Abstract
This work represents the latest publication in Baker’s ongoing research into the construction of sociability in post-Revolution France. His main objective is ‘to explore the extent to which the development of some leisure-based voluntary associations was a practical expression of “fraternity”, of relations sometimes described both by contemporaries and by historians as “sociability”’ (p. 292). To this end, Baker examines archives in 11 representative departments across France. This focus allows him to drill down and carefully evaluate the growth and evolution of voluntary musical and athletic associations from the Second Republic to World War One.
The book’s introduction touches on the theoretical underpinning for the work (Baker adapts Maurice Agulhon’s frameworks of sociability) and identifies the study as an ‘historical cultural geography of sociability’ (p. 3). Unlike previous studies of music or sport in France, Baker’s study is ‘based on massive – and massively neglected – primary sources’ from departmental archives (p. 16).
In his analyses of both musical and sports societies, Baker examines the creation of associations, their membership, rules and leadership, financial difficulties, aims, conflicts between associations and within them, and their growth and failures.
Musical societies were divided primarily into choral groups and bands. Baker shows how these groups were woven into the fabric of their communities, how they socialized their members, how they contributed to local and national pride, and how they were supported (or at times undermined) by political leaders. Their numerous concerts and parades brought villages together and ‘contributed significantly to the democratisation of music in the provinces’ (p. 135). Significantly, a number of musical associations had overt political leanings during the Third Republic. Some, primarily choirs, were made up of reactionaries that favoured the Church while others, mostly bands, were made up of republicans, occasionally expressing antipathy toward the Church. Their disputes often played out in public, requiring the intervention of the mayor or prefect. While these local, internecine disagreements at times hampered sociability, healthy, sanctioned regional and national competitions between choirs and bands expanded it. Festivals in large cities allowed musicians to travel out of their own pays, some for the first time, to meet large numbers of musicians from around France, and to forge a sense of local, regional and national identity.
Sports societies grew in popularity a bit later than musical associations. Gymnastics and shooting associations (usually one and the same) were incredibly popular and, unsurprisingly, primarily found along the north and east borders of France (where the esprit de revanche and anti-German sentiment burned most brightly). Though Baker groups gymnastics with sports, in nineteenth-century France gymnastics consisted primarily of military exercises and were frequently viewed as standing in opposition to sports. Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the modern Olympics, opposed gymnastics education and advocated sports instead, believing they were better suited to teaching positive character traits and improving physical health. Baker studies shooting, cycling, soccer, pigeon racing and other sports associations in detail.
At times the book reads a bit like the administrative reports of the source documents and one can get quickly bogged down in details. But what emerges – and what I believe is this book’s most significant contribution – is a view of the importance of associations in the construction of local and national identity and sociability in republican France. This broad perspective is built on many specific, small and – taken individually – seemingly inconsequential details that take on significance when considered as pieces of a national whole. As France shifted away from the Church as a socializing force, it turned in part to associations where the principle of fraternité could be practised on a consistent basis. Sports clubs and musical societies allowed people from different classes to mingle as equals. Moreover, members of an association voted on bylaws and leadership and worked together to carry out the association’s mission. In this sense, associations were perfect spaces to practise republicanism, or, as Baker puts it, they were ‘miniature reproduction[s] of society’ that ‘offered an apprenticeship in good citizenship’ (p. 301).
Women were largely excluded from associations. Baker notes that while many women played the piano and had presided over music salons earlier in the nineteenth century, few played wind instruments and were therefore not admitted into bands. With the exception of mountain climbing, women were mere spectators or honorary members in male-dominated sports clubs. In this regard, associations resisted gender equality in the same way that the Third Republic did. Though divorce was legalized in 1884 and women began to have more access to education, formal associations remained almost exclusively male until well into the twentieth century.
In short, this book provides an important glimpse into the shifting landscape of sociability and identity during a formative moment of the French national narrative and underscores the huge role of associations in the development of republican values.