris: L’Harmattan).
Price, R. 1987. A social history of nineteenth-century France (London: Hutchinson).
Quéniart, J. 1986. ‘Les forms de la sociabilité musicale en France et en Allemagne (1750–1850), in D’Etienne, F. (ed.) Sociabilité et société bourgeoise en France, en Allemagne et en Suisse, 1750–1850 (Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations), 135–46.
Rearick, C. 1985. Pleasures of the Belle Époque: entertainment and festivity in turn-of-the-century France (London: Yale University Press).
Rosanvallon, P. 2007. The demands of liberty: civil society in France since the Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).
Russell, D. 1997. Popular music in England 1840–1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Salies, P. 1982. Quand l’Ariège changea de siècle (Tarascon: Milan/Resonances).
Smith, B. G. 1981. Ladies of the leisure class. The bourgeoises of northern France in the nineteenth century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press).
Singer, B. 1983. Village notables in nineteenth-century France: priests, mayors, schoolmasters (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Smith, B. G. 1981. Ladies of the leisure class. The bourgeoises of northern France in the nineteenth century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press).
Taurisson, J 1985. ‘La vie associative en Vaucluse: une sociabilité en expansion’. Études Vauclusiennes 34, 1–8.
Thompson, C. 2000. ‘Un troisième sexe? Les bourgeoises et la bicyclette dans la France din de siècle’. Le Mouvement Sociale 192, 9–39.
Tombs, R. 1996. France 1814–1914 (London: Longman).
Tournès, L. (ed.). 1999. De l’acculturation du politique au multiculturalisme (Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion).
———. 1999. ‘Les sociabilités musicales contemporaines, entre acculturation at déculturation du politique’, in Tournès (ed.), 13–56.
Turner, P. R. 1994. Class, community and culture in nineteenth-century France: the growth of voluntary associations in Roanne, 1860–1914. Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, MI.
Wahl, A. 1989. Les archives du football: sport et société en France (1880–1980) (Paris: Éditions Gallimard/Juillard).
Walvin, J. 1978. Leisure and society 1830–1950 (London: Longman) Weber, E. 1977 Peasants into Frenchmen 1870-1914. The modernisation of rural France (London: Chatto and Windus).
———. 1986. ‘La petite reine’, in Arnaud and Camy (eds), 11–25.
White, C. 2014. Work and leisure in late nineteenth-century French literature and visual culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Zeldin, T. 1973. France 1848–1945: vol. 1 Ambition, love and politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
———. 1977. France 1848–1945: vol. 2 Intellect, taste and anxiety (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baker, A.R.H. (2017). Conclusions and Conjectures. In: Amateur Musical Societies and Sports Clubs in Provincial France, 1848-1914. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57993-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57993-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57992-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57993-1
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)