First published 2016
Drunken husbands, wayward wives, and wandering children - the sordid details of daily life in 18th-century France spill out in a trove of letters written to the king. Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault uncover these "lettres de cachet" - impassioned pleas from commoners to the crown for intervention in family disputes. As these ordinary voices cry out, they reveal a fluid social landscape where home and street life intertwine, and power is seized from the highest echelons. Farge and Foucault find both the explosive and illuminating in these intimate glimpses of the era's "disorderly families."
Genres: history, family, social-issues, non-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-perspective, social-commentary
Setting: France
Period: 18th Century
328 pages · Hardcover · Univ of Minnesota Press