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The Allure of
the Archives
Arlette Farge • Translated by
Thomas Scott-Railton
Foreword by Natalie Zemon Davis
Arlette Farge’s Le gout de l’archive
is widely regarded as a
historiographical classic. While
combing through two-hundredyear-old
judicial records from the
Archives of the Bastille, Farge was
struck by the extraordinarily
intimate portrayal they provided of the lives of the poor in pre-
Revolutionary France, especially women. She was seduced by
the sensuality of old manuscripts and by the revelatory power of
voices otherwise lost. In The Allure of the Archives, she conveys
the exhilaration of uncovering hidden secrets and the thrill of
venturing into previously unknown dimensions of the past.
Originally published in 1989, Farge’s classic work communicates
the experience of archival research while sharing astonishing
details about life under the Old Regime in France.
Arlette Farge is director of research in modern history at the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.
Thomas Scott-Railton has translated for Annales: Histoire,
Sciences sociales and New Global Studies. Natalie Zemon Davis
is professor of history at the University of Toronto.
The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History
October 150 pp. 210x140mm.
HB ISBN 978-0-300-17673-5 £18.99
Translation rights: Les Editions du Seuil, Paris
History 37
The Field of
Cloth of Gold
Glenn Richardson
Glenn Richardson provides the
first history in more than four
decades of a major Tudor event:
an extraordinary international
gathering of Renaissance rulers
unparalleled in its opulence,
pageantry, controversy and
mystery.
Throughout most of the late
medieval period, from 1300 to 1500, England and France
were bitter enemies, often at war or on the brink of it.
In 1520, in an effort to bring conflict to an end, England’s
monarch, Henry VIII, and Francis I of France agreed to meet
at ‘the Field of Cloth of Gold’. In the midst of a spectacular
festival of competition and entertainment, the rival leaders
hoped to secure a permanent settlement as part of a Europeanwide
‘Universal Peace’. Richardson offers a bold new appraisal
of this remarkable historical event, describing the preparations
and execution of the magnificent gathering, exploring its
ramifications, and arguing that it was far more than the
extravagant elitist theatre and cynical charade it historically has
been considered to be.
Glenn Richardson is reader in early modern history at
St. Mary’s University College, London.
November 288 pp. 234x156mm. 16 pp. b/w illus.
HB ISBN 978-0-300-14886-2 £35.00
A Restatement
of Religion
Swami Vivekananda and the
Making of Hindu Nationalism
Jyotirmaya Sharma
In this third instalment of his
comprehensive history of ‘India’s
religion’ and reappraisal of Hindu
identity, Professor Jyotirmaya
Sharma offers an engaging portrait
of Swami Vivekananda and his relationship with his guru, the
legendary Ramakrishna. Sharma’s work focuses on
Vivekananda’s reinterpretation and formulation of diverse
Indian spiritual and mystical traditions and practices as
‘Hinduism’ and how it served to create, distort and justify a
national self-image. The author examines questions of caste
and the primacy of the West in Vivekananda’s vision, as well as
the systematic marginalisation of alternate religions and
heterodox beliefs. In doing so, Professor Sharma provides
readers with an incisive entryway into 19th- and 20th-century
Indian history and the rise of Hindutva, the Hindu nationalist
movement.
Jyotirmaya Sharma is professor of political science at the
University of Hyderabad, India.
September 328 pp. 234x156mm.
HB ISBN 978-0-300-19740-2 £25.00
Forgotten Voices of
Mao’s Great Famine,
1958–1962
An Oral History
Zhou Xun
In 1958, China’s revered leader
Mao Zedong instituted a programme
designed to transform his giant
nation into a Communist utopia.
Called the Great Leap Forward, Mao’s grand scheme – like so
many other utopian dreams of the 20th century – proved a
monumental disaster, resulting in the mass destruction of
China’s agriculture, industry and trade, while leaving large
portions of the countryside forever scarred by man-made
environmental disasters. The resulting three-year famine
claimed the lives of more than 45 million people in China.
In this remarkable oral history, survivors of the cataclysm share
their memories of devastation and loss. Powerful and deeply
moving, this unique remembrance of an unnecessary and
unhindered catastrophe illuminates a dark recent history that
remains officially unacknowledged by the Chinese government.
Zhou Xun is a lecturer in modern history at the University of
Essex. She is the author of The Great Famine in China,
1958–1962: A Documentary History.
January 288 pp. 210x140mm. 1 b/w illus.
HB ISBN 978-0-300-18404-4 £25.00*